"A black cat at a bar... Now that's a first."
"For you maybe. Jinx is a regular around here, she sure does love her whiskey."
"In that case we better buy the whole bottle" she raised her leather covered hand to signal the barman who brought a bottle of 1955 Glenfiddich and two whiskey glasses. The cat sat on top of the bar table between the two women, overlooking the whole room as if guarding its companion who had her back turned towards the crowd. She slid the drink across the table to the stranger next to her who so slickly catches it "Sara Harvey."
"I know who you are Ms Harvey. Your past, present... I'm pretty sure I can even predict your future." Sara released a short breathy laugh sipping on the expensive liquor "You had people look into me, didn't you?"
"I had to know who I was dealing with."
"Just in case I was the CSI."
"The CSI are the least of my problems." She said taking a sip of her drink with no intention to face her alliance. "Since we're being honest with each other, I guess I should say that I looked into you too."
"And you found nothing which is why you requested this little play date."
"I'm curious as to why you accepted, word has it that you don't really acquaint yourself with people at all."
"Its your first time using this kind of service, excluding the amateur projects you had been involved with in the past so I understood why you needed reassurance. And Oh, you did put a lot of zeros on your offer." Sara poured them another drink and slid the glass across as she did before. "Is this conversation going to continue with your back facing me."
"I thought we were here to talk business, Ms Harvey. Not look into each others eyes like lovesick teenagers."
"Alright." She said placing a small black sports bag on the table "50% upfront as you requested. You can check it, its all real."
"Oh I know its real. After all, you know what's at stake if you try to fool me." Sara slid a paper towards the enigmatic woman, written Welby State Psychiatric Hospital, Room 201. The faceless woman took the paper and asked "Who's getting lucky?"
"Regular visitor, Sometimes accompanied by friends but always alone with the patient at noon." Sara's companion slid the empty glass back to her for a refill which she did without any hesitation and slid it back. They sat quietly for a long minute, the bobbed blonde woman would occasionally glance at the wavy head next to her. Waiting for her to say something but she didn't "So how quick will you get it done?" Sara asked breaking the silence she couldn't bare anymore "48 hours from now"
"The only reason I rendered your services is because you're an efficient pro, 48 is too much."
"An address and a barely descriptive description is not much to work from. Besides, we need to formulate a disposal plan."
"Don't worry about disposing." Sara said as the woman placed her glass on the oak table with a slightly loud bang "Sending out a message?"
"As clear as water."
"In that case, consider it done by noon." The mystery woman's slick finger reached out for Jinx, holding her close to her heart. Without a warning or a goodbye she stood to and started walking towards the door without Sara getting a glimpse of her face. Still captivated by the enigma in front of her, she hardly noticed a large man walked towards her. Without a word, he drank from the glass abandoned by her service provider. His bald head looked straight into her eyes as he took out a white cloth from his pocket and wiped the glass clean. He reached for the bag which she hadn't realize had been forgotten and walked out the door into to cold crisp night. Sara watched him get into the car parked conveniently right in front of the glass door of the bar. She tried to catch a glimpse of the mysterious woman as the car drove away but all she could see was Jinx's piercing green eyes and the long dark hair she had been staring ever since she walked into the dingy bar.
The 7am sunlight brightens up the room, instantly waking her and her snuggle partner up. She purrs with no intention of leaving the bed, cuddling closer to her companion as an attempt that neither does she. "Busy day today, Jinx. Let's get to work." Jumping out of bed, the pitch black pet follows her to the bathroom where she ran the water in the shower. For a cat, Jinx was quite fond of water. She stepped into the cubical with her owner who picked her up to wash her fur. The two took time to get dried up and ready for the day, heading down to the kitchen to prepare breakfast as it was the best way to start the day.
Their meal is bran flakes with low fat milk for the human and a bowel of milk for Jinx who lapped it up positioned on top of the kitchen table. They had the company of the news channel to keep them entertained, although the headlining news was just about as fascinating as the weather at the end of the twenty minute coverage. Once they were done with their meal she brewed some coffee and headed to her house office. She placed the cup on the side of the table and spread out her blueprints and bunches of files on the table. Jinx jumped on top of it as if able to comprehend a plan by having visual excess of the papers. Just as the two were getting into the project, the alarm beeped. She turned the tv on, switching to the security cameras which covered all angles of her property and a good length of the surroundings.
On one of the sections there was a car driving from the main road and into the woods. She used the cameras controller to follow the car and zoom into it. A large face of a pale white man appeared on the screen, she switched off the tv together with the beep of the alarm. Waiting for the man to make an appearance. It took about fifteen minutes for her to hear the door bell, she walked up to the door to open up for the over 7 foot tall man. "Jeez!, what took you so long!?" She asked as the man stepped in the house, patting Jinx who jumped into his arms "These woods, I got lost." He said with a thick based russian accent. "You should be used to it by now. Its not rocket science, you know" She said as they walked up to the study.
They worked on the project until 10:30, pretty sure that they had everything in order to reach success. The three of them left the house with the giant carrying a black case to the back of his car. He sat on the front passenger seat with the cat at the back, being driven out the woods by the slick woman. At the end of the tall Red Cedar jungle they took a turn to the road leading to Pennsylvania. The ride was short but not sweet at all, the woman was so much of a rough driver that the cat had taught itself how to balance out the sharp turns she took. They finally reached the location where their project was to take place except they parked at the building across it, 'Welby Old Age Home'.
