She felt shivers down her spine when she sensed that he's too close already.
But not until he passed her by... The switch was just located at the wall beside her. He switched on the lights in the living room and said, "Sorry if it's too dark here inside. I'm not used to very bright surroundings."
She was still standing there, not moving. Her body was still frozen.
Jack said "Alice?"
Alice couldn't look straight at him. Jack turned around and wore off his coat and let it lay on the couch. He said "You can sit."
Alice, who has not been feeling a not really good vibe of what's happening, said "I really have to go."
"Why are you leaving so fast?" He sat down on the couch.
"Because I need a rest..."
"Why are you sweating out there? Seriously? I thought my air con was strong enough to freeze someone here but you're sweating."
"Yes, it's kinda cold here but I'm sorry sir, I really need to go." She turned around and walked to his door.
He said "Are you scared?"
Alice paused and she couldn't look back. She didn't want to see him grinning.
"Why are you running away from me?" He sounded so possessive towards her. It made him appear even scarier.
She looked back slowly and she saw him sitting on the couch, seriously looking at her. He was giving her the ferocious look.
Alice said "Sir I'm sorry if I couldn't eat with you tonight. Besides it's already a quarter to 2 so I really need my rest."
He stood up and said "Oh come on Alice, I just wanted to know you... Can't we have this comfortable relationship?"
"No? Because you're actually making me uncomfortable..."
"What do I need to do to make you comfortable then?"
"By letting me go out."
"How could that make us both comfortable? You wouldn't even take a chance on me."
"This just wouldn't work if you keep doing it like this."
"What?" He went closer to her slowly. "What do you think am I doing?"
She walked backwards, going closer to his door and reaching for the knob.
Until, he heard her twist it. He suddenly laughed.
"Wait.... I get it.... What do you think of me? A rapist? Oh Alice, you're my secretary! I wouldn't rape someone like you."
She frowned even more. He continued, "Raping is a crime. A CEO like me doesn't do crime. Don't think of me like that! You're making it funny."
Alice replied "And I'm not just someone you can boss around like this! Really? Bringing me into your house? What the hell is this? A private meeting?! Well first of all, my work hours with you are finished so will you please let me out of here?!"
Jack put his hands over her shoulders and dragged her while saying, "Can't you be calm for some time and just relax?"
She removed his hands on her shoulders. "Get your hands off me. You're my boss, okay, I know that, but this is just so off limits! You are entering my personal life!"
"What's with you?" He grumped. "Always PMS-ing? I just wanted to be friends, that's all! What's the matter?"
Alice was left with no words to tell and she just found herself glaring at him.
"You're being totally unreasonable." He then shrugged.
Alice said "Friends huh?" She looked a little bit calm right now.
"Yes, that's all I wanted."
Alice thought "Maybe he wasn't the kind of guy that I thought, maybe I was the only one thinking about this whole stuff. I should give this a try."
"What do I have to do inside your house then?"
"Sit at my dining area, come, I'll show you."
He goes to the kitchen and opens his refrigerator. He said as he peeked his head inside the fridge, "What do you want? Salad? A cake? Pasta? What? Ice cream?"
"You got all of it there?" She sounded so amazed.
"Yup. I just moved in so I bought stuff to put inside my house and of course foods can't be missing. I love sweets. I mean, who doesn't, right?"
"I love sweets too."
"What do you want? Hurry, my hands are starting to feel the chills out here."
"Uh... just... an ice cream, maybe."
"Alright, coming up!" He got it then closed the refrigerator. He put it on the kitchen sink then grabbed a cup and a spoon from his cabinet. He took a scoop for her and put it inside the cup then he tucked the spoon into the ice cream. "And..... late night snack is up for the girl who never cares about calories!"
Alice smiled and said "Thank you." She felt more comfortable as it goes by and she realized that Jack was kind of an outgoing person so she felt like that they'll get along well too. "How about you? Don't you like to eat?"
He pulled out a chair for her to sit. "Nope. I have to neglect eating fatty foods because I just worked out recently." He sat just right in front of her. They sat at the same time.
