Having no clue just how tightly wound he'd become, twenty-nine year old Landon Ashby nearly reached for the loaded gun in his interior breast pocket when the heavy, ornate wooden door in front of him swung open. Thankfully he'd stopped his right hand in mid air before he ventilated a completely innocent young girl in the doorway of her parent's home.
"...Oh...Hi...," Landon's voice quivered, his murderous rage suddenly discombobulated by the sight of the pretty teenager standing in front of him.
Trying in vain to gather his tongue, Landon could hear another set of footsteps approaching from inside.
"...Is your Dad home?" was all he could think of to say.
Before the youngster could answer, an older and tad taller replica of her stepped into view.
"No...he's gone over to a friend's house...its his card game tonight," Maureen Cameron interjected, shooing her daughter away in a polite but certain 'Mother-Hen' gesture.
"Do you live around here?" she asked once she'd ensured the safety of her child.
"...Actually...uh... no...," Landon stammered, his original game plan now strewn like thousands of random and mismatched puzzle pieces on the ground below.
"...I sort of know him from work...," he was finally able to latch his eyes on the older woman's and offer.
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As of 11:15 the following morning, Landon Ashby's hands weren't those of a killer. In fact, they were cradling a two month old copy of People as he sat in Dr. Cameron's office lobby, waiting for him to finish with his wife, Lisa's root canal.
Considering how slow things had been at work with the slumping economy, Landon had no problem getting the day off, and was more than happy to be there during Lisa's time of need.
Scanning the room, trying to get a feel for his surroundings every few minutes, Landon would size up the other folks waiting in the lobby along with the two office women working behind the glass partition. Every once in awhile he'd also steal a peek outside to see who might be pulling into the parking lot. Content for the moment all was well, he'd then dip his head back into the magazine and scan through the outdated tabloid fodder.
Checking his watch every so often, Landon estimated his wife had been in surgery for around a half an hour when a very attractive woman in her early 40's walked through the front door of the office as if she owned the place.
In a roundabout way, she sort of did.
"Oh...Hello Mrs. Cameron," one of the chipper girls behind the glass quickly greeted the wife of the office's owner.
"Hey Tamara...I know Ned's with a patient. Was just going to meet him for lunch and I'm early...I'll just take a seat," Maureen Cameron said in a hushed tone that matched the staid surroundings in perfect pitch.
Giving a casual smile to everyone waiting in the lobby, Maureen took a seat opposite Landon near the back of the waiting area.
Tossing the magazine in his hands down to the coffee table, Landon returned the married woman's smile before picking up another to thumb through.
If there was a blessing, Dr. Cameron had stopped taking adolescent patients a few years earlier. The last thing a child needed was to be witness to what was about to happen.
Surveying the assorted gallery in the room, the dentist's wife was seated directly across from him, an agitated woman in her mid 50's was to Maureen Cameron's right, most likely dealing with an abscess of some sort. There was one gruff looking older man to Landon's left who seemed to ooze reproach with each dagger of his gaze.
"He should get a real kick out of this," Landon thought merrily.
Then there were the two girls working behind the glass of the office. Those obviously would be the wildcards in a few precious moments.
Checking his watch one last time, Landon eased forward and dropped the magazine back down on the coffee table running down the center of the waiting room. Softly rapping his knuckles twice on the surface of the table before leaning back into his seat, Landon took a deep breath and locked eyes with Mrs. Cameron as she stood up, seemingly on cue, and began walking around the table to where he was seated.
The other two older folks waiting in the lobby barely looked up when the pretty, well tanned lady with dark blonde hair stood up and made her way around the table.
"Just walking over to grab a gossip rag to read," they would have most certainly thought.