Waiting at an almost vacant parking lot, they all got out when a AMG Benz parked a few meters from them. She took Jinx into her hands and walked to the car with the large man checking coast behind her. "Dr Hadid, you look like you need some time to yourself. How about I attend Mrs Winghton's session for you." The woman was perplexed at the request, she looked at the back seat to find the scariest human being she had ever seen sitting there. "Where's the file?" He asked the utterly distorted woman who was definitely a Xanax addict. "In... Bag." The poor doctor stuttered as the woman next to her fixed herself into looking quite similar to her. "Okay, how about you give me a summary of Mrs Winghton's condition." Dr Hadid was terrified to the point where she was unable to form a sentence let, alone utter a word. "Dr Hadid? We are not going to hurt the old lady or you, okay!? Just tell me her condition."
"Okay uhm... Dementia, Depression... Server, caused by the death of her husband. She killed him but she doesn't know because... dementia. She was responsible for his medication, uhm clock ran out of batteries and was stuck on 13:27... Sh... she overdosed him on his diabetes shots." The two looked at each other making sense of the intellect's poorly structured sentence but at the end they were quite saddened by the story. Just then the doctors phone beeped and she switched it off before announcing "Her session starts in 10 minutes."
"I better get going then." The strange woman opened the door, placing Jinx on the floor and reaching for the case and file being handed to her by the man at the back. "Boris is going to keep you company until I come back" she stepped out of the car but sneaked her head back in the ajar door. She reached at the doctors face and took her glasses to put them on hers then checked herself on the sun shield's mirror "More professional." With that she walked away and into the building, together with the cat trailing behind her.
"Good day, I'm Dr Wright. Here to attend to Mrs Winghton." She said to the receptionist who chewed gum like she was being paid for it. "Mrs Winghton... Oh! Isn't she Dr Hadid's patient." Dr Wright clenched her teeth and took a deep breath. If there was one thing the loathed with a passion, it was gum. The concept of chewing with no intention to reach satisfaction really puzzled her "Yes, Dr Hadid isn't able to attend so she asked me to instead."
"Oh okay, I just need you to sign in here." She handed her a book which she signed, partly distracted by the chews and pops of the utterly abused gum. "She's on the second floor, three doors down to your left." Dr Wright flashed a forced smile at her and left, not checking if Jinx was behind her but knew she was. "Wait!" She looked back and saw a man running towards her just as she pressed the button of the elevator "I just got a call from Dr Hadid." Scanning through the man, she figured that he could possibly be the manager of the home "Oh" she said, feeling the cat brush against the back of her legs as an hiding technique. "Yeah, she told me that you will be filling up for her today. I'm George Grey, the manager."
"Dr Wright." They shook hands and said their nice-to-meet-you's "I just wanted to let you know that Mrs Winghton hasn't been speaking for three days, her grandson was here yesterday. He's really worried about her."
"There's nothing to worry about Mr Grey, selective mutism is very common in depression. But what I'll do is let Dr Hadid know about it so she can prescribe something for her and in the meantime I will try to get her to say something."
"Okay, great. Thank you. If you need anything, let me know."
"Thank you Mr Grey" she said, saved by the bell of the elevator she stepping into lift with the sly cat in front of her. The two made way to the second floor, stopping at what they believed was Mrs Winghton's door and knocked. "Mrs Winghton...? Mrs Winghton...?" She walked into the woman's room to find an overly aged woman laying still in bed. "Shit!" She closed the door and ran to the elderly woman, feeling her neck for a heartbeat which was terrifyingly loud. "Oh dear! You came!" Mrs Winghton said looking into Dr Wright's eyes "Me?"
"Yes dear... How was the train ride? And oh! Look at what I got for you." She opened her drawers and gave her a fist full of butterscotch sweets. "Uhm... Thanks" for the next 45 minutes Mrs Winghton told Dr Wright about a thousand stories of war and love which mostly didn't make sense. She retold the titanic as if she actually lived it and for someone with selective mutism she sure talk a lot. "Mrs Winghton, Would you mind if I used the bathroom?"
"Oh no, help yourself Erin." Dr Wright paused at the unusual name that Mrs Winghton just called her but didn't bother correcting. After all, she was definitely delusional and she feared what the old woman would do if she told her that she wasn't Erin. Once in the bathroom, she fully opened the window and put her case on the toilet. Inside, were pieces of steel which she reassembled. Forming a sniper rifle completed with a zooming lens and silencer. She points it out the window to the building across "Erin, I had no idea you had such a lovely cat. What's its name?"
"Its Jinx" she shouted to the next room while also concentrating on forming an angle to which she studied that it would lead to Room 201 of Welby State Psychiatric Hospital. She finally got the correct angle and inserted one bullet into the rifle. She could see the patient through the lens, laying on her back while having what seemed to a serious conversation with a woman who had her back facing the window. Without any distinctive uniform, the assassin was definitely sure that she had a mark on the correct head. She focused on her head blocking out Mrs Winghton's chants while locking her finger on the trigger, ready to shoot. The targeted woman searched her bag for something, Dr Wright remained focused on her as she took a phone out and answered. The target turns away from the patient with eyes locked to her feet. She walks to the window and the doctor smiles, biting her lips at the opportunity of a clean shot. The woman raises her head, looking out the window to stare directly at the snipers lens.
Jumping at the sudden contact, Dr Wright's gun clumsied around her jelly fingers. Heart beating as fast as the sharp breaths she was taking while looking towards the direction where the sniper had been previously pointed. She tightened her trembling hands around the killing machine and looked into the lens again. Her chest heaved as she watched her target still in position and speaking to the phone, totally unaware that she had a death mark on her. The professional killer removed the gun from the window sill, her weak hand holding it beside her as she stared out the window. "Emily..."