Alice said "You made me feel like I've neglected workouts since then. It's just not my thing, just saying."
"I'm not asking. Go taste it. It's an ice cream from France."
"Really?" She tasted a spoonful of it. "This is just so heavenly delicious!"
"You can take it all."
"What?"
"I'll give the whole ice cream box to you."
"Really? Isn't this expensive?"
"It is. But it's beyond my conscience to just let it just freeze in my fridge for I won't be eating it even if it's stuck there."
"So that also means that you won't eat the pasta, right?"
"Oh, no, not the pasta, I love pasta. You can't take that with you."
Alice laughed. She found him funny. She said "Hey."
"What?"
"Are you normally like this?"
He smiled and curled his eyebrows. He said "What do you mean?"
"Do you talk like this to other people? Because at the office... you seem—"
"I seem so what?"
"Arrogant and just too plain....... Boring."
He smiled then nodded while rolling his tongue around the inside of his mouth. "You got sharp tongue huh?" He chuckled. "I'm like this to the people I'm comfortable with."
"So that counts me in?"
Jack's wide smile faded a little bit and then he stared at her eyes with a luring stare.
Alice saw his stare so she talked right away and defended herself. "Oh! I'm not trying to flirt with you, alright? I'm not that kind of secretary!"
Jack chuckled again then bowed his head to hide his smiling face. Alice said "Why are you laughing?"
Jack faced her and says, "Just because I'm comfortable with you doesn't mean you're flirting with me."
She smiled and said "Glad you knew my point."
She ate again then she talked. "By the way, what is this for? You know... me....you....talking like this. Did you do this to all of your former secretaries too?"
"No. I never talked to anyone of them."
"Then—" She looked in his eyes. His brown eyes intently looking at hers, sending a message from his stare, a message that seems to mean that he likes her. She got that meaning in mind but she just brushed it off for it was a very delusional thought. So she came up with an idea of switching the topic.
"What about the presentations? Must they contain how many slides?"
"Why did you ask?" He smiled, sensing that she's trying to escape the subject.
"So I could make an outline later."
"Ah, there is no required number of slides, just minimal content each and the necessary information must be the only ones included in each... well of course."
"Ah yes, I got it sir." She ate the remaining ice cream in her cup to avoid the awkwardness. Jack was staring at her while eating and he's looking at her mouth so she felt so anxious, very anxious.
After eating, she then said, "Okay, I'm done." She pulled her hanky out of her pocket then pressed it against her mouth. She looked so neatly prepared. She was just so ready to go.
"I must be headed to my room now."
"You can stay for a little while..." He sounded so inviting.
"Ah, actually, no. I got more paperwork to finish later as I wake up so... I need to go." She stood up and walked to his doorway. Jack walked after her. "Thanks for your kindness sir, 'Till here."
She twisted the knob and went out in a hurry. Jack wasn't able to say anything to her, not even a word before she leaves.
He just grinned and went back to the kitchen area.
Alice went inside her room and locked her door. She sighed in relief. "Wow, that was a hell of a heartbeat!" She looked at her door and wondered, "As far as I remember, I closed the door after I get in but how the hell did he enter? He said it was open. This was never open when I go inside... Weird..."
But she cared less to it and paid more attention to how many hours were left to her for her rest time. She took a shower and as the water dropped down to her body, she has thought of her boss again. "Could it be that he entered my house? How good is he for me not to hear even the squeak of my door? But maybe... maybe it really was open. Damn. I should stop taking sleeping pills! These are the cause of my paranoia, perhaps."
Inside Jack's room...
He stared at the chair that Alice just sat onto. "I can still feel you right here.", he thought.
He held the back of the chair and rubbed it as if he's rubbing her back. He held her cup and picks the spoon out of it. "Sometimes I wonder what your lips taste like..."
He licked it, closed his eyes then put it in his mouth. He's imagining that his tongue was just inside her mouth this time. He enjoyed the taste of it. It indulged him more and more.
