The Innocent Target

Chapter Three

He grazed the fold of his fingers along the bottom of his lips. She was laughing with her friends, seeming well and lost in a happiness that didn't seem too real. He was good at reading people and it was evident that the girl didn't want to be here. She stiffened, looking around and he found it intriguing how she seemed to be looking for a stalker. She could feel his gaze on her but didn't worry being spotted. He just had to take his time to reach out. It was a hope that he'd do it in time before losing her to a fate uncontrollable.

Well, that was impossible, there was nothing he couldn't control. He mastered it and he would never lose it. His beer sat in front of him, unopened. He chose to keep it sealed, not wanting to get taken by anyone who could be onto him, just like he was after his target.

Odette Elliot didnt even know who she was and why she was important in the eyes of more than him. She was careless of any such threats to her and he didnt expect her to know of any. She was just an average girl, with a regular miserable job and a sad little life. She was a girl who walked the street everyday with an iPod strung to her ears and nervousness for the crowd unfamiliar to her. He'd been staying close for a week now. Reading her. Observing her moves and lifestyle. It was boring.

No wonder she was miserable.

He found it interesting how she seemed to try and stare past his windscreen this afternoon but then he thought that she was probably eyeing his car. It was a clarity that she wanted one but she couldn't even afford a cheap, used one.

He had to make a profile on her.

She was twenty six. Parents deceased when she was fifteen. No siblings and no family in the state. Friends she ever called or said hello to were the three boys she was with right now. Fred Caleb, Andy Martin and Jakob Saol. These three boys had been with her since college and she had dated the Jakob boy for three years. She was a degree holder in business management and currently worked in the accounting department in Brethoren Industries, a business of oil manufacturing and trade associated with the government. She could be up for pension if she retired from that stale old dead job. Her pay was seventeen by the hour and she paid a five hundred dollars rent every month. Her bills altogether with the utilities came to be six hundred and fifty on average of every month and the girl lived on cornflakes, fruits and tin food. Nothing special. Mostly because she couldn't afford anything. Her clothes were shopped at local superstores or maybe the smaller clothing shops. She never lived an extra exciting life, unlike the gathering she was sitting in right now. The most expensive thing she was wearing right now was the Dior perfume, she'd been gifted by Fred on her birthday when she turned twenty-five. She seemed to use this one only on special occasions, otherwise she smelled of vanilla body lotions and floral mists. Cheap ones. He'd seen them at her apartment when he broke in to study her. 

She was a reader. He'd seen the stack on her night stand and small shelf in the corner of her bedroom. Mostly a romance thriller fan but she read a few art history and horror novels as well. Not much of a fan of non-fiction. One thing she always saved money for were books. She had a library card but she never used it. It was only going to thrift stores and fishing out fantasies to read. He hated that. It meant she had expectations from life. A world she seemed to be waiting on. He imagined she could be a pain once he'd have to take her. The delivery would have to be fast. He didn't like company for more than an hour, that too if necessary. A quiet life was a life alone. He always believed.

Twisting the ring on his right hand middle finger, he watched her bend in her clutch by the end of the bench and look at something inside. Her mouthed twisted and she chewed on her lip. Perfect description of a broke person in an expensive crowd. His fisted rested under his lips as he leaned back and watched her slide out, excusing herself and head for the washrooms in the back. As she passed his table, he dropped his eyes at the beer bottle in front of him and discreetly watched her figure disappear.