Alura

I don’t know how it all went so wrong. Who would have thought that when I logged onto the computer that night that my life would be changed forever.

It was a Thursday night, around six pm and I was just logging onto the Internet to check my email and as usual my messenger automatically logged it’s self in. Today though there was a new message from someone who went by the name Alura.

I thought it was probably one of those “Are you looking for a good time?” deals where there would be a picture of some hot chick so I didn’t bother opening it at the time. I finished checking my email and logged off my computer and went about my nightly chores. I cooked my dinner, read the paper and watched the television. (I don’t live a very interesting life do I folks)

Around ten pm I decided to go to bed. There was nothing on the television and I had to get up early the next morning for an eight am meeting.

The alarm sounded at seven am (I had forgot to set it early the night before) so I got up and was just grabbing my keys to the car so I could leave when I noticed that my computer was on. I could have sworn that I had turned it off last night before I went to bed so I went over and was about to turn it off when I saw the message from Alura was still there. I opened it so that I could delete it and found that it was blank. I pondered that for a few seconds then dragged it to the trash. I turned my computer off and left for my meeting.

I got to the meeting just in time and sat down next to my assistant.
“Morning Jim what’s my day look like?”
“Nothing to important Tony, you have to give your final approval for the Johnson account, the art department would like to hear your opinion on the colour scheme you asked for and then there is the dog food commercial.”
“Your right nothing too exciting.”
The boss entered and it was down to business for the new advertising campaign. I’m the marketing executive for Phillips and Co and this new account would either make or break my career. After all it was worth sixteen million dollars.

The meeting finished around eleven and I went back to my office to check my messages. There were three on the machine. The first one started to play.
“Hi Tony, it’s Stacey here. Just calling to see whether dinner is still on for Saturday. Call me tonight. MWAH.”
It always makes me smile when I hear her voice. There wasn’t much time to think about the message because the second one started to play.
“Hey Tony. Just calling to see when you could come down to advertising for the Peterson’s account. Give me a call and we will arrange a meeting. Bye”.
I jotted down a note to call advertising and waited for the third message to come through. There was the customary BEEEEEP and after about a minute of silence the call disconnected. A hang up more than likely I thought. I got on the phone to advertising and set up a meeting for Monday morning.

It was close to 11:30 by then so I decided to give myself an early lunch. I walked through my door just as Jim was getting off the phone.
“Off to an early lunch today Tony?”
“Yep, I’ll be back later. Hold my calls for the rest of the day OK?”
“Sure Tony, You’re the boss. Have a nice lunch.”
“You too. See ya.”

Lunch was a casual affair. Since it was such a nice day I left my car at the office and went for a walk in the park across the street. I stopped at a hot dog stand and got my usual (hot dog, sauce and mustard) and sat on a bench near the lake. The sun was nice and warm today, especially so early in spring.

I had just finished my hot dog and was relaxing by the lake when I thought I heard someone behind. I turned but I couldn’t see anyone but I did notice a piece of paper lying on the ground. I looked at my watch. It was nearly two so I should be going back to the office. As I was leaving I picked it up (don’t want to be a litterbug do I) and threw it in the bin with my rubbish.

Back at the office there was a tonne of work that needed doing but nothing so urgent that it couldn’t wait until Monday. I decided to look at the new marketing campaign instead. May as well see if there were any ideas that just “jumped off the page” so to speak.

I read the bio and learned that this marketing campaign was for a new perfume, currently nameless, that we had to market for the mid to upper classes. A fairly easy task you’d think but with all the types of perfumes on the market these days it was a tough area to get a decent market share of.

I took a whiff of the product; it wasn’t too strong and kind of fruity. It would be very popular with the ladies these up and coming holidays provided we marketed it right.

I was in the process of thinking up some marketing strategies when the intercom buzzed. “See ya tomorrow Tony, have a good night. Don’t stay up too late tonight.”
I looked at the clock on the wall and saw that it was 5:45; I must have been working harder than I thought, as the time seemed to have flown by.
“Bye Jim. See you in the morning.”
I turned my computer off and closed my blinds. It was a beautiful evening; the sun was just setting and as it reflected off the windows of the surrounding skyscrapers the world was filled with a myriad of shadows and colours.

I locked the door to my office and headed to the car park.

I got home that night a little later than usual so instead of cooking myself a wonderfully healthy meal of chicken and vegetables I opted for pizza instead. While waiting for the pizza to arrive I took a quick shower, put on jeans and a T-shirt and set myself up for a night of watching DVDs and drinking beer.
I had just opened my beer when the pizza arrived. I paid the delivery boy and gave him a tip for getting it here while it was still hot. I sat on the lounge and put the DVD in. I had finished the pizza and was half way through the movie when I remembered that I hadn’t rung Stacey and I wanted to catch her before she went to bed. I paused the DVD and grabbed the phone.
“Hi Stacey, I didn’t wake you up did I?”
“Hi Tony, good to hear from you. No you didn’t wake me I was just in bed reading.”
“How bout I pick you up tomorrow night at seven? I know this really great Italian place near the beach. It’s got the best views.”
“Sounds great. I’ll see you then.”
She gave me her address again as I had lost it from the previous time we’d gone out and we said our goodbyes.

