A New Obsession

Stalker

The rest of the day passed uneventfully. Danny stayed at home the remainder of the afternoon because the rain was returning again, harder this time.

He wrote another rhetorical story with an update on the case, including the picture of Kennedy focusing on the documents in the station. He wrote about the hard work the dedicated police force was putting in to catch the brutal, heartless killer, and the rest of the sob story everyone wanted to hear. He submitted it via email, then returned to his research. There had to be something on the internet about this man.

But when all he had was a relatively common last name to go by, he couldn't find anything. Danny tried searching by image, but all the results were just stock photos of white collar men stressing over paperwork, and a couple ads for brown leather jackets. It seemed he needed more information in order to get more information. How ironic.

Danny sighed, grabbed his jacket, and reluctantly conceded to the necessity of an umbrella. It was absolutely pouring outside but he had work to do. The heavy rain quickly soaked through Danny's pants as he trudged down the sidewalks, along with the few other unlucky souls who were cursed with obligations.

The sleek black car was in the same place as the previous evening. Danny put his head down and walked slowly by it from across the street. When he got to the corner and Kennedy still had not made his appearance, Danny made a small loop and returned. The blur and dim lighting caused by the rain and the fast approaching evening would allow him to easily blend in with the surrounding pedestrians, but he wouldn't make more than three passes, just in case the driver was paying attention.

Fortunately enough, favor smiled on Danny today. His timing was precise as usual, and he had correctly guessed when Kennedy would emerge from the building to climb into the car. Danny began walking in the direction he knew the car would head, picking up his pace slightly and hoping to follow the car at least a couple of blocks. After a few seconds when he had not been overtaken already, he looked over his shoulder and saw the car driving in the opposite direction. Well, that was an inconvenience. Danny quickly faced forward again and continued walking briskly, trying to decide what to do with this unexpected change in events.

Did they see Danny stalking the car already? Even after he had only turned around once? That was absurd, there was no way. He could easily have just forgotten something at home and turned around to retrieve it. Even if they did recognize him.

Maybe they just actually were going somewhere else this time? Maybe Kennedy was having the driver take him somewhere for dinner tonight. In fact, maybe that's where they were going yesterday too, and Danny was wrong about which hotel Kennedy was at.

Or perhaps they just took a different route to the hotel every day to throw off potential followers? But who is even that paranoid? He could probably defend himself easily even if he was- even if he knew he was being followed. It was also entirely possible that Danny was just overthinking this. He did tend to let his mind run rampant when things didn't go as expected. He took a deep breath and wandered around a few nearby blocks, just to see if they happened to turn back on these streets, but he didn't run into the car again. That didn't necessarily mean that they didn't circle around and head back again. But it also didn't necessarily mean anything else either. Danny groaned and ran his fingers through his hair. This was going to be even more complicated than he had originally anticipated. He stopped by his favorite fast food place and grabbed a chicken taco, then continued down the street, munching distractedly.

A sudden chill ran down Danny's spine, and he looked around in a slight panic, choking on his bite of food. He tended to trust his instincts, and someone was definitely looking at him. He caught a glance of something familiar through the window of the building he was standing next to, and peered through the rain-spattered glass trying to focus his gaze through the blurry fog. Sitting at a rowing machine, actively exercising, probably with an ungodly amount of weights, was Kennedy. Just- right there, right in front of Danny. He hadn't even realized he was next to the gym, he was so caught up in his thoughts.