Part Two
SABRINA
When Sabrina watched the lavender envelope disappear into the mailbox, she felt a sense of relief. She’d been dreading sending the card, but she knew it had to be done. Hopefully, Leah would have a couple days of peace, maybe even a week before she got the card. Sabrina wanted to watch her as she opened it. Maybe she could even pay a visit to her. But she shook her head, and took a few deep breaths of the evening air.
Sabrina fiddled with her phone, which felt heavy in her pocket. Maybe she could call Leah, see how she was holding up. After all, she’d probably be a mess considering she’d received a phone call less than a week ago that her brother had been found with a gunshot to the head.
Sabrina usually felt little emotion when she pulled the trigger and watch the body fall, but when she killed Sawyer, she’d felt something strange. A different emotion. Guilt? She did feel guilty. It wasn’t easy to masquerade as Fiona Fitzgerald for the past few years and pretend she was Leah’s friend, but she needed an excuse to figure out Sawyer. He’d, of course, suspected nothing, and why would he? Why on earth would he believe that his old friend had hired a hitman to kill him?
Hitman. Sabrina hated that world. It made it sound like people paid her to knock off other people. Which was partially true, by the way, but it didn’t cover it. She moonlighted as a barista most of the time down at Beano’s. Barista’s didn’t get paid much, but hitmen did. And Sawyer’s death had been compensated for handsomely. Enough for her agree to discreetly move the body to an alleyway and take his wallet, watch, his phone and his car keys. Made it look like a mugging. Which happened a lot in the city.
Sabrina took the bus back to the apartment. Not her apartment, exactly. It was a fake apartment she’d been using for Fiona. She unlocked the door and flopped onto the couch. Then, she pulled out her fake phone and called Leah. She couldn’t help it.
“Fiona. I’m glad you called,” Leah answered. Her voice was shaky. “Hey, Leah. I heard the news. I’m so sorry,” Sabrina said, raising the pitch of her voice slightly. She’d imagined Fiona had a higher voice. “Ah, well, what can you do? It’s good to hear your voice,” Leah said. She sounded like she was on the verge of tears. “So is there any news? I mean, if you don’t want to talk about it, we don’t have to…” Sabrina said, her voice fading.
“No, no, it’s alright. The police checked it out and they think it was a robbery. Someone shot him and took off with his stuff,” Leah explained. She sniffled. “I just can’t believe it. My brother… he’s just… gone.” She broke down in sobs.
Sabrina bit the inside of her cheek until she tasted blood. “I know, hon. You’ll be alright. I know someone you can talk to, okay?” she tried, but Leah cried into the phone. “Alright, I’ll call you later, Leah. Just… you’ll be alright. Trust me,” Sabrina murmured, gently. She could still hear Leah whimpering as she clicked the phone off.
Sabrina shoved her phone back into her pocket with a heavy exhale. She’d killed a lot of people in her years as a hitman, enough to lose count. She’d always known what she was getting herself into when she got into this line of work, but she never expected how hard it would be. No, not the killing. The killing was the easy part. The hard part was hearing the pain in the voices and staring into the eyes of the loved ones of the people she killed. The hard part was getting close to someone, only to kill their best friend, their spouse, or in this case, their brother, a few months later. The hard part was creating connections to people and leaving it all behind.