Hell's Rayne (Book 1)

Chapter 4

Ducked below the small rectangle of glass that broke up the flat surface of the staffroom door, I kept an ear pressed against the wood and waited, until I heard the distant click of the dressing room door as it closed. No more voices came from inside the room; though Red was probably still in there, inspecting her nails or perhaps moved on to preening her hair by that time. Shane and the Waif – Evie, I supposed I had to call her now – must have moved on through to the very back of the club.

 Straightening back up, I stole a quick glance in through the window. Sure enough Red was alone; the glow from a mobile phone illuminated her face, the same bored expression painted her features. She probably wouldn't even notice if I passed straight back through the room in pursuit of my target, or at the very least wouldn't care, but I couldn't, not just yet. They had only just left the room, if I followed too soon they'd notice I was stalking them and my whole opportunity to complete this case would be blown.

 I presumed that Shane would lead Evie deeper into the mass of back rooms that the club held, the pretence of the 'grand tour' was a good one. I'd seen, once or twice, that there were quite a number of barely used rooms back there, most stocked for storage and others seemingly empty.

 Information in his case file suggested that Shane favoured the club as his killing ground, it was the main reason I had chosen to target him at his place of work, so it made sense to me that there would be one back room out there that he favoured, his own little inner sanctum. But which one and where would I find it was the most pressing of questions. Staff rarely ventured past the storeroom filled with bar snacks and dusty Coke cans, all save for Shane. Finding them was going to require a little exploration on my part, and I was so tempted to burst through the door and hurry after them to make my own job that little bit simpler.

 With my forehead pressed against the cool wood of the door I dragged in several steadying breaths. Come on, bide your time Rayne. You know how to play this game. I told myself.

 One long, gruelling and sleep deprived week in that dump and I could almost have allowed near a centuries worth of experience in the job to slip through my fingers in my eagerness to escape the place. I had to give Shane time to get things rolling on his own – I couldn't very well hold him at knife point and force him to kill her, couldn't infringe on freewill. Some gentle coercion was at my disposal, but it would only work when the time was right and for that I would need to wait.

 I was pretty certain that Shane wouldn't need any convincing to fuck Evie, but I wasn't completely certain he would be so quick to kill her, not without a little persuasion. So I had to hope that I could catch them at it and without them noticing me in the process. If they managed to catch me following them, or watching them? Well, it would certainly embody the phrase 'killing the moment'.

 Patience, unfortunately, really wasn't a virtue of mine – probably why one week on that job had started to feel like a lifetime – and I was physically itching to get after them. The imminent completion of my case had the adrenaline pumping and my mind felt active and alive again. I needed to get my feet moving, ease off some of the rising tension so that I didn't rush in, hot-headed, and have the whole situation blow up in my face.

 To give myself something to do, to occupy those few minutes that I needed to wait, I turned back towards the bar. I should probably go and tell Alex that I wasn't going to be back to help him serve drinks again that night...or ever. I felt a little bad about leaving him in the lurch, and part of me couldn't stand to leave without offering some kind of explanation, and saying goodbye.

 My short, ten minute break had been over sometime ago, as Shane had made a point of telling me, and Alex was already searching for me across the room as I turned to face the crowd. I found his gaze and he raised an eyebrow at me as our eyes met, an amused smile quirked his lips even despite the frown that pinched the middle of his brow. I realised then that I must have appeared to be acting rather peculiarly, huddled against the staffroom door; how many curious and confused glances had I managed to attract? Though, to be honest, I was beyond caring about keeping up appearances now that the end was almost touchable. I shrugged my shoulders at Alex's quizzical expression and started to make my way across the room.