I had just hung up the phone when my mobile started to beep. I checked what was happening and it was the reminder I had set earlier in the week to pay my electricity. Unfortunately I had set the reminder to pm instead of am so it was to late to pay the bill over the phone now so I had no choice but to pay online.

I logged onto my account and the messenger logged it’s self in again. There were no messages this time or new emails so I just paid my bill and left the computer as it was and went back to watching the DVD with the intent of turning the computer off when I went to bed.

I must have fallen asleep on the lounge because when I woke up I had a really sore neck. It took me a few seconds to get my bearings and when I glanced over at the clock on the VCR the flashing neon lights said 2:00. I heaved myself off the lounge and staggered to the bathroom. I rinsed my face to wake myself up a bit and as I looked into the mirror I noticed a scratch running along the underside of my jaw. It wasn’t very big but I could tell that it wasn’t from shaving this morning as I could still see the blood seeping from the wound. I reached up and touched it. It was painful but not a serious injury; in a couple of days it would be gone. I grabbed a towel to dry my face and applied a liquid bandaid on it, that way at least it wouldn’t stain the pillowcases. I stumbled to my bed and had barely undressed myself when I fell asleep.

The next morning I woke to find my arm was dead. I rolled off of it and saw bruises surrounding my wrist. It seemed strange, as I was sure they weren’t there when I went to bed last night but I could have whacked my hand against the bedside table.

Since it was Saturday I had time to kill but as it was already eleven I got up and dressed for the gym. I found myself feeling extremely sluggish as I ran on the treadmill; usually I can go ten kilometres without working up a sweat but today my muscles felt like they’d been working out for hours rather than just ten minutes.

I decided to call it quits as I was getting anywhere and headed to the spa for a soak. After half an hour I got out and left the gym feeling disappointed as I had really been looking forward to that work out. At home I spent the afternoon out in the garden. There was a mountain of weeding that needed doing as it was getting to the point where you couldn’t differentiate between weeds and plants.

It took me a couple of hours to do and by the time I was finished I was in desperate need of a shower. The water felt good on my body as I stood under the spray. I looked at the bruise around my wrist again; it was a dark purple now but not quite as painful. I finished washing my hair and got out to dry myself. I got dressed for my date with Stacey and was ready about half an hour early. I got Stacey’s address out of my organiser and left to pick her up.

I got lost on the way and had to back track to the main road (a good thing I was running early otherwise I would have been very late). I got to Stacey’s place eventually and ran up to the door. I knocked and waited for Stacey to answer. After a couple of minutes I tried again, louder this time. Still there was no answer. This wasn’t like Stacey at all. Usually she is so organised that she’ll answer the door before I’ve even knocked. I gave her mobile a call but all I got was her message bank. I left her a message to call me at my place when she got the message and I left.

I was a bit confused. This wasn’t like her at all. Was there something wrong with me? Was I just ditched? I couldn’t understand it. I went home feeling depressed and a bit of a loser.

When I got home I checked my machine for a message from Stacey. There was nothing. This didn’t help my mood at all and made me feel even more depressed. I got out of my good clothes and poured myself a straight scotch.

There was nothing else for me to do so I drank for the rest of the night. By ten pm and 3/4 of a bottle of scotch later I was at the point of passing out but before I did I tried to call Stacey again. I don’t remember what I said but I knew I would probably regret saying it tomorrow.

The next morning I was woken up by a knocking on the door. Each knock pounded through my head like a jackhammer. I dragged myself off the floor where I had passed out last night, the dregs of the scotch fell onto the floor and I could feel the taste of dried vomit in my throat.

I answered the door, probably not looking the best I could have and saw through squinting eyes the badges of two police officers.
“Good morning sir, my name is Detective Kraft and this is Constable Klein. Are you Mr Tony Malloy?”
“Yeah I’m Tony Malloy. Can I ask you what you’re doing here?”
Detective Kraft waved my foul smelling breath out of his face. “Do you mind if we come in? You might want to sit down for this.”
My anger started to surface and I snapped at him. “No you can’t come in, not until I know what this is all about.”
Detective Kraft let my anger pass over him without a second thought and in a quiet voice said, “We are here to investigate the murder of Stacey Alice.”
I was shocked and had to lean on the door for support. How could Stacey be dead? I was meant to see her last night. Who knows she might have been in trouble when I went to pick her up last night. I should have been more thorough. I should have checked that every thing was all right.
“Perhaps you had better come in.”
I showed the police officers to the lounge and I went to my bedroom to put on a new shirt and a pair of tracksuit pants. I asked if they wanted something to drink. Both declined but I got myself a coffee and a couple of Panadol to help with headache.

“What happened?” I asked them.
“We can’t tell you officially what has happened because the official autopsy has not been done but strictly off the record, and let me warn you that this isn’t pretty, it looks like someone has tried to pull her insides onto her outsides.”
I started to gag at this point and was on the verge of throwing up but I managed to control myself. How could someone have done that to Stacey? My poor, poor Stacey. It just wasn’t comprehendible.
“Can you tell me who it was that found her?”
They looked at each other seeking each other’s silent opinion on whether or not to tell me. Eventually Constable Klein spoke up in a quiet voