Intuition
A short story by Tara Moss
Karen stood on the dark sidewalk with her gym bag slung over her shoulder, balancing her heels over the edge of the curb one foot at a time to stretch her tense calf muscles.
"Good night," she called out.
"G-night."
Gloria waved and threw her an exhausted look as she walked away, shaking out the muscles in her arms in an animated reference to the exhausting workout they'd just been put through. It had been a challenging class. In moments the young woman had slid into her passenger seat, slammed her door shut and sped away safely into the night, her wheels kicking up dirty water from the slick road. Now the street was quiet. Karen was alone.
Or was she?
Her eyes lit on the red, glowing end of a cigarette as it moved in the shadows across the road. She could barely distinguish a slim, ominous-looking figure leaning against an unlit doorway near some parked cars, dragging on a smoke. From where she stood, the person did not look familiar.
Karen looked away and checked her watch. 9:20 pm. The class had finished later than usual. Each of the dozen other women from the self-defence course were safely on their way home, apart from the instructor, Penny, who was still inside the community centre, closing up after another gruelling class full of kicks, punches, full body flips and primal screams. Now Karen was eager to get home and get some sleep. Her shift would begin painfully early the next morning. She anticipated another tense day at work, trying to prove herself in her new job. But first, she needed rest. She could practically feel the welcoming comfort of her warm doona. She would have a hot bath, curl up with another few chapters of her latest Patricia Cornwell novel, and drift into a pleasant slumber.
Karen zipped up her windbreaker right to the neck to combat the cool night air, and stretched her heel over the curb one last time. Again, the glowing cigarette caught her eye. It moved from the man's mouth down to his leg as his arm hung at his side. A thin waft of smoke was barely visible as it drifted out of the shadowy doorway into the light of a nearby street lamp. She thought she could sense his eyes on her, watching.
Creepy.
Now Karen was eager to leave the stranger's gaze and head in the direction of her lousy park. She stepped around one of the leafless autumn trees at the front of the brick building, and passed the massive community notice board as she went, the corkboard covered in signs declaring Roommate Wanted and Motorcycle for Sale. But her eyes were not drawn to these. Her eyes focused with morbid attention to the largest notice with its bold black writing. Even in the shadows she knew what it said. She had seen it before.
RAPIST AT LARGE. BEWARE.
Do not walk alone at night. Find safety in numbers.
Easier said than done, she thought as she continued the short walk to her car spot, alone. Easier said than done.
She tried to put the notice out of her mind, moving away from the community centre and turning in the direction of the two blocks of backstreet that would lead her quickly to her trusty sedan. It was always a pain in the arse to find a spot. How does Gloria always seem to find something out front? Some kind of parking fairy? She walked briskly, her eyes at her feet so as not to trip on the slightly uneven ground. The white stripes of her sneakers seemed to glow against the pavement, her footsteps making a soft patter on the rain-soaked road. With an uncharacteristic sense of trepidation, Karen found herself listening for the sound of footsteps behind her. Would the smoking man follow her? Thankfully, all she could hear was the murmur of distant traffic, and her own breath, which formed evanescent clouds in the frigid night air.
Light.
A flash of car headlights from the main street briefly illuminated the alley, with its wet pavement and grotty dumpsters. Once the light had passed, it seemed even blacker than before. Karen felt on edge as she walked through it. It seemed that the gruesome back alley had started to make her uneasy. Or was it that noticeboard? Or the mysterious smoker? Karen had come this way before. She was more than capable of taking care of herself. It was stupid to get spooked about nothing. She knew that.
Wait.
A noise.
She stopped in her tracks, heart pounding. She cast her eyes left and right down the intersecting alleyways and spun around to see if the smoker had crossed the street and followed into the alley. No movement. No footsteps. But she had definitely heard something. Hadn't she?
Body now tense, Karen continued on, her pace much quicker than before. She caught an acrid whiff of the dumpsters in the alley. Disgusting. The odour reminded her of the junkies and homeless she came across in her work from time to time, people who seemed doomed to live out the last of their lives subsisting in dumpsters and back alleys like these, slipping through the fingers of the social system. Was anyone there, standing in the shadows? Was that what she had heard - some poor homeless person?
