Prelude

Standing up, I looked at the blood that pooled on the white tiles and into the dark grout that the body laid atop. I averted my eyes from the body, focusing on the small little dots on the white tile instead, just before the blood-covered them up with dark red. Sighing, I heard a dog outside start to howl. It was far enough away–thank goodness. No one wants to put down a dog, not even a hitman. The wind outside was starting to pick up as the night grew darker and colder. December was my favorite month of the year. Not because of Christmas or New Year—though they were great don't get me wrong. But the weather… that was my favorite part. Winter beginning.

If I had to pick a season that was most like me, it would be Winter. I liked the rain, the cold wind. But winter could also be pretty—people put out nice decorations, the snow flitted down for kids to make angels. Winter was magical. And I liked to think of myself as something pretty like that. But… no one was.

Certainly not this poor woman that lay dead on this white tile floor. She was pitiful, yes. Looked like a model for sure, her teeth shining white, her hair perfect, and her breasts firm and perky. But she was dead. Which was pitiful.

But now I had another fifty thousand to add to my savings, which was great. I needed it. And this woman, Elise was her name, she was going to die one way or another what with a husband who didn't want to give away half his life earnings—which was in the millions. If he didn't hire me, some other person would have done the job.

So why not me? I chose this life. And she chose hers.

I look down and sigh once again as the dog howls outside again. Just don't wake anyone up, doggie, I think to myself. I take my 'go bag' and pull out the tarp, laying it flat on the floor next to Elise's body. Gently I roll her over onto the tarp next. I then finally wrap the tarp around her with zip ties and start to drag her body from the kitchen to the garage door of her home. My legs strain, and my lower back aches, but I muscle on. Gently lowering her body to the garage floor, I then open the back of the SUV.

"Now comes the hard part," I say out loud to myself. Bending with my knees, I take grasp of Elise inside the tarp and spend the next thirty or so seconds maneuvering her deadweight into the SUV. With her finally inside, I close the door and roll my shoulders and neck trying to loosen up the stress that bundled up there. More relaxed, I head back inside and start the cleanup process. The husband said he would send a crew himself, I told him, yeah sure, go ahead. But I always clean up my scenes myself. I couldn't trust others, especially not with this.

A few trips back and forth to get things straight, I finally was able to start cleaning all the blood away. I didn't think it would get so messy, but Elise struggled more than I thought she would. She was also stronger than I imagined a woman her size would be. So instead of shooting her with my lovely and sexy Ruger 22 LR with SR22 silencer attached, I had to use a good old-fashioned kitchen knife. She managed to knock the gun out of my hand by accident—which took me by surprise. But I was quick to think fast, snatched the knife, and went for the back of her shoulder first—stabbing three times. She fell and not wanting her to suffer, I slit her carotid artery from side to side. Hearing–the gurgling noises the body makes can be haunting to some–her bleed out in less than maybe two minutes, gave me enough time to realize that the mess this made would cost me more time than I planned for.

I could still take my time of course, but the security for the rich block Elise lived on was supposed to roll around at ten-fifteen on this street and it was already ten o'clock. Grumbling under my breath once again, I reached up and straightened my baseball cap, and glanced at the kitchen one more time. Everything was put back in its place, perfectly. The tile gleamed as shiny and pristine as it did before. It was probably too clean actually, but I'd rather there be no evidence at all even if it did look a little suspicious.

The husband wanted the wife to be 'lost at sea' so I had to get going quickly to make it to the boat soon where he had paid someone handsomely (hopefully not more than myself though, or I'd be vindictive about it), to ferry myself and the body out a few miles from shore. I didn't have to go, but I wanted to make sure I saw what was done with Elise. I killed her after all. I needed to make sure that everything went perfectly.

So I headed back out to the garage with my things and made the twenty-minute drive from uptown Seattle in Broadview to the Edmonds area where their marina beach park was, which was close to my actual destination, the Port of Edmonds.

About twenty minutes later, I pulled up to the port parking lot and waited five minutes for my contact person to come to find me. I didn't make any calls—we were on a strict schedule, which I did fuck up royally. But I did send the correct signal by flashing my headlights towards docks E-F three times.

I didn't have a phone on me anyway. If shit went sideways, I had a backup plan to take care of Elise on my terms. But the contact showed up anyways. I put my black dust mask on my face, the kind that a surgeon might wear, but mine was made of fabric and black to match my black sweater, gray jacket, and black jeans. I didn't want this person seeing my face at all, so I settled with letting them see my eyes if they could in this darkness.

"You Alex?" The man said to me after I finally rolled my window down to let him see me.

"Yeah," it wasn't, it was the fake name I gave the husband Albert. "The package is in the back; do you have a cart, Gary?"

I asked because I didn't see one around. "No, we have to do this the hard way, unfortunately," the man said, his gray eyebrows furrowing slightly. I looked him up and down and hoped that he would be able to hold more weight than myself as I wasn't a religious gym attendee. Getting out of the SUV, I helped Gary—probably not his real name either—get Elise out of the back of the trunk.

"Nice job on the zip ties here," Gary commented as we struggled to lift her body out of the vehicle.

"A cart would have been preferred, Gary. The cameras have been taken care of, right?"

"Roger that Alex. Already on a loop thanks to Albert's friends." Gary then stumbled slightly, forcing some of Elise's weight on me, almost causing me to fall over. Rolling my eyes, I steadied her body and continued the trek towards the dock. Less than five minutes later, we finally had her on the boat's deck. Gary headed over to the helm and started the engine, taking us slowly out to sea. I looked around and spotted the extra anchors and ropes that was set up to tie onto Elise and got right to work. Making sure my gloves were secure, I made quick work on the job. When I was done I noticed we were at least three miles from shore, the waves already rocking the boat around making me feel seasick.

And of course, it had to start raining. It was always rainy in Seattle. While I loved the rain most days, during a job on a boat out at sea… it wasn't the most pleasant time for rain. We spent another five minutes heading out to sea. We didn't have hours to head out to the Pacific greater ocean area, so Albert said leaving her body tied down with anchors in the Puget Sound would have to do.

And so, we dropped her. Her body quickly sinking into the dark stormy depths of the ocean below. "Well Alex, it was a pleasure working with you."

I then turned to Gary, "You as well Gary." There was a moment of pause as we stared at each other and I tilted my head sideways at him. Before he could reach for whatever it was he was reaching for in his bag next to his seat, I pulled out my gun and shot him right underneath his chin. He nearly tumbled over, but I reached out to grab a hold on his shirt collar and pulled him in towards me. I tossed him sideways onto the deck and then shot him once more, right in the heart just to be sure. Making quick work, I tied up his feet with another rope attaching the anchor to the rope. It took me much longer to get his anchor and him overboard, but Gary looked like he was going to kill me to take credit for the whole job.

I was not gonna let that happen. Plus, Albert suggested to me if I offed him, I'd get another fifty thousand for the job. The fewer people that were witnesses and accessories the better for him.

I then took the helm and started to turn the boat around to head back to the docks. Now I had more cleaning up to do.

Just lovely.

Hopefully, this winter rain would wash most of the blood away.