It was cold and it was dark and Stephanie was as miserable as the last donut left on the shelf of the bakery come closing time.
The stake out had turned up a total of zilch success so far, and to be honest, she didn't see the point of sticking around waiting for something that was never going to happen.
She stood from where she'd been crouching round the corner of a looming rusty warehouse, brushing off dirt and leaves before heading to her car. It had meant to be her last hurrah of bounty hunting, and in a way, it was so accurate and summarizing of her eventful career she could have wept.
But the time for weeping had come and gone, and she'd decided against it. She pulled out onto the near dead roads of Trenton, too late for the criminals and too early for the businessmen. The occasional hooker stood out as she drove by, but as the chilly weather continued most hadn't thought it worth their time for even the desperate slightly loony figures that were always around the rougher parts of town. The ones that Stephanie knew best unfortunately.
She never expected she'd have that behind her, meeting her own eyes in the rear-view mirror, the startling blue the only flash of colour inside the dreary cheap car she currently drove. She'd have no need for it soon, or any other POS vehicle held together by duct tape and hope.
By the time the business men rushing in their generic BMW's and Mercedes had gotten stuck in to the first paperwork of the day she would be long gone.
By the time Morelli sat his first shitty coffee of the day down on his worn desk at the TPD, she'd be gone.
By the time Lula called her to bring chicken wings, she'd be gone. (Note left behind of course, not even she was brave enough to face a Lula left out of the loop of something of this magnitude.)
By the time Ranger was through his third protein shake and only rabbit food bowl of the day (let's face it, Ranger and his men were up before the Sun dared), she would most definitely be gone.
She couldn't afford to let anyone catch her. If they did, they'd start talking. And she just didn't want to. She loved all of them with everything she had, and that was the problem.
She had nothing for herself. She weaved in and out of what everyone wanted of her, expected of her even the things they loved about her but she was exhausted. Just exhausted.
She wouldn't be forever, but right now if someone came up to her in the street and asked her what she did with her life she couldn't answer. And that was a problem.
She turned into the parking lot of her apartment, rolling smoothly to a stop for the only time she'd ever driven the heap of junk. She grabbed her bag, checking twice she hadn't left anything and the car was locked. She wouldn't be coming back.
By the time she was jogging up the stairs it was just gone four in the morning. Giving her time to pick up her stuff, set out the carefully prepared envelopes and linger for a little while, to soak in what she was giving up.
She arranged the end of her lease on the apartment, and made sure although she was avoiding to tell anyone, they wouldn't be left uniformed. They'd know what mattered. That she'd had enough, an she wanted a change. She was leaving, telling them she had no destination so not to bother seeking her out. She'd come back one day.
But right now, she needed to leave. Everything.
It's a shame then then when she shoved her sticking door open and wrangled her things through the door she noticed something wasn't quite right in the near emptily furnished apartment.
Where there should have been nothing but questionable wallpaper, there was a large muscled shadow staring back at her.