Light filtered through the lowered mini blinds creating golden lines on the heavy wood desk. In the center of the desk was a worn leather journal. A thin female hand caressed the rough leather, tracing over the insignia on the cover.
The owner of the hand was an attractive blond haired woman who sat at the desk staring intently at the book. This book was her only souvenir of the man who ruined her life today. Her index finger hooked around the leather band the encircled the book and rotated it so the small silver lock binding the book closed faced her. She shifted her weight in the chair and felt a small key press against the soft lower curve of her right breast. She should hate the man who left this journal in her hands, but she didn't. She hadn't loved her life enough to grieve for it's sudden downfall.
Her eyes scanned the small neat apartment she had occupied for the last five years. It seemed alien to her now, part of a past life. The book in front of her was the passage to a new existence but she wasn't quite ready to open it. She felt a need to reexamine her past, as one would the life of a dear friend who had passed away suddenly, to see if the death had been necessary, if it could have been avoided.
Her mind slipped back several hours. She was dressed in her cute little pleated black skirt and simple red sweater. A brass nametag was pinned to her chest. Leeda Kiesly, associate librarian, it read. She was putting away some returned reference volumes when she noticed him at the end of the aisle watching her. He was tall and elegantly dressed. Except for the sparkle in his blue eyes, he could easily have been one of the older professors that frequented her library. But those youthful blue eyes watched every movement of her body in intimate detail and did not belong on the face of the distinguished white haired man that leaned against the bookshelf with a cane hooked over his arm. Though he was too old to interest her, there was something about him that appealed to Leeda. There was a swagger from self-confidence, hard won, and a look that said he would never take to growing old gracefully.
"Are you looking for something?" Leeda asked using the smile that had charmed her out of a lot of situations. He smiled in return and nodded but didn't speak.
"Can I help you find it?" she prompted.
"I don't know" was his cryptic answer. She waited to see if he had any further information to offer. He didn't answer. He just kept looking at her, especially her legs. It was starting to make her uncomfortable. She shrugged her shoulders, offered a helpful smile and said, "Well let me know if there is anything I can do."
"I will," he replied.
