Chapter 36

I could not believe it. It was as if the planets aligned or something. There, in full view, I made out Agent Carter chatting with Leona. I’ve been watching Leona since she started working at Aunt Betty’s Café. I try and avoid that eatery as often as possible. You see, the servers there are very friendly with the sheriff’s department. I see them making special deliveries. All the cartons specially sealed to avoid tampering. It makes me laugh. I could easily inject poison through a carton if I really wanted to—but the sheriff and her deputies aren’t my targets. Killing is an artform, but my special skill is making it appear to be someone else.

It was only by chance that I happened to be in the Cattleman’s Hotel bar and noticed Carter. He’s known around town, and with his FBI jacket and Doberman at his side, he’s a hard one to miss. I watched him play pool along with a few of the locals. He was openly chatting about his vacation and his cabin in the woods. He’d planned to go off the grid and joked about dropping into town only for pizza and supplies. He was perfect and making myself resemble him was too easy. We have many characteristics the same. I needed to add some highlights to my hair, which was easy enough—women do it all the time—and then it took a change of clothes, a pair of snakeskin boots, and shades. In my new persona, many people assume I’m him. I tried the disguise a few times, even dining at his favorite restaurant. He’d been there three times since he’d arrived in town and servers in Antlers even called me Agent Carter at one time. I made sure to pay in cash. A credit card would have given the game away.

Now, you may ask me why I picked Leona this time. She’s divorced and I just happened to have run into her—literally outside Aunt Betty’s Café. She was coming out carrying a to-go cup and walked right into me, spilling the coffee. I apologized, mainly because she had tears in her eyes, and I love a vulnerable woman. I asked her to wait and I’d replace the coffee. I purchased one myself and, seeing her distressed, offered to walk to the park opposite with her, saying that sitting in the quiet park was a good way to gather herself. We sat talking for a time. She sure talked up a storm, telling me about her divorce and how her husband cheated on her, and how she needed to work two jobs to keep the house—blah, blah, blah.

Dressed in my work clothes, I probably didn’t smell so good and all she needed was a sympathetic ear. It was a long hour of wasted time because the moment I offered to meet her for coffee again sometime, she looked at me as if I were last night’s leftovers and shook her head. I mean, really? One long hour of listening to her moaning and she couldn’t give me the same in return. When I watched her toss her coffee into the trash, blow her nose, and walk away without so much as a “thank you,” the need to remove another heartless woman from existence became an obsession. From then on, Leona became my priority. I needed to know everything about her. Where she worked, where she lived, her schedule, and when I could get to her. It sure is easy when people stick to a schedule. I can spend all the time in the world, making sure when the time comes I can just walk into their house and… well, you’ll find out soon enough.

I just need a little more time to make sure Agent Carter is a suspect without an alibi. The CCTV footage the media has been requested was collected and uploaded to a server. That was their first mistake but a big break for me. Ah, I see I have your attention now. Don’t worry, give me time and everything will become clear. I’ve waited and watched Agent Carter because they say everything comes to people who wait, and the stars aligned when I walked past Aunt Betty’s Café and there, right before my eyes, was Leona in her new job. Agent Carter was chatting with her and she was smiling. Her fate is sealed. Remember that I’m not responsible for what happens next. It’s her fault she’s going to die.