‘PAYBACK TIME’
© Mesmerr
3
By the time Jamie was halfway through the second week of watching the woman journalist, he reckoned he had her weak spot figured out, as well. He was happy and had thought to be almost finished his surveillance of her, earlier than the two weeks allocated.
It had been only his own discipline that had kept him determined to see the two weeks fully utilised. In following her, he had filled his car with petrol twice in the first week.
The woman was everywhere and anywhere, from one minute to the next, in the course of her job with the newspaper. In this second week, he had that morning, filled his car for the second time that week.
Her walk was strong and confident, almost arrogant, in the way she strode out purposefully, as she walked. Her head was always held very high, as though very aware of her own self-presence.
She was never in any one place for longer than an hour, except when she went to the gym, which she did, after work, four times a week, or when she went to a secluded beach.
Her after-work activities were a little more subdued, in that, she rarely left the apartment, in which she lived alone, to go anywhere, much, except when being taken out by a man. They would always go to the same place, an apartment on the other side of town, from which, a few hours later in the evening, he would always then drive her back to her own place.
On the weekend, she had stayed in, most of the first day, and had not gone out on the Saturday night. On the Sunday, she had gone for a quiet drive to the beach where he had watched her just sit on the sand and read a book for a few hours. Then she had gone home, not to emerge again, before midnight. Jamie had then gone home, himself.
He was not interested in what they did after midnight, presuming that they would be asleep.
Through the days and nights of following her, Jamie recalled, often, the several dehumanising newspaper articles she had written about him. His blood had boiled, making him even more determined to find her weak spot.
Now, he believed he had, but it had meant he would have to see the week’s surveillance on her continue through, until Sunday. He would know it for sure then. Then she would really have a story to write, one day, ‘if’ she had the balls to do it.