Perfume

Chapter One - Les Yeux Verts

Belladonna Strikes Again, read the front-page headline. 

     Picking up the newspaper, I handed a five dollar bill to the vendor without taking my eyes off the paper. I hefted my satchel up my shoulder, the paper still in my hands, and tried to evade the oncoming hoard of people that plagued the city sidewalk while still reading the newspaper. I failed, almost colliding with two people, but a quick movement saved me from that impact. Sighing, I read through the article one more time, scrutinizing the page as if it hid a secret message between the lines.

     Belladonna Strikes Again.

     The Belladonna had killed again. The victim: John H. Kelly, a rich business man. Another man. Another wealthy man. And even though the article didn’t say it, I knew he had died of Belladonna poisoning. 

     They all had. 

     Even though the plant was extinct. Even though it’d been extinct for years. No one had any idea how in the hell she’d been able to obtain the poison. 

     It was this plant that had earned her the name of Belladonna.

     My shoulder collided against someone else, distracting me from my reading. I glanced up, hot-faced, just as a tall man with dark curly hair and thick eye brows gave me a scowl and muttered, “Watch where you’re going kid.” I nodded and looked back down at the paper. 

     I looked up from the paper. People were going back and forth along the sidewalk, talking on their phones or sending a quick text. I looked around, my eyes searching every face for one particular one. It took me a minute to find her, in the middle of the crowd, long, light blond hair and blue eyes. She wore a black coat, her hands inside its pockets. She, too, was glancing around, probably looking for me. 

     I smiled. "Mandy!" I yelled. 

     Mindy immediately turned toward me. She frowned, her eyes zeroing on the paper in my hands. She elbowed her way through the crowd and raised her eye brows once she reached me. 

     "Belladonna?" she asked as fell into step with me. 

     I nodded.

     "Who?"

     "John H. Kelly."

     "So what’s the story this time?” she asked, taking the paper away from me. “Was the poison found in his food, mixed with his drink, maybe even coating him lips this time?”

     I shrugged. “Don’t know. It doesn’t say. I wonder who she’s going to kill next.”

     "This is all a game to you,” Mandy said, shaking her head. “That woman is murdering people. Three kills. Three men so far. She's dangerous. You could be the next victim. And yet you talk about all this like this a horror movie and you’re trying to guess which bastard is going to be killed next."

     I chuckled. "That's kind of how it is."

     "You're such a boy, Linden."

     "I am a boy."

     Mandy sighed, giving me back the paper. "She's plaguing the city, Linden."

     I shook my head. "Mandy, there's just something about her. Something so intriguing. She's just so...so...so mysterious. No one knows who she is or how she manages to kill all these guys with an extinct plant. No one knows who she's after, exactly. She's a mystery that might never be solved. She's like cat woman. Sleek and mysterious."

     "It almost sounds like you're in love with her," Mandy muttered with spite. “Like you think she’s the most beautiful flower in the garden.”