Disclaimer: I do not own Human Target and intend no copyright infringement.
She was sitting at her desk, pouring over some documents, case files maybe. To Junior's surprise the lock to her apartment hadn't represented much of an obstacle. One should think someone with as many enemies as she had would take more precautions.
Conveniently, the whole place was bathed in dark shadows from the rapidly approaching sunset outside. The only source of light was coming from the library lamp on her desk, making her a sitting duck.
Junior cocked his gun and aimed. The silencer was already screwed on.
"I know you're here", she said.
Junior hesitated. Nothing in her posture indicated the usual fear or panic. She was enormously calm.
"Listen to me for a sec, will you?"
The Old Man had told him time and time again not to talk to the targets. It made things unnecessarily complicated. On the other hand, there was absolutely no way she could evade her fate. These were her last moments on earth. If she had something to say, who was he to deny it to her? He just hoped she wouldn't break into a full-fledged plea for her life. Joubert was going to take him on a hunting trip tomorrow, he didn't want his weekend to be ruined by those stupid ruminations that sometimes took hold of him.
She read his silence as consent. "Don't worry, I won't ask you to spare me." She still sat like he had found her, with his back to him, looking at the stuff on her desk. Junior didn't move. Soon to be dead or not, he didn't want her to see his face. But he listened.
"I know full well, if you don't do it, someone else will. It has always been perfectly clear to me that once Dimaso dies, his murderers will get rid of me next. I've helped him on too many occasions to be allowed to live. Occupational hazard when you're a corrupt cop – can't turn anywhere for help. So, no use in running away." She inhaled sharply, the first indicator that she was not as calm and composed as she seemed to be.
"But before we get done with it, there's something I'd like to ask you…"
… … …
"Internal affairs was doing overtime, looking into her dealings with Dimaso. She would have gone to jail for decades, and you know what happens to cops there… Maybe it's better this way." The detective wasn't particularly cold-hearted. In fact he only voiced, in a very watered down version, what pretty much everyone present at the crime scene thought: She wasn't much of a loss. Corrupt to the core she had blown a still unascertained number of cases and at least on one occasion indirectly caused the death of a crown witness.
"A bullet straight to the temple was way too good for that bitch", one of the officers grumbled. Several of his colleagues murmured in agreement. Nobody tried very hard to investigate the murder scene thoroughly. If anyone didn't deserve justice, it was her.
The detective in charge noticed that the desk she was found sitting at was completely clear, as if someone had removed whatever she had been looking at. (And she had been looking at something, her reading glasses were sitting next to the library lamp which was still switched on.) He decided not to bother. The chief had made it very clear that the police department would not waste any more time and energy on her death than was absolutely necessary and he was completely at peace with this point of view.
A/N: Thank you, ladybug, veniceit and jackattack, for leaving comments on my latest fics, that was really kind of you!