He did it for so long until he smiled and said, "You taste so good, Alice."
He put it back on the sink then he went to his bed room, wore off his long sleeve, untied her necktie, pulled his pants down and changed to his casual outfit.
He opened the lamp beside his bed so his room lit up. He picked the picture of Alice from his cabinet.
He stared at it again then said, "Soon Alice.... Soon.... You will be mine."
He laid down on his bed and gazed at the ceiling until he fell asleep.
The policemen are still on patrol outside.
The officer received information from an FBI agent. He announced it to the police team on duty. "He's not registered under his name in any hotel on site or in the area, but we're talking about a big area. Oh, and this case is being considered high profile... We badly needed to catch him. They also want us to be working on this case."
One of the police replied, "But sir, how long is the time they've given us?"
"As long as there's still no sign of him killing people again, we still got longer time for the search."
"Alright, sir."
The officer smiled. "Jack is back......... This is where it gets interesting."
They were given another challenging task. They called it a very thrilling method of operation. It was how the cops found him before. How they arrested him, convicted him and threw him into jail to rot. They said those were the best days of their lives. But if the process is altered and he was clever enough this time, there was less likelihood of getting caught again.
Of course they also had a doubt that they might fail the mission because the case that they're handling was not random, spontaneous killing. Long time ago, the bodies had been left to be found, but that was risky that's why Jack, the murderer, changed his techniques. He could outsmart the local police.
There would be no body for evidence. The body would just be gone and missing.
So the police army spent the whole night sketching their new plan for approach. Each team was expected to do their assigned tasks. The members selected are the people with high abilities to solve the case and absolutely the brave ones. Jack's mind and plans are not something to mess with.
Now that Kinley is not behind bars already, it has been a threat to the whole town. They will again be delved into the twisted mind of a psychopath. It's a dangerous game that could uncover the truth about a serial killer who is more cunning than anyone could ever imagine. The news was all around the town. It spread so fast like wildfire leaving warnings to the citizens to stay in at night and be more careful.
Thus, when the morning comes...
It was aired on TV. Alice watched the show while she's drinking her coffee. She was actually prepared to go until the news got her attention. At first, she didn't clearly know much about the Kinley case but now, she knew just what an animal Kinley was.
"You gruesome son of a bitch." Alice muttered, getting the remote. She turned it off then put the coffee cup back to the table then get her things in haste to go to work. But before she went out of her apartment, she set the security alarm so she would be perfectly safe in case.
"Just for safety." She said as she leaves.
Since Jack is the talk of the town, when she arrived at the office, it's still the topic. She raised her eyebrows then shrugged. She exhaled and said, "As I've expected."
The administrator, Joe Schmidt, was seated near her work station which is originally not his place. Joe is Alice's closest guy friend inside the office. He was chatting with Morrie when she arrived.
He greeted her, "Hey brownie."
She replied, "What's with the nickname?" not looking and being busy arranging things on her table. She's not amused.
"Just a word play! Your hair gave me the idea for it."
Morrie continued talking to Joe. "You know what, I've learned from the magazine that Kinley kidnapped some of the girls he killed and mostly the guys are tortured. I could only imagine what he had done but I don't want to see it myself. It's way too gross to imagine, what more to witness, right?"
Joe replied, "The magazine had discussed some of the other killings that had been attributed to him. His tactics had been similar each time, but he was a creative man. Had he become more intensive in the years he had spent thinking about innocent girls, socializing with other murderers?"
"I don't know, maybe prison isn't the right place for his repentance. I think it helped him more."
Alice forced herself to focus on Morrie and the conversation at hand. Morrie asked her. "What do you think about this?"
She tried to sound casual. "I don't know. I'll have to check the internet for information."
"What are you up to that you don't give a damn about this?" Morrie said.
"Nothing."
Morrie muttered, "I thought you had deadlines again."
"Yeah, I do. I could even take my laptop, work at night in hotels or something. I just need to finish this frigging project as soon as possible rather than thinking about that stupid murder case. He should try me, tell him!" Alice forced a smile, trying to make the whole idea seem appealing. "We could make a whole documentary from it! Me and my death, what do you think?"
