I want to start by saying thank you for all of the reviews, follows, favorites, and anyone who took the time to read this story in general. I truly appreciate it. I also want to apologize for length of time it took for me to update, work stress and writers block is never a good combination. I hope I haven't lost anyone. I also apologize in advance for any grammatical mistakes. Here is chapter four hope you enjoy.

Maura stood at the bottom of the steps of the church smoking, she watched as others entered. People looked at her, but no one said anything. After a few more drags, Maura flicked her cigarette beside her feet, then she used the stiletto of her heel to extinguish the cherry.

Upon entering Maura was greeted by a woman who was sitting at fold out table. Maura overheard her direct the woman in front of her to a support group for the recently divorced. When it was Maura's turn, the woman took one look at her and made an immediate judgement based on her appearance.

"Hello, dear, the group for physically abusive partners is tomorrow evening, same time," she started to write the information on a sticky note.

Maura was insulted that the woman thought she was the target in an abusive relationship. She grabbed her wrist forcefully and startled her, but didn't hurt her. "That's not why I'm here."

"Oh I'm so sorry please forgive me, it was your nose, a lot of the women... And men that come here for that group are so afraid to say it that... I try to make it easier by saying it for them," the woman responded nervously. "How can I help you?"

Maura looked at the list on the bulletin board wanting to get the full and appropriate name of the group, as there were so many that were very specific. Her eyes fell on the fifth group from the top. "Bereavement group for a murdered sibling."

"I'm sorry for your loss, that meeting starts in ten minutes, room B-6 in the basement."

Maura had no intentions of being early or even on time to the meeting. She wanted her target to be caught off guard by her appearance and at the same time not able to approach her. Although she wanted and knew she would succeed at making her target nervous, she was nervous too, and needed to find a way to calm down. Realizing that she had some time, Maura ducked into the bathroom, which she was thankful was private. She got out her journal and flipped to a random entry, in times of stress, reading about times she was in control, always made her feel better.

#64

Today was the day. I had followed this guy for two months. Everyday he ate an entire pound of bacon and five eggs for breakfast. His shortened life was imminent, as a heart attack would have claimed him within five years. I'm not really sure what he did to have to have me kill him, I never ask, my father mentioned something about him being responsible for the rampant cocaine use in our high schools. If that's true maybe he deserved it, who am I to judge, I was just doing my job.

In the early morning hours of September 14, 2010, I entered the home of #64. He thought I was the hooker he paid for, but I caught her as she was walking up to the house, and paid her five times what he paid. Then I told her to go to a diner to grab breakfast to kill sometime, so her pimp wouldn't suspect anything. I assume she followed my instructions, but who knows?

Pretending to be a hooker is one of least favorite ways to lure a kill. It never goes beyond kissing but, every target I've ever had to kiss was sloppy and too forceful. No wonder why they have to pay for it. When I got him to the bedroom, I pushed him down on the bed and straddled him, which he seemed to enjoy. He started to loosen his tie but I stopped him. Instead I told him that I found ties to be "sexy" and that I wanted him to leave it on. I unbuttoned his shirt and took it off of him. Then I had him sit up as I tied his hands behind is back with the shirt and then lay him back down. I kissed him on the lips one last time as I was feeling particularly generous that day. Then in one quick motion I grabbed his tie and pulled, strangling him. It was taking a while, so I freed one of my hands momentarily and grabbed a pillow to put over his face. Holding the tie with one had and a pillow with the other, I managed to rid him from oxygen once and for all.

When she finished reading, she reached into her purse and pulled out a flask. She took a couple of swigs. She always had to drink after completing an assignment, but sometimes she felt the need to drink after only reading about them. When she put her flask away she noticed that she was almost ten minutes late for the meeting. "Perfect," she thought to herself.

Maura glanced at herself in the mirror, she was thankful that she had gotten to her broken nose in time, that the swelling was minimal and that her eyes didn't blacken as well. Even with the broken nose she was very attractive. After fixing her hair and make up she was ready to make her entrance in room B-6.

Maura entered B-6 quietly but noticeable. Silence had fallen upon the room as the entire group of twelve watched her make her way to the coffee station and pour herself a cup. It was almost as if everyone was under a spell. Jane noticed her immediately which made her anxious and she started fidgeting, especially her hands. Although this was her intention, Maura was annoyed by the attention she garnered because it prevented her from spiking her coffee. "This is going to be a long meeting of whiners, it's a shame I'm going to have to endure it sober," she thought.

Finally the leader of the group spoke. "Are you here for the bereavement group?"

"Yes," Maura responded as she watched one of the men grab a chair for her placing it in between himself and another woman, directly across from Jane.

"Well we started ten minutes ago, but since it is your first time, I'll excuse the lateness," the leader continued. "We were just about to start sharing."

