Under Cover

Chapter 8

       Hannah watched the house from the cover of a row of shrubs along the backyard boundary. The psychic's name was Miriam Webster and she apparently lived alone. Hannah decided to wait another half hour to give the woman time to go to sleep. It was midnight and the bedroom light had gone off about twenty minutes before. Hannah would be late getting home but it didn't matter. Michael was sound asleep thanks to a strong sedative she had slipped into his dinner that night. He wouldn't wake till morning.

When her watch showed twelve thirty Hannah made her move. She pulled a ski mask over her face and moved silently and quickly across the lawn to the back door. Dressed completely in black she would be difficult to see in the darkness. The door had an old fashioned lock, very easy to pick. With her gloved hand she pushed the door slowly open. There was no sound, no alarm went off. She silently moved through a small laundry, then the kitchen and into a passage which led to the bedrooms. The first door on the left should be the main bedroom. With a bit of luck she could slip into the room, take out the target and be out the back door and jogging back to her car in two minutes flat.

The bedroom door was closed. With her pistol ready in her right hand she slowly turned the handle with her left hand and pushed the door. It creaked as it opened.

"Who are you?"

The voice from behind made her whirl around in surprise. In the gloom of the darkness she could make out a child, a little girl, probably about five years old standing there staring at her.

A light came on in the bedroom. "Sarah, what's wrong sweetheart?" a woman's voice called.

"Nan, there's someone here!" the little girl shrilled.

Hannah stepped back as a woman with grey hair and wearing a nightdress appeared in the bedroom doorway. Hannah pointed the gun at her.

"It's you, isn't it?" the woman said quietly, "The one the police are looking for. You're here to kill me."

"No!" the little girl shouted. She ran in front of Hannah and wrapped her little arms around her grandmother's waist, "Don't hurt my Nan." She started crying. "Please don't hurt her."

"Tell your grand daughter to go to her bedroom and close the door," Hannah said in a low voice.

"Sarah, go to your room," the woman said gently, "Don't worry, sweetheart, I'll be all right."

But the little girl hung onto her grandmother, tears streaming down her face as she stared at Hannah. "No, she whimpered, "you're going to hurt my Nan. Please don't hurt her."

The woman looked at Hannah with pleading eyes. "Please," she said, "I'm all Sarah has. There'll be no one to take care of her. Please."

Hannah knew she couldn't waver. This woman was a threat to her, she had to be eliminated. She raised the pistol to point at the woman's head.

The little girl cried even louder, holding on tightly to her grandmother.

Several long seconds passed. The woman closed her eyes, apparently waiting for death or maybe she was praying.

Hannah couldn't do it, she just couldn't do it. She slowly lowered the gun. "I'm not going to kill you," she said, "but you must not tell the police any more about me or my future movements. If you do I will know. Don't make me come back."

The woman opened her eyes. "Thank you," she mumbled, "but please tell me one thing, why do you do it?"

The question caught Hannah off guard. She just stared at the woman and the little girl. She couldn't think of an answer. She didn't even know the answer herself.

"Remember what I said," she snapped. She turned and sprinted down the passage and out the back door. She jumped the back fence and ran down a laneway which lead to a side street where she had left her car.

As she drove home she pounded the steering wheel cursing herself. She had gone to that house to eliminate a potential threat, and she had weakened letting her emotions take over. She was a professional, she had never allowed this to happen before. Had she scared the psychic woman enough to keep her from giving further predictions to the police? Now Hannah would have to rely even more on her husband to keep ahead of the police hunt to find her.