Joe said "Are you nuts? Jack Kinley can rip your head off anytime, I'm telling you! And why do you take this as a joke? 10 innocent people were killed Alice! That is not a joke."
"Calm your tits Joe, I'm just trying to lift the mood here. It's starting to get spooky and I don't like it so much. Other thing is, you're here near my station chitchatting with Morrie so I can't concentrate on my work! I hope you noticed that."
Joe said "This is the hot issue! Well what can I say to a woman who spends 99% of her life to her job and nothing only but her freaking projects!"
"You suck, Joe." Alice said. She normally pulls that kind of joke with him.
"Ugh! Alice. Don't curse!" Morrie said.
"Suck is not a curse! I go to church every Sunday and I heard the priests say that sometimes... well not actually sometimes, but once in a while..."
Joe said "But anyway, don't you think it's a little mysterious?... Look, Jack has been convicted and rehabilitated. For sure there are files about his profile but how come he remains unidentified until now? Like, there could be pictures of him at least. Otherwise, policemen have something to do with this."
Morrie leaned her elbows on her table, looking so eager to know. "What do you think it is?"
"I don't know."
"Maybe he killed the ones who are keeping the documents, don't you think? I think Jack is super smart so he could possibly do that with just a snap!"
"Or maybe... he warned them not to show his photos."
"But don't the policemen even think about the lives of the people in danger right now that they protected their own sake instead of the whole town? How selfish!"
"All lives are important. If they were killed, who are the ones to catch the killer, right?"
"Ugh! You are such a genius, Joe!"
"Well... for a graduate with honors like me, hell yeah!"
Alice butted in, "Maybe you should join the investigation team and work on Kinley's case, your knowledge would be more useful there than using it here to boast."
"Someone is really jealous right here, Morrie. We should keep talking. This will get her on fire then we'll watch and learn about how sexy she is when she gets mad."
Morrie laughed with Joe. Alice said "Pss... Why don't you just get back to work?"
Joe stood up and said, "Fine! Don't worry. I'll talk to you later. Just wait in line."
"You're.... pathetic... Go!"
Joe walked away, smiling. Morrie said "Are you on your period?"
"Why?"
"You talk so rude."
"That's not rude. That's me and Joe's normal conversation."
"But you two... have something going on, right?"
"Us? Eww. No. He's just my friend."
"Really? Because you two have chemistry!"
"Screw chemistry, Morrie! And you too! Can you get to work now? We got deadlines, hello?"
"Oh yeah... Right..." She sits back while looking at her, smiling and teasing her to Joe through her stare.
Alice said "Oh come on! Morrie!"
Morrie looked away then said "Fine! Fine! Let me get the papers! I'll type them right away."
"Here." Alice handed her the files. She said "Ugh! I hate being in the executive department."
Then she started working. Alice was always stressed out every day when she's in work, but it doesn't seem to appear on her face. Alice is a natural beauty, indeed.
She worked until 5 in the afternoon. She didn't know what went around the office the whole day because she was facing the computer screen. But she was so impressed to herself that she was able to finish one project out of all the multiple projects assigned to her.
She saved the file that she created then she leaned her head to the back of her chair and rolled her chair backwards, away from her table. She said "Ah! Finally I'm done!"
Until, the vice president walked by so she sat properly.
The vice president told her, "Ms. Alice, how's it going?"
"Ah, one down, sir."
"Good. Show it to the president right away for approval."
"Right now?"
"Yes. I said right away so it means 'right now'."
"But sir, isn't it better finishing the rest of the projects then showing them all to him at the same time rather than showing each finished project then coming back again and again?"
"It was supposed to be like that but Jorge has an appointment later at 6 so in case you have one done, you have to make him check it so he'll know that there's a progress going on."
"Oh, okay. I got it."
"OK. Show it now." He walked away and proceeded somewhere else. Everyone inside the office was busy.
