Black as Night | P. Parker

Chapter Two

The thing with research is that it's hard to do without a computer. Onyx and Hannah had planned on going to the library and using one of their computers for a couple of hours, but the librarian would only accept the excuse of a lost library card so many times before insisting they buy a new one. Unfortunately, they couldn't afford to do that, and it would be pointless when they only used the library for the computers, and not often at that. They'll just have to find a new library.

Since the library was out of the question, the two girls decided to go right to the source and scout out the prices from a Sears. The benefit of doing it this way was that they could test each mattress to see if they liked it. After finding two that they liked, they jotted down the prices and headed over in the direction of the meet-up while adding up all their other costs as well.

"So it's about four fifty for the mattresses," Hannah said while they sat on the bus.

Onyx jotted that down, "And fifty dollars a day for food adds up to about... three fifty a week."

"Twenty dollars for the PO box," Hannah added.

"Three fifty times four is..."

"One thousand, four hundred even."

"So add four fifty for the mattress and we get one thousand, eight hundred and fifty. Plus twenty is one thousand, eight hundred and seventy dollars. So if we ask for an even two thousand we'll have... One hundred and thirty dollars extra to put towards bus fare and anything else we'll need till our next client?"

"Yeah, alright. That works," Hannah agreed.

"Great," she said, tucking away the pad of paper in her pocket.

They arrived at Central Park not long after that and found the meet-up spot and sat at one of the chess tables. Soon, a man approached and Hannah moved to sit next to Onyx.

"May I join your game?"

"Are you a sore loser?" Onyx asked in return. The man took a seat.

While they rearranged the pieces to start over, the man spoke up. "I didn't expect you to be so... young."

"No one ever does," Hannah commented, watching as they began the game.

"Who is it you want us to..." Onyx looked to Hannah for clarification.

"Beat at chess?" Hannah supplied.

"My mistress," the man said.

"Ooh, naughty boy," Onyx said with a laugh. The man gulped, looking unsettled by the laugh.

"She's threatening to tell my wife. I love my wife, she can't know about her."

"It'll cost you," Onyx told him simply.

"How much?" He asked.

She looked at Hannah, and they had a silent conversation before they both turned back to look at the man. "Two thousand five hundred," the girls answered. You can't cheat on your wife without consequences.

The man was silent, pensive. It looked almost like he was pondering his next move. In reality, he was wondering if having his mistress killed was worth twenty-five hundred dollars. But these girls came highly recommended, they could kill and dispose of the body, leaving no evidence and no trail behind them. And the price was better than some of the other mercenaries he had thought about hiring to do this job. Twenty-five hundred dollars may be a lot at the moment, but they could be charging a lot more. If he wanted this down cleanly, they were his only option.

"Alright, you have a deal," he told them.

"Now, where do we find the information on your mistress?" Onyx asked.

"In a PO box. I'll give you the key and the address. If you give me a couple of hours, I can have half the money in there when you pick up the information. The other half you can have once I know you've done the job."

"Cheeky," Hannah said, fixing her gaze on him. He gulped. "We'll be done by tomorrow. Leave some proof in there before we pick up the rest of the money."

"That quickly?" He asked.

"We want our money, sir. We work quickly to get it. We'll be by the PO box at five o'clock, and if there's not one thousand two hundred and fifty dollars in there, you'll be in trouble," Onyx told him. "Will a photograph suffice as proof?"

"A burnable photograph, yes."

"Then it's a deal. Checkmate."

They stood and the man shook hands with Onyx, startling at her ice-cold hand. He looked into her eyes and for a brief moment he swore the green irises darkened to brown - the same shade as his own - but just as quickly it was gone. When Onyx pulled back her hand, there was a small key and a slip of paper in her hand with an address on it.