This Masquerade

The young woman left the office without a glance over her shoulder, and that served her follower well, as she moved into what she guessed would be the youngster’s blind spot- she was new at this, but confident- as usual.

The mark got into a small compact car about two years old and in good condition, and the tracker, smiling, moved into a brisk jog- at least for her.

The accompaniment smiled as she glanced at the reflection she made in the fading light, a moving, yet obscure, black shape that seemed to not register to anyone- this was fun! The prey stopped at the Central Bank and made a withdrawal of cash, not an insubstantial amount. The follower remembered when she would not see that amount of money in one handful, back when she always had to use coupons and scrimp and save. She was glad that due to a Fish Man, her brotherand her art sales. She began to ponder why her pictures were suddenly so popular and almost missed the target’s turn.

The quarry went to a local store to buy groceries, and the follower, secreted safely, watched her grab mostly frozen meals and cat food. “Lost in this lonely game we play,” echoed in the followers mind, as she followed the target to Fleetwood. There she went to a 3rd floor apartment, where it appeared she lived alone with 2 cats. “Lost in this Masquerade,” the follower whispered, as she settled in to observe.

Distracted with reading the stars, the attender almost missed the pigeon leaving at around 9 pm. “Searching but not finding, understanding anyway,” the follower mumbled as she enshrouded herself back into the dark to tail again. The prey traveled back across town to Norwood. The follower skulked to a good viewpoint, where she saw a clandestine meeting with a man who handed her a envelope. The target took the package and looked inside. It was a sheaf of notes. She flipped through them quickly. “It’s all there,” he said to her.

“This had better be worth it,” she responded to him, handing over a small wad of cash. He took it and said “I got something else for you too, darling, if you’re interested…” he pulled a rectangular metal thing about the size of a small paperback book. “It’s one of the backups. I couldn’t crack it, but it should have everything.”

The mark whistled and reached for it but he pulled it away. “This is going to cost you a little more. About ten times more,” he teased. Without blinking she lashed out with expertise and knocked it from his hand, catching it with her other hand. He backed away holding his arm.

“You bitch!” She calmly told him, “Now if it’s discovered missing, you can truthfully say it was stolen from you,” she smirked at him. “I leave it to you to come up with the reason why you had it in the first place. But I tell you what – if this turns out to be useful to us, I’ll deliver to you the fee you just quoted. Good night.” She turned to leave with the man standing there dumbfounded, clutching his arm with his other hand.

Ethel was now concerned- this meant that the target was up to something, but what. She followed her home again, and watched until the quarry went to sleep at 2 am, and went home.

“I have to call Jake,” she thought, as she quietly put on Breezin’- it had been haunting her all evening, after all.

Ethel picture is actually of Grace Ghanem