Chapter 3

The email was from the same address, '7ight'. It read 

Nice outfit. 

He had seen her. How? Where? 

Was he the plumber who had also been the gardener in her office? If he was it would all make sense, how the gardener was there when the parcel was dropped on her office entrance, how he had said she should be careful and that it could be a letter bomb, the knife that fell from his pocket... It would all make sense.

She shook startled as she felt a presence behind her. It  was him after all, and he had come to kill her. But for what? What would he gain by killing her? She stilled as the presence drew closer and shut her eyes as a hand tapped her shoulder. 

"Ma'am? I wanted you to come put the new tap to test."

She let out a breath, not particularly of relief as she turned to face him with uncertainty in her eyes. "T- the t-ap?"

"Yes, the tap I just fixed, ma'am." 

She stood up and walked to the kitchen, while   he trailed behind her. Her legs felt number with every step she took.

"I could change it if you don't like it," suggested then plumber. 

She raised her hand to turn on the tap, but was stopped as he placed his hand in hers, halting her movement. He brought out his pocket knife and leaned in a way that he was almost hugging her. She held her breath and waited for it. This is it. This is how I'm going to die.

"Relax ma'am. Just making sure there's nothing hindering the flow. You know, a knife makes things gush out." He paused, cleaning the knife on his shirt, too slowly than he should have. "And you have to clean it after use." 

He gathered the things he came with and then he was gone. But not before giving her a wide grin.  Too wide. A grin that made her stomach churn, she turned to the sink, emptying her stomach of the little food she had forced herself to eat earlier. Washing her face, I'm alive, I really am still alive, she thought over and over again. 

She heard the door close indicating that he had gone, that was when the significance oh his act hit her. Him using the knife to check for blockage then after wiping it on his shirt, and then the words that followed, of course, she thought. A message had been passed. 

What ever incident happened the last minutes hinted that the guy was that had just left her house, from the email, to the way he crawled up on her, the way he almost hugged her, the way he used the knife and the words that followed, they all added up. They'd all been meant to reel her up. 

It was him, the gardener and plumber. He had first sent those emails to leave her on the edge, then he'd stopped to make her lose her stance and move a little away from the edge, only to come in person to push her totally off the cliff. But that was where she was wrong, the worse hadn't befallen her. She hadn't been pushed off the cliff yet. Not yet.

It was when she received a call two days after, from the demented guy who had decided to make her life a living hell that she knew she was going to have to do something. She could bear the unsettling emails, coming to her house was bad enough, but she couldn't deal with the calls. 

After she received the call,  which was the first but certainly wasn't going to be the last... as she knew she'd receive a lot more, she kept her phone away from her. Scared that every ring will be from her— blackmailer? She couldn't call him that has she had no idea what he wanted from her. He hadn't mentioned anything about wanting something, except from wanting her to know he knew what she had done. 

The call had simply been him breathing and chuckling and her saying 'hello' over and over again through the phone. She knew it had been him. Who else would  want to freak her out by just calling to exchange breathing and chuckles? 

 She really did have to do something. She couldn't just bear to stay away from work and live on the edge all the days of her life. She was already miserable as it is, and she was getting more and more miserable by the day. 

So she decided, if more calls, emails or appearances should occur, she'd go to the police, after all he couldn't have had any evidence against her... could he? No he couldn't, he just knew, that was all. He knew and was using it to get her mentally. 

She went to work the next day, doing her best to act normal to her best friend. She couldn't afford to involve Anna in her mess of her life, a life she knew nothing of. She had met Anna 3 months after she left her past behind her and started going to law school. 

The two had clicked almost immediately and since then, they had  been best friends, having each others back and supporting each other. Anna especially supported Elena in her dream for owning a firm of her own, and the rest is history. 

"Hey babe," Anna greeted, giving her a light kiss on her cheeks  as she took her seat. A paper cup of coffee in her hands. 

"I see you just came in, unpunctual PA of mine." she forged sternness. 

"Ah. I'm only taking advices from my best friend and following after the steps of my boss." she paused glancing down the wrist on her watch, then continued,  "My 11 minutes, 22 seconds late boss." She gave her cute smile. 

" Then you did very well then, dear Anna." She smiled, wriggling her brows.

Anna laughed, happy that her friend had made a joke, or tried to make a joke for the first time in weeks. "You took yesterday off. I take that you got the rest you needed?" 

Elena did her best not to slump her shoulders or drop her eyes as she said, "Surely I did." 

"Good. In fact, better." She shifted a wrapped parcel and a single rose to Elena. "Some one dropped this for you. Perhaps you could explain why I  wasn't aware there was a new admirer." 

Elena stopped breathing sometime after Anna had said 'someone dropped this for you'. 

"El!" She heard from afar. "Lena!"  This time it was very close and she cringed from the scream. 

"Y-yes?" She managed to stutter a reply.

"Where the fuck did you go off to?" She paused in a mock thought. "Thinking about the guy who sent you this,"  she asked and Elena answered 'yes' inwardly. If only she knew the half of it. 

She meant to shove Anna's hand off the parcel playfully, but covered it with a dry laugh when she had shoved it off more forcefully. "It's no admirer silly. Maybe a client of some sort." 

"And why will a client send you a gift and a red rose?" Anna inquired further. 

"Obviously...for appreciation." Elena took the parcel and rose from the table, calling out a 'see ya later' when she was almost inside her office. 

The parcel contained pictures of a woman. She stared wide eyed as the realization of what it was hit her. It was a picture of her trying to hold together a ruined blue shirt that barely covered her upper feminine parts. 

The black skirt she wore was rambled from how it had been rolled up. 

The picture showed her fright and how mentally worked up she had been. 

The next picture was of her trying to push the heavy weighted lifeless body off her. She was shaking as she held the pictures in her hand. He did have prove. He had prove to ruin her. He had the whole of her in his palms and he knew it, that was why he kept unsettling her. 

He knew that she was starting to seek for  a way out, and could have been going with the idea that he had no prove, so he had sent her these pictures to show her he wasn't just some random kid unsettling her. He had proof that she had committed a crime. He had her in his arms and now she knew for sure that she was doomed. 

She was indeed doomed.