Alice grabber her laptop and stood up. She looked so nervous. She thought "I never felt this nervous before when I was going to present to the president. Was it because of what happened last night? Uh no! I must not be thinking about it!"
She walked her way to his office with full courage. She knocked then entered. She couldn't look at him when she said, "Sir, I have finished one of the presentations. You might want to check it for approval."
But Jack wasn't also looking at her. He was busy typing something to his laptop. He's wearing his eye glasses and his hair was neatly fixed. Alice was just standing there, waiting for his response.
She said "Sir?"
But he looks like he's working on something very important so he seems unmindful of Alice like she didn't exist inside his office. He looked so serious when he spoke, "Sit for a while. Wait just a second."
Alice sat down. She thought "What? He's trying to act superior now? Like he didn't force me to go to his apartment last night? As if he didn't beg for me to stay? Does he want me to plead in front of him with my sorry ass because I mistreated him last night? Never!"
She can't help herself so she talked, "Should I just leave it on your table?"
He replied without looking at her, "Then what? Your laptop can't present itself... You can't just leave it there." He kept on typing.
Alice said "But you weren't paying attention... sir."
"Didn't I tell you to wait?"
Alice felt embarrassed. Still, he looked serious but calm. She stares at him while he works. She's thinking what has gotten into him to act so different right now. She thought that Jack was just trying to keep it professional between them that what happens outside shouldn't be taken into their workplace.
Therefore, she kept it cool. She acted like his normal secretary. She played his game.
She waited for 15 minutes.
It was very quiet inside his office and she couldn't hear anything but the sound of the air conditioner and his fingers touching the keyboards as he typed. She got nothing to do inside but to wait for him.
Alice couldn't take it anymore. She couldn't stand the time that she's wasting just for waiting for nothing. She moved from her seat. She was supposed to stand up and leave already until he spoke.
"Hand me your laptop."
"Thank God, you asked for it."
Jack looked at her and he got that different look in his eyes. A look that was too powerful and underestimating. Alice shut her mouth because she thought she just disrespected her boss a few seconds ago for what she said.
Jack said "You've done it quite fast. Impressive."
"Thank you." She put her laptop on his table and showed him the presentation she made. He had no reaction while he's viewing it himself.
When he's done watching it, he let Alice explain what she had done. Alice explained it well but Jack reacted so small about it so she worried a lot.
He said "Is this your first project?"
"Finished one..."
He nodded and said, "Passed. Give me a hard copy tomorrow." He shut down his laptop and flipped it together to put it inside his bag. Alice smiled and said "Thank you very much, sir! Sure, I will provide you a hard copy tomorrow."
Jack fixed his table and stood up from his seat. He combined the papers scattered around his table and he's tapping it altogether over the table to keep it all intact. He said "Must be the ice cream huh?"
Alice looked at him immediately and replied, "What?"
"Does it inspire you a lot?"
"Ah..." She remembered it. He was certainly talking about last night! He proved her wrong about her thoughts. She said "Might be?"
He carried his bag and started walking. While he's walking, he's talking to her. "I got your number from the clerk. I'll call you later."
He was about to get out of his office but Alice said "I can't talk to you!"
He stopped just right in front of his door and looked back. He said "And why?"
"I got so many things to finish. Are you kidding me?"
Jack checked his watch and said "I got many things to do too. And besides... this is work related. What are you talking about?"
Alice blushed a bit. Truth is, she doesn't really want to talk to him on the phone because he still makes her feel uncomfortable. She just didn't want that kind of connection so she makes an excuse.
She stuttered as she spoke, "I changed my number..."
"Don't lie to me Alice. I personally asked it to the clerk and she told me it was active. And...."
He looked at her eyes and slightly smiled. His spine-chilling smile showed up again.
"I can always track you down, Alice."
Then he left his office and walked so fast on his way out for his meeting at 6. Alice was left inside, finding his words so unpredictable.
Her heart was beating so fast again... the hairs at the back of her neck rising... she can't move at her position.
His words kept her iced up in her place.