Ashes

Light filtered through the window hitting Fallon in the face, forcing her to wake up.

“Ugh!” she groaned as the light entered her sensitive eyes.

Her head was pounding and her throat felt raw from her spewing her guts out. She had definitely drunk too much the night before and the hangover she was having consumed her. She lay on her bed not wanting to move an inch for fear of instigating another ache in her body. She had to call in sick today. She groaned when she realised that she couldn’t. Reluctantly Fallon got out of bed and went to get ready for work.

Fallon Blackmore had been through a lot of tough situations but the toughest happened in Langdonville a year ago. She had since relocated to Raleigh, North Carolina and worked as an assistant at the District Attorney’s office. She knew that she would be making more if she had taken up teaching again but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She was still afraid that the Phoenix would find her and continue what he had started. Her nights were plagued with nightmares about him, Jack Tallis. Fallon thought that relocating to North Carolina would take away her nightmares but they didn’t and they were getting worse and worse every night.

Her day at the office would have been ordinary except today she had a pounding headache. Everything seemed to go by so slowly when she wished the day would end so she could go home and sleep off her headache.

“Good afternoon,” a warm voice greeted.

Fallon looked up to see Detective Brian Haner Jr. staring up at her.

On any other day she would have noticed his handsome face and charisma but today was different.

“Afternoon,” she grumbled putting on a fake smile. She was in no mood to tend to anyone’s needs except for hers.

“I was told that Ms. Collins was here,” he started and she stared at him blankly wishing that he would just shut up and leave her be. His cheery tone was doing nothing good for her headache.

“You know, the ADA,” he added when she didn’t respond.

“I know who Ms. Collins is,” she retorted then proceeded to call her and inform her of the Detective’s arrival.

What did he want anyway? He usually only came in when he wanted a warrant but as far as she knew he wasn’t on any major cases. Maybe they had discovered something. Fallon doubted that. The police were so incompetent that she sometimes felt that she should be doing their work.

“She’s in on a conference call right now but she’ll see you in fifteen minutes,” Fallon announced to Detective Haner then continued typing the memo in front of her.

Brian sat down at an empty seat and waited patiently for Ms. Collins to finish up with her meeting. He had no idea why she wanted to see him. He looked over at Fallon and couldn’t help but notice her beautifully sculptured face. As she was staring intently at her work her face looked like it was handcrafted by angels. She had black hair which fell mid-back and had honey coloured skin. She looked like and Egyptian goddess. Her chestnut brown eyes pierced through the paper she was reading. Brian had always been coming to the DA’s office and he noticed their new secretary from day one. He was so enamored with her that he had never even asked her what her name was.

He stole a glance at her and immediately knew that something was wrong. She didn’t seem herself at all.

“Are you okay?” Brian asked genuinely concerned.

Fallon looked up at him and shrugged.“It’s nothing,” she started, “just a hangover.”

Brian smiled at her then said, “Advil usually works for me.”

“I want to feel the pain. Maybe next time I’ll remember how bad it felt before I drink,” she told him. “Plus I don’t take drugs.”

“Hugs are better than drugs right?” he said laughing stood up then stretched out his hand to her.
“I’m Detective Brian Haner Jr.”

“Fallon Blackmore,” she said taking his hand smiling.

They were then interrupted by Ms. Collins who peeked out of her office to call Brian in. He walked over to her not before giving Fallon a small wave.

“So Brian, you’re probably wondering why I called you in here.” They were on a first name basis.

“That probably sums everything up Emily,” Brian told her smiling.

“I spoke to Baker this morning and he told me that there was another killing. He said that you guys were thinking it was the same killer as the one from two weeks ago,” She relayed.

“Well it’s too soon to say that for sure but there are certainly some similarities. I’m just waiting to hear from the medical examiner,” he said.

“That’s not all is it?” she asked him sensing that he wasn’t telling her something.

“Well it’s just that this seems out of sorts. Why was this happening all of a sudden? Why here? Why now? It just doesn’t seem to make sense,” Brian said.

“Well you of all people should know that there is no telling when or where someone is going to be murdered,” Emily added smartly then quickly regretted it when she saw the expression on his face.

“Yes that’s true but I keep on getting this gut feeling that we’re missing something here; that this is not the beginning and certainly not end. I feel like we’re going to be in this for the long run if we don’t figure it all out soon.”

“That’s why we need everybody working on this,” she stated then lead him to the door.

“So,” Brian smirked, “tonight at nine right?”