Enjoy!

Chapter Four

Day Four of Operation Follow Lester – Fuck That

Sleeping wasn't easy. In fact, Steph barely slept at all. Her mind just wouldn't shut down. After a lot of thinking… She concluded that Lester did not kill that guy. He just couldn't. He was a good guy and he didn't just go around killing people. And maybe the guy that was murder was an embezzler and stealing money from his clients, but that didn't mean he deserve to get murdered. And okay the case that Lester was carrying had to be a complete coincidence.

So Steph went to bed being ninety-nine point nine percent sure that Lester did not kill that guy. And the next morning when she woke up and they released the name of the man that was killed, Steph was eighty percent sure Lester didn't kill that man. So what if that was one of the men she had done searches on. Okay, so she was maybe sixty-five percent sure he did not kill that guy.

Steph poured herself a bowl of cereal and tried to eat. She took two bites of the soggy mess before running to the bathroom and throwing it back up along with everything else she had eaten in the last three days. She wasn't sure at all if Lester killed that guy. She just wasn't sure at all. There was always a lot of coincidences in the world, but this one was too big to ignore. But now, for the first time since getting to know Lester, she was scared of him or for him. She just wasn't sure of anything anymore.

So instead of following him in Mooner's white mini-van, she got dressed in RangeMan black, climbed into her red Toyota and drove to RangeMan. She needed to do some searches anyway so she would do some of those and maybe she would see Lester and then maybe she would know once and for all if he really killed that guy.

She settled in at her desk and went to work. The searches had piled up in the three days that she had been gone. The office was quiet. Tank's door was shut but she could hear him behind the wooden barrier, grumbling and growling. Ranger's door was wide open and he was nowhere to be seen. When she pulled in the parking garage there had been several RangeMan vehicles missing so she wasn't even sure if Lester was here or not. She couldn't stop herself from repeatedly checking out the hallways when she heard a noise, but so far… No Lester.

She really wanted to find out if Lester had murdered that man. She was torn between laying off following him because this Lester scared the ever-living shit out of her or being a good friend and continuing to follow him before he got himself into any more trouble. Maybe if she could get to the bottom of things and figure things out, she could help Lester before he got himself deeper into whatever trouble he may be in.

Just then she heard him. Steph practically squealed in delight until she heard what he was saying.

"Yeah, it's taken care of."

She sucked in a breath and froze on the spot. She didn't hear any other voices so he must be on the phone.

"You know there wasn't any witnesses. There never is and no one will miss him."

Steph was now officially scared.

"Am I done now?"

Wait! Maybe there's hope.

"What?!"

Steph jumped in her chair as Lester yelled loudly.

"Fuck. How many more?" He growled.

"That's fucking bullshit."

Was he being blackmailed or something?

"I fucking told you no one was there. The street was fucking empty." He hissed.

Steph slowly shook her head. But it wasn't empty. Did the person on the phone know that?

"Yeah yeah, what the fuck ever, man."

Steph tried to make herself invisible as Lester's voice got closer. She held completely still and focused all her attention on the computer in front of her. Maybe he wouldn't notice her.

But her luck had never been that good.

"Eavesdropping on fucking phone calls now, Beautiful?" Lester sneered, once again making her once beloved nickname into something ugly and hateful.

Steph slowly turned to look at him and she wished she hadn't. His pretty green eyes were filled with hate and anger, they were almost black. His face was scrunched into an ugly sneer and he wasn't happy at all to see her.

Steph shook her head. "I was already here in my office working, doing searches. I wasn't eavesdropping." She informed him, hoping he believed her.

He didn't. Bad luck and all.

He snorted. "Why don't you just work for that money the way we all know you are, with your legs open, sitting on Ranger's desk."

Steph was outraged. She didn't even know what to say. She was pissed. How dare he? She jumped out of her chair but he never gave her the chance to say a word.

He held up a hand. "Save it. Stay out of my fucking business, little girl. If you wanna stay safe, stay away from me."

He walked away and Steph sat down in complete shock. That was twice now Lester had said something so un-Lester like that she didn't know how to respond. His words were ugly and cruel and they hurt like hell. But something stuck out at her. The last thing he said.

'If you wanna stay safe, stay away from me.'

It wasn't a threat. It didn't sound like one. It was almost like a warning, but not like he was warning her, but he was honestly scared for her safety. Or maybe she was just reading into things because she wanted to believe her Lester was still there somewhere.

Steph finished a stack of searches and when five o'clock rolled around, she packed up her stuff and went home. She stopped at the convenience store and grabbed some chocolate. Okay so she grabbed a bag of miniature Snickers, Baby Ruths, Reese's peanut butter cups and Milky Ways. She also grabbed a huge bag of Skittles, Starbursts, and Sweettarts. She picked up a twelve pack of beer and some Twizzlers before checking out. She then stopped at the Cluck 'N Bucket and got bucket of chicken.

She arrived home and immediately dug into her bag of goodies. With a Snickers bar in one hand and a chicken leg in the other, she gave Rex fresh water, some hamster pellets and a carrot. It wasn't easy, not letting go of her food, but she accomplished it. Right there in her kitchen, she consumed over seventy percent of the food she had brought home and all of the beer. And she cried through it all. Ever sweet thing Lester had ever said to her was blocked out by the cruel words he had spoken to her earlier. She was sad and hurting. She was also full and drunk. Her face was red and blotchy and her eyes were swollen and itchy.

It was only then did she notice the note on her refrigerator.

'Wanna keep breathing? Shut the fuck up.'

She blinked at the note. And then threw up.

Once her stomach was empty, she had made her decision.