Fair Warning

Prologue

She liked his car. It was the first time she had been in an electric. All she could hear was the wind as they cut through the night.

“So quiet,” she said.

Only two words and she had slurred them. The third Cosmo had done something to her tongue.

“It’ll sneak up on you,” the driver said. “That’s for sure.”

He looked over at her and smiled. But she thought he was just checking on her because she had messed up her words.

He then turned and nodded through the windshield.

“We’re here,” he said. “Is there parking?”

“You can park behind my car,” she said. “I have two spaces in the garage but they’re like... one behind the other. Totem, I think it’s called.”

“Tandem?”

“Oh, right, right. Tandem.”

She started to laugh at her mistake, a spiral laugh she couldn’t get out of. The Cosmos again. And the drops from the green pharmacy she took before heading out in the Uber that night.

The man lowered his window and crisp evening air invaded the comfort of the car.

“Can you remember the combo?” he asked.

Tina pulled herself up in the seat so she could look around better and get her bearings. She recognized that they were already outside the garage gate at her apartment. That didn’t seem right. She could not remember telling him where she lived.

“The combo?” he asked again.

The keypad was on the wall and within reach from the driver’s window. She realized that she knew the combo that would open the gate but she could not remember the name of the man she had chosen to take home.

“4-6-8-2-5.”

As he punched the numbers in she tried not to laugh again. Some guys really hated that.

They entered the garage and she pointed to the spot where he could pull in behind her Mini. Soon they were on the elevator and she pushed the correct button and then leaned into him for support. He put his arm around her and held her up.

“Do you have a nickname?” she asked.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Like, what do people call you? You know, for fun.”

He shook his head.

“I guess they just call me by my name,” he said.

No help there. She dropped it. She could figure out his name later, but the truth was she probably wouldn’t need it. There would be no later. There almost never was.

The door opened on the third floor and she led him into the hallway. Her apartment was two doors down.

The sex was good but not extraordinary. The only thing unusual was that he didn’t push back against her requirement of a condom. He had even brought his own. Kudos for that but she still thought he would be a one-timer. The search for that indescribable thing that would fill up the emptiness inside would go on.

After he flushed the condom he got back into bed with her. She was hoping for an excuse — early start in the morning, wife waiting at home, anything — but he wanted to get back in bed and cuddle. He roughly moved in behind her and turned her so her back was against his chest. He had shaved himself and she could feel the tiny spikes of returning hair pricking her back.

“You know...”

She got no further with the complaint. He pivoted his body and now she was on her back completely on top of him. His chest was like sandpaper. His arm came around from behind her and he bent it at the elbow into a V. He then used his free hand to push her neck into the V. He tightened his arms and she felt her air passages collapse. She could not yell for help. She had no air to make a sound. She struggled but her legs were tangled in the sheets and he was too strong. His hold on her neck was an iron vise.

Darkness began shading the edges of her vision. He raised his head off the bed and brought his mouth to her ear.

“People call me the Shrike,” he whispered.