Sara sat at her kitchen table. Old newspapers were scattered on it. Old paper cups that once had entailed fresh, black coffee were lying amongst the papers. She leaned her head to her hands. She stared at the small box she had placed on the table right in front of her. She stared at it so long that it started to feel unreal, like the box wouldn't really exist, and the necklace would be as unreal as the box.
Sara didn't have any idea how long she had been staring at this one little box. She heard the clock ticking endlessly. She leaned back sighing. This is ridiculous. She looked at the clock, three hours had passed. She moved her look to the box again, now with irritation bubbling inside her. Why it was so hard for her to just dismiss the whole thing? She grabbed the box and rolled it in her hands. Finally she opened it and now faced the silvery necklace.
The necklace made Sara go back in time. She remembered stuff she didn't want to remember, the time that seemed to be such a long time ago. She remembered how she was young. She was sitting on a hood of a car with a can of beer in her hand. She laughed at couple of guys, same age as she, who were goofing around. Sara closed the box she held on her hands. Minute after minute the bottle of wine, she had gotten as a Christmas present a year ago, seemed more and more tempting. She wanted to forget. She had spent years to forget certain things about her past, now one small box ruined all the years of work. Now she would have needed something much stronger than wine to forget. Sara closed her eyes, gently placing the box on the table, like it would have been made out of glass.
The next day started off slowly. It was rare that there was no hurry in two days, in a row. The sun was just rising when Sara parked her car in front of the crime lab building. She stepped out from her car and stopped to watch as the sun coloured the sky with shades of gold. She looked around in silence, she saw the white car parked in front of the lab building again. There it was just standing, just like it had been doing so many days earlier.
Sara walked towards the car, she didn't hesitate. She felt numb, not nervous, she didn't even realize what she was doing at first. But when she was already close to the car she felt the anxiety hit her stomach like a hammer. She stopped. She looked at the car, the small rusty spots decorated its sides. Sara saw half of the driver's face from the side mirror. She didn't have to see it whole to know who it was. The driver rolled down the window and threw out a cigarette only an inch away from Sara's feet. Sara looked at the smoking stump of the cigarette, she stomped on it making it go out.
Catherine looked out from her office window. She saw the white car parked in front of the building again. This made her frown; it gave her an unsettling feeling. Maybe it was slightly paranoid but she sensed danger and was immediately feeling the fear of losing her or her child's life. God knows how many times she had been in danger and God knows how many enemies she had made over the years. She watched as the widow of the car was rolled down. The driver threw out a cigarette. Now Catherine noticed Sara standing close to the car. Catherine's frown got deeper, she leaned closer to the window to see what was going on. She saw Sara put out the cigarette by stomping on it. Something in this gesture disturbed Catherine.