Headhunter

Chapter 1

The music from the club was still ringing in her ears as Katie Pendergrass made her way to her car. Her night out on the town was finished. The guys were nice, but none really warranted a second night out. She was going to have to live with the fact that she might never find Mr. Right. She will just have to live with the Mr. Right Nows.

The parking lot was dark so she took her keys out of her bag and put them in her hand and between her fingers to use as a weapon if she were attacked. The fucker who tried something now would find his face scratched up. She knew she had to be tough living alone in an electric city like Orlando.

She was born here and marveled at the way it changed over her 35 years alive. It went from the town known for a theme park to a small hustle and bustling metropolis growing in the technology age. She would have never thought that she would be working in computers. She started in middle school playing games like Oregon Trail and later Simcity. But here she stood merely 17 years later as a Facilities Manager at an up and coming law firm in downtown Orlando.

She got to her BMW and chirped it unlocked. She looked around again to make sure nobody was going to attack her as she got in her car. The parking lot was empty it seemed. She was out later than she wanted to be. She would pay for that at work in the morning. Who cared though? She could sit in her quiet office and pretend to be working on something important.

Everything for these lawyers was important to someone. At least she could pretend with the best of them. She had the access to the records. She knew most of them spent hours a day looking at Facebook and checking scores on ESPN. It was even worse during college football season when they would check out how their precious Gators were doing. If they could hang out and play on the computer, then she could stay out late and practically sleep walk through her next day.

The car's radio read 2:11AM by the time she pulled into her Dover Estates home. She lived on a tree-lined street and loved the nice quiet area. The house was really small for what she was making, but having 3 bedrooms to herself was perfect. She could have a computer room to do off-hours stuff. She had a work-out room and a nice big bedroom for herself. She also loved the 15 minute to work drive.

She opened the garage with her remote opener and moved her car into the garage. The area was nice, but she would not put it past a couple of her neighbors to break in to her car. The lights in the garage were already on as she got out of her car. She never locked the garage door into her house. That was just silly in her mind. If someone could break into the garage, how would a lock on the door stop them?

She entered her kitchen from the garage and looked at her microwave. It was already after 2:15. Maybe she would call in sick tomorrow. But really what does that solve; the lawyers would just call her at her house. They really did not care if she was there or not. She would end up out of bed answering questions about easy things and she would be wasting a sick day.

She looked over at her answering machines. No calls or messages were available. She thought to herself that she must really be a loser if she was out all night and not one person called and left her a message. Of course anybody who wanted to talk to her could have just called her cell phone. Why did she keep a home line anyway? Only people that ever called it were sales people.

She stripped down naked in her living room and threw her clothes into a pile next to the couch. She would put them in the washing machine tomorrow. She stood in the room and admired her body in the mirror. She had a little stomach now, but who did not at age 35. Her legs were still had remnants of fully toned muscles from her running days in high school. She considered herself a catch. She had a great job. A decent body still. She had money in the bank and no ex-husband or other baggage a 35-year old single woman might have.

She moved into the bedroom and without turning on the lights laid in her bed. Her alarm was set so all she had to do was fall asleep. She pulled the covers over her body and rolled over. The clock read 2:30. Maybe she would call in tomorrow after all, and not answer her phone.

He watched her move through her house. She never even turned on a light. She knew her house so well that she did not need one. He watched as she stripped naked and looked at herself in the mirror. He turned away though. He was not here for a peep show he was here for something else.

He waited till she had walked into her bedroom and then he slowly made his way towards the room. He heard her soft breathing through the door. She had been lying down for almost 10 minutes.

He slowly opened the door and made his way into the dark room. He could see her covered up and on her side facing the opposite wall. He could not tell if she had put on any clothes, because she was covered in a big comforter. But he could see what he needed to see, even in the dark.

He walked over to her bed and pulled something out of one of his pockets. He wore a black coat, latex gloves, a black baseball cap, black pants and black shoes. His face was visible under the cap, but he was not too worried about her seeing him. By the time she did it would be too late.

He put his knee slowly on the bed and he felt her start to stir.

Katie felt something depress in her bed next to her. She opened her eyes and went to turn around, but before she could something tightened around her neck. It was hard and plastic and it cut off her air supply right away. It was very tight and she could not loosen it. She flung her hands behind her looking for her attacker but nobody was there. She rolled over arms flinging, eyes darting wildly.

Whatever was chocking her went all the way around her neck. She put her fingers on the small clamp in the back but it would not loosen. She knew that she only had a few minutes left before she would die so she tried to stand up but somebody pushed her back down. She looked up and saw a man standing there.

She did not recognize him, but he stood away from the bed watching her suffocate. She rolled over trying to get to the other side of the bed. She could probably get to a pair of scissors she kept in the bedside table. She tried not to panic, but without air coming in it was hard not to. She got to the table but in her haste knocked it over. She tried again to get to the drawer but the lack of oxygen was affecting her coordination.

She reached with her hands and started to claw and scrape at whatever was around her throat. It was no use, it did not budge. She could only think about getting the thing off. She did not even try to figure out who the guy was in her room. Her throat ached from the pressure.

Stars started to appear in her eyes, and then everything went dark. Her lungs felt ready to explode they needed oxygen so badly. Then her conscious no longer registered anything except blackness.

He watched her struggle; it was fascinating watching someone fight for life. She had no chance of survival. He admired her ability to try though. He waited while she stayed on the bed. She had one last grasp trying to get out of the death grip, but it was no use.

He could see her stop trying and soon it was obvious that she was dead. He walked over to her corpse, pulled out a pair of cutting sheers and removed the murder weapon. He put it back into his pocket and made his way back out of the house, the same way he came in. Through the unlocked garage door and out the garage. He left the garage open.