The Mystery Admirer
by Joshua Falken

Thanks to Tracy Miller for beta-read this fic :-)

Chapter 2 - Stalked

At 6:10 a.m., the snow was falling over Chicago when a cab stopped nearby McGinty's. From that car, a woman exited; she was wearing a long black coat and a black fedora hat. Hugging herself to protect from the cold, she looked discreetly at the window of the apartment above the bar. It was still shut. Gary should be sleeping.

Without noticing the orange-tabby cat that observed her, the mystery woman in black crossed the street and she entered in a Café not far from McGinty's. She sat down in a table located near to the window.

"What do you want, young lady?" the waitress asked, hiding a smile. The woman that had sat down in the table 12 seemed a detective from a parody of film noir!

"Only a cappucino."

While she waited her request, the mystery admirer took off her hat and take a book from the her bag: "The Hobbit", by J.R.R.Tolkien. Pretending to read the volume, she observed what happened in McGinty's.

======

When the Tomorrow's Paper arrived at 6:30 a.m., the meow of the cat didn't wake Gary up. He was already awake, looking confused at the rose and the card.

"Mystery admirer?!" he wondered. "But who is she? And how had she managed to leave that flower in his apartment?"

"Meow!"

"I'm coming!" Gary exclaimed, rising from the bed where he was sitting. He opened the door, bent over, and picked the Paper. Cat, as usual, entered the loft without waiting for an invitation.

After dressing, he went down and found Marissa in the office.

"Good morning, Gary."

"Good morning, Marissa."

By the tone of his voice, his partner in McGinty's sensed that Gary was distracted. "There is something wrong?"

"I'm not sure." The possibility was of one in a trillion, but he thought that he should investigate it. "Marissa, did you by chance leave a rose in my apartment?"

"No, I did not." she said, genuinely surprise. "Why do you ask?"

"Last night when I returned to my apartment, I found a rose along with acard on the table of the living room. The card said: "A gift from someone that loves you very much. From your mystery admirer."

"Did you try to recognize the handwriting in the card?"

"No, it was printed by computer."

Marissa thought a little.

"Well, Gary, I suggest that you give time to the time, for while. It can be some practical joke from the employees or some waitress with a crush decided declare her feelings."

"Could be...". He had not considered those possibilities.

"And keep the door of your apartment lockes. For precaution."

Gary agreed.

"A rose from a mystery admirer..." Marissa murmured with a smile. "It is romantic, you have to admit..."

Gary just raised his brows while he drank a cup of coffee. He wasn't so sure...

======

The mystery woman was already to give up on seeing Gary before going work, when in that moment Gary had exited through the door of his bar, proceeding at the direction west.

After a moment of indecision, she rose quickly from the table, paid the bill and left the Café, going after him.

======

Something strange was bothering Gary. He had the weird feeling of being fellowed. He turned and looked back. The habitual crowd walked through the street, everybody dressed with winter dark clothes. Because of that, he didn't pay attention to the red-haired woman with black long coat and hat.

Gary decided to cut road through a long and narrow alley, to arrive to the McGinty's meat vendor. It was usually Marissa that took care of that kind of thing, only that she was very busy taking care of other details of McGinty's and Gary thought he also had to assume his responsibilities about the bar - it was not fair that Marissa had to do the whole work, his responsabilities with the Paper are not an excuse.

It was when he felt that weird feeling again. He stopped and turned back. Nobody.

"I should be more tired than I thought.", he thought. Perhaps for being still a little distrustful, that he noticed the sounds of steps behind them. High-heeled steps. He stopped, and almost immediately, his stalker's steps stopped.

He turned, and saw somebody hidden behind a garbage bin. It was a woman of medium stature, wearing a black long coat and a black hat with wide brims and big dark glasses that hid her face almost completely.

"Hey!"

In the moment in that she noticed that Gary had seen her, she ran with all her speed. Gary tried to run behind her, but a wind blow throwed his scarf over his eyes. When he got to remove the scarf, she was already in the exit of the alley.

"Stop there!"

He ran up to that point, but she had already disappeared. Cursing his bad luck, other wind blow took the scarf from his hand and landed it on top of a tree. A signal from his wristwatch remimded Gary that he was already late for the meeting with his vendor. Resigned with the loss, he went in direction to his commitment.

Hidden in an empty space among the buildings, the mystery admirer thought:

"I need to be more careful! I hope he has not recognized me!" Then she shook her head. "And what are you doing exactly, fool?! Following him like this, as a stalker??"

She sighed, exiting from her hideaway. At last, her time in that athetic club in Washington. D.C. was useful. She didn't thought that could out run him...

In that moment, Gary's scarf came unfastened and fell over her black high-heeled boots. When she recognized it, she smiled and placed it kindly around her neck.

======

"I'm telling you, Marissa, someome was following me!" Gary told his friend and partner what had happened.

"Did you see how this person look like?"

"More or less. I think was a woman. She was very distant, that I didn't get to see her face. She was wearing a long black leather coat and a hat with wide brims..."

"Like Carmen Sandiego, only that the clothes were black and not red?" Marissa knew that game and animation character by description. Surprised by the association, he confirmed.

"Yes, and when she saw that I had noticed her, she leaped from where she was hidden and she fled. She was very fast!"

Gary and Marissa were in silence for some time, before she asked.

"Gary, why you don't talk with Detective Armstrong?"

"Huh?"

"Perhaps he could help you to discover the identity of your mysterious woman." A thought occured to her. "Perhaps she is your mystery admirer."

He was not sure if he liked the idea.

"Perhaps... Well, I have to organize some tax forms."

"Good luck." She commented.

"Thank you."

One hour later, Gary had finished the forms, when he decided to take a little sleep. He crossed his arms and bend over the desk. Minutes later, somebody that had been observing what happened in the office with great interest entered slowly. Her shadow covered Gary, while she left a rose and a card in front of him. For a moment, she fought the will to bend down and kiss him hard. Instead she just kissed the tip of her gloved fingers and touched Gary's forehead.

Quietly, the mystery admirer left, her black-gloved hand adjusting the front brim of the hat.

When he wake up, he was surprised with the rose and the card on the table of the office. He went until the corridor and asked a waitress that passed.

"Mona, did you see anybody strange enter in the office?"

"No, Mr. Hobson."

"Everything well. Thank you."

Gary opened the card:

Dear Gary

Excuse me for today, and please accept this rose,

Your Mystery Admirer.

What do you think? Who is your suspect? Next chapter coming soon!

Read and review! :-)

And a Merry X-Mas and a Happy 2003!