No time to dwell. Just get to your car. It's late.
Karen strode briskly through the dark, gripping her gym bag tightly in one hand and anxiously anticipating the safety of her car, now little more than a block away. You'll be home soon. You can run a hot bath. You can make yourself a nice cup of camomile tea with a teaspoon of sweet honey. You can laugh at having been spooked for no reason in this silly little alley that you have so often taken a shortcut through.
Another noise.
Karen stopped dead in her tracks and strained to distinguish where the noise was coming from. A stray cat? A shifting garbage can lid? She was half way down the alley now, flanked by tall, impersonal concrete buildings, the back streets of the CBD. Who else could be there?
Keep moving.
Another noise.
Dammit, is someone there?
BEWARE
Karen knew everything there was to know about the police reports. Some pathetic creep was operating in the CBD area, and despite reports and descriptions, he was still at large. It had been weeks now since he had attacked one poor woman and more recently threatened another. A few of the women who had been devoted to attending the class were no longer attending for that very reason. Some of the locals in the cluster of suburbs surrounding the CBD would not even venture past their front doors on their own once the sun went down. It had spooked a fair number of people, and now it seemed, it had spooked Karen, too.
Relax.
But she couldn't.
Footsteps?
She could definitely hear footsteps now. She was sure of it. The damn echo! She couldn't tell if the footsteps were coming from in front of her, or right behind. She stood perfectly still, and even held her breath for a moment to listen.
And then she saw it.
The red glow of the cigarette appeared part way down the alley behind her. He had followed!
"Hey there."
Karen turned with a start. She lashed out protectively with one fist, but it sliced through the air, hitting nothing.
The voice belonged to a man who stood a mere two feet in front of her. He must have been walking down the intersecting alley, between the two blocks, but he seemed to appear out of nowhere. Headlights flashed over them momentarily as another car turned on the road up ahead. She quickly took in his stats - he was of average height and build. Caucasian. Perhaps in his mid-twenties. He didn't look like a junkie. He didn't look like the tall, slim smoker she had seen across the street. He was not holding a cigarette.
"Are you okay?" the man asked, holding his hands up passively as if he were under arrest.
No, I am certainly not okay, she thought.
At first she didn't offer him any reply. She looked back in the direction of the street she had come down. She could no longer see the glowing cigarette. She slid her gym bag off her shoulder and let it swing in her hand, the metal zippers on the pockets jangling a little as they hung open. With a wash of suffocating adrenaline she clung to the shoulder strap with white knuckles, her mind struggling madly to decide what to do.
The man placed a consoling hand on her shoulder that made her jump. "It's okay, just calm down. I'm a police officer. My name is Constable Michaels."
"A police officer?" She was utterly shocked. Relief washed over her and she loosened her grip on the bag. But the feeling was temporary. Every nerve in her body returned to high alert. That man was still out there. Who was he? Why had he followed?
"We've had some complaints in the area recently. Perhaps you haven't heard? It's not safe." The man spoke in a manner that was deliberate and reassuring. "I saw you walk down here alone."
She glanced anxiously up the alley again, but could not see any movement. Had this policeman's sudden appearance scared the smoker off?
"Wow, I'm glad you are here," Karen said to him, still uneasy. "I'm just trying to get home from a class at the community centre. Its only another block to my car."
"I think it would be best if I walk you," Constable Michaels said. "I'll make sure you get there safely."
"Um...okay," she agreed, still trying to calm her jumpy, adrenaline charged nerves.
Constable Michaels stood closely beside her, tall and imposing to anyone that might be lurking in the shadows. Had the smoking man disappeared after he'd seen him, or was he still in the shadows, waiting to see what would happen next? Who had he been? The rapist? And who was this Constable Michaels? She tried to think the situation through, but her blood was still pumping loudly in her ears and her stomach was twisted in knots. It was hard to think.
"Wow," Karen managed to say. "This is such good luck. There really is a special division working on those reports, then? I had heard that," she said. "Project Mahoney, right? Named after that poor woman?"
"Um." He faltered for a moment. "Yes. Project Mahoney."
