“Something’s wrong, something’s terribly wrong and I just know it,” she thought as she hurried down the dark, empty alleyway.
Her employer might not totally agree with her, but she knew that if she didn’t get this story on his desk by morning, he’d fire her. She also knew he wouldn’t care about the danger she’d be placing herself in if she didn’t deliver what he needed. He was a ruthless businessman who thought only of himself.
Her footsteps echoed here in the empty and gloomy silence. She knew she sounded like she was a teenager sneaking out of the house for a midnight rendezvous. She was thirty-six, but that didn’t matter. She’d decided a long time ago that she was going to do things her way or not at all. That happened a lot with her. She’d made a lot of choices that told people she couldn’t be manipulated, that she could be willful. She was glad she’d always been able to do that. She needed to do that now on this assignment.
She was going to get the scoop of the decade, a reporter's dream. She’d have to keep the million-dollar diamonds she was going to get for this story to herself, of course. She also knew she was going to have to deal with the mob to get them, too. She didn’t mind at all. She wanted to keep herself out of the limelight this time. She’d had enough of it lately.
She was going to have to get in contact with the hunter who was after these diamonds for himself and she wasn’t looking forward to that at all. She knew he was going to want her to follow him around for as long as possible and she wasn’t certain she could handle all this right now. Her nerves were shot and she was more exhausted than she had ever been in her whole life. She did a good job of hiding the fact she was worn out from her job. She was good at that, but she wasn’t as good at hiding the fact she was just plain worn out. No one had been able to see that in a long time and she was fine with that. She’d had a lot of distractions lately, though, things that had told her it was time to settle down.
She was doing her best to do that now. She hadn’t been able to succeed in it as well as she’d wanted. She had been looking for something for months now. She’d always had a burning desire to get out of Chicago, after growing up here, but had stayed home to make it as a reporter because of family obligations. She’d been trying to make a change. She’d finally decided to go for it this time.
It had all seemed to happen at once, though. She’d been having the strangest feeling in the back of her mind that she needed to get out of Chicago and see someplace different. It had come to a head the night she found out some of her friends were throwing a party for a good friend and she hadn’t been able to go.
Her friend had been widowed six months ago and needed someone else to have her back tonight, or at least her friends felt that way. She’d tried to let her friends know that she really wasn’t feeling well, but she’d had a hard time finding the words to tell them she really just didn’t want to go out that night.
She hated to act like a third wheel, especially with this group of friends. They were some of the only friends she had. Her brother, Tony, was in jail and most of her other friends really hadn’t kept up with her when he was in jail. She didn’t blame them either. He’d been gone for years and she was coping, or trying to cope.
She could afford her own place now and had moved out of her brother’s apartment. She still kept in touch with her family and sent him some money. He had nothing to do now with anything she was doing in her life. It wasn’t fair, but that was what seemed to happen when you went into county jail.
She hadn’t been as involved in her family and friends since she’d been living on her own. She figured that was the reason she’d felt the need to come to Chicago. She was tired of having to keep up with everyone else’s problems.
She had landed this job just after she’d gotten here and she’d already been planning to get out of Chicago after the first few months at least. Now she was on the verge of being unemployed. Not her first rodeo. She’d half-succumbed to every job she had ever had except this one. That one was just too big a temptation for her to turn down. She would have to go back to her family and friends. She wasn’t really ready to do that. For now, this job was bringing her more home than ever before.
She was weary when she got to the lobby of the hotel the diamonds had been stolen from last night. She was also worried about being spotted by the people who had robbed the place. She had managed to get a picture of one of the people involved in the crime ring, but only on the sly. She knew the mob who had robbed the place was going to make sure no one could trace them. They didn’t want to be traced because there were too many outstanding warrants for the people’s arrest in a great deal of states.
They would go so far as to kill all involved in this crime. She knew that. They still had some law, at least for now. The city was having such a problem with them the State had finally called in the National Guard. Even with that, they hadn’t been able to control the mob.
This woman’s employer was going to do whatever it took to get this story for the Star, the biggest paper in the city. He would pay to get it, too. He’d been panicking about this. She knew she had to get this scoop no matter what happened. She had to do it for her career. She had a lot of great things coming her way, especially if she followed this trail. She just had to keep her person a secret, that was all. That shouldn’t be too hard.
She got off the elevator and walked over to the desk to see if there was anything she could find out. Just as she started to get off the elevator, she heard voices and couldn’t help but take a closer look. She had already pulled out her phone and snapped a picture before she knew what she was doing.
She was trying to get closer to the door to see what was going on. She’d decided that if there was anything to see, she would get the picture and head back to her room. She didn’t want to risk being seen here. She didn’t know how to do it in a way that would make it look like she had been part of it, but she knew she had to try something that would make her look innocent. She wasn’t sure she could do that, though.
She didn’t know how long she was standing there, either, trying to get a better look at the people coming out of the elevator. She finally realized someone must have seen her. She turned around quickly.