Maura sat down quickly in the spot intended for her. A woman three seats to her left began to speak.

"Hey everyone, for anyone new here, I'm Dana. I haven't shared in a couple of months and I see some new faces, so I'll start from the beginning. Four years ago, my brother, Keith was killed by one of his students because he gave the kid a detention. The kid arrived before school for his detention and shot my brother in the chest with his father's gun. The doctors said it was quick and painless, that he bled out in mere seconds. He was discovered by his honors first period English class, his favorite class. The kid who shot him was fourteen." She paused for a second and took a couple of breaths. The man sitting next to her reached out and held her hand.

Then she continued. "I remember my sister in law called me. I knew something was wrong. I couldn't understand her, at first I thought there was something wrong with the baby, she was six months pregnant at the time. She just kept saying, "he's gone." It wasn't until she asked me to drive her to the police station that I even considered it being Keith. Even though the ride to the station lasted ten minutes, it felt like an eternity. I remember when the medical examiner showed us his body, my sister in law broke down completely. Seeing him on that table destroyed me, he was a good man, he was loved, how could anyone do this?" Dana paused again, this time crying. The woman sitting on her other side offered her some tissues and put her hand on her shoulder.

Jane sat across from this woman remembering the case. She wasn't on it and neither was Hope as it was a conflict of interest because the man was Cailin's English teacher. She remembered Korsak and Frost having a hard time with it though.

When Dana regained her composure she continued. "This week is difficult, and I wanted to share because the kid who shot him is getting released this Saturday, when he turns eighteen. I spoke against his release at his parole hearing but, his uncle is a judge so I guess that's that. He has his whole life ahead of him and that makes me angry, he robbed my nephew of his father, and destroyed a couple of lives that day. Why should he get a second chance?"

After a few moments of silence Jane spoke. "I often wonder that myself in my line of work. Why these people, that do horrible things, get to live and go back to their families after shattering another's."

"But you got revenge on yours," a man interrupted her.

Maura finally perked up at this verbal exchange as she quickly became bored with Dana's story.

Jane was caught off guard but managed to formulate a response. "Killing the man who killed my brother accomplished nothing."

"Yeah but I bet it felt good to take that piece of garbage down," he responded.

Maura shot the man a look of disdain but no one noticed as they were too focused on his interactions with Jane.

"First of all, it wasn't an act of revenge, it was an act of self defense and protection of innocent third parties. Second of all, killing someone never feels good, the few times I've done have really affected me adversely. And third of all, killing him didn't bring my brother back, so nobody won."

Maura was a bit intrigued that her target also had a body count, but certainly would have disagreed with he notion that killing someone doesn't feel good. For Maura murder was right up there with orgasms in terms of how great it feels.

The group leader awkwardly broke in, "Well we've reached our end time. Let's close our meeting." Everybody stood up and held hands, Maura reluctantly joined. The leader spoke, "We ask God that we find a way to make peace with our tragedies, while trying to preserve the memory of our loved ones and learning to forgive." The group aside from Maura responded, "One day at a time."

Maura rushed out of the room fairly certain that her target would follow her. She quickly walked outside and went to her car across the street. She grabbed her tobacco and rolling papers and managed to roll a cigarette and light it by the time Jane had found her.

"Hello, I'm Jane " the brunette said nervously extending her hand to the honey blonde.

Maura stared at her through sunglassed eyes. "Out with it then."

"Excuse me," Jane responded.

"Your apology, of course," Maura lowered her sunglasses so she was able to make eye contact with Jane, "You are sorry, aren't you?"

Jane was put off by the woman's attitude. "Um... I apologized when it happened."

"Oh you did, did you? Well I guess I was so caught off guard by rude behavior of barging through doors without knocking that I forgot," she blew smoke directly in Jane's face.

Jane used her hand to fan the smoke away from her face. "You know smoking is bad for you?"

"Well so is standing near a door when you're on the opposite side," Maura responded before blowing a perfect smoke ring in Jane's direction.

Jane poked the center of the ring. "That's actually pretty cool. I believe we started off on the wrong foot, so let me try again. I'm Jane and I'm sorry for breaking your nose."

Maura narrowed her eyes and tilted her head from side to side, mulling over accepting the apology. She liked keeping the other woman in suspense. After a few moments she responded, "Apology accepted."

"Well I have to get going, I promised my niece that I'd be home in time for dinner tonight." Jane got out a piece of paper and wrote her number on it. "Here is my number, if you ever want to talk, sometimes when you are new it's easier to share with one person than an entire group."

Maura took the piece of paper and got into her car. "Thanks." She started the engine.

As Jane turned to walked back to her car she realized something. "I never got your name," she called out to the honey blonde.

"It's Maura," the honey blonde responded and then she sped away.

Jane got into her car soon after, and drove to her friend's house for dinner.

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