With practiced efficiency, Karen whipped her handcuffs out of the side pocket of her gym bag and snapped them with merciless strength on to his closest wrist.
"What are you doing!" the man squealed, dumbfounded.
She yanked his other wrist behind him and the man winced from the sharp snap of the metal. Now she had him by the handcuffs, pulling his arms backwards to straining point and applying just enough pressure to the back of his locked elbows that he would think twice about any sudden movement. She longed for her .38 Smith and Wesson, but she never carried it when she was off duty.
"My name is Constable Mahoney," she declared, slightly breathless. "And you are under arrest. You have the right to remain silent…"
His mouth gaped, his whole body rigid with shock. Or perhaps it was the threat of those broken elbows that kept him so still?
Now footsteps were coming hard, echoing up the passage. The other man, the smoker, was running towards them, emerging out of the shadows a few metres away, cigarette still in hand.
"Hey, are you okay?"
"Who are you?" Constable Mahoney demanded, keeping a steady grip on her suspect.
"I'm Hugh, Penny's boyfriend." He slowed down when he saw that she had the man handcuffed, and stopped a few feet away, giving her space. His wide eyes were fixed on the cuffs. So, the smoking man had been waiting for Penny, the self-defence instructor.
"That's right," he said under his breath, more to himself than to her. "She said you were a cop…"
"Oh shit-" her suspected mumbled, shaking his head. "Shit, shit, shit…"
"Where is Penny?" Karen asked.
"She's just coming now."
She was. Karen could see her jogging down the alley towards them.
Ten minutes later, Constable Mahoney arrived at her work with Penny, Hugh, and the bewildered police impersonator who was now claiming that his name was 'Roger.' He was not carrying any ID, but a fingerprint search would no doubt reveal all they needed to know.
"What've we got here?" Constable Dick exclaimed as they made an entrance. He got up from his messy detective's desk and stood with his hands on his hips. "The Pee Wee's got some action? Aren't you off duty, little lady?" he said.
Pee Wee. PW. Policewoman. Is it so hard to say 'Constable'?
"Get stuffed, Dick," she said coolly and turned instead to Sergeant Cassimatis. "I've got a suspect here. He decided to follow me down a back alley and impersonate an officer to get me to go to my car with him. Go ahead and tell them about Project Mahoney, Roger," she said, prodding him. But her prisoner had nothing to say now. He stared limply at the floor. Clearly he knew he was busted.
"Project Mahoney?"
"Yes, and I'm sure he'll want to tell us about the nice little switchblade and the plastic ties in his pocket, too. You had some trash you were planning on tying up?" she asked, spreading the items out on the table. They would be marked and labelled in plastic evidence bags. Cassimatis took the man and hauled him away.
"I was waiting for Penny when I saw you go down that alley," Hugh rambled. "I thought…I dunno…I just wanted to see if you were okay. I had a funny feeling."
It was possible that 'Constable Michaels' could have been from another precinct, but something about it just didn't feel right, not least the fact that he didn't voluntarily present his police badge. His lies had not put Karen's nerves at ease, and if there was one thing the Police Academy and those self-defence classes consistently taught, it was to trust your gut feeling, especially in dangerous situations.
"I gotta say. Good police work, Karen."
"Police work? More like intuition. From now on I really will trust my instincts when those alarm bells start ringing, just like you always say in the class."
Penny nodded. "It pays to listen to your intuition. It's not there for nothin'."
So much for the hot bath and the sleep, Karen thought. It would be a night of interrogation and police line-ups now.
She smiled to herself.
Karen Mahoney wouldn't have it any other way.
* * *
- Karen Mahoney features in Tara's crime novels, Fetish and Covet, featuring forensic student and part-time fashion model Makedde Vanderwall.
Intuition, by Tara Moss
Copyright Tara Moss 2003. No reproduction without permission.
Copyright © 2003 Tara MossWarning: main(../ssi/wrap_bot.php) [function.main]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/sftproot/home/taramoss/www/novels/intuition.php on line 115
Warning: main() [function.include]: Failed opening '../ssi/wrap_bot.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/share/php') in /home/sftproot/home/taramoss/www/novels/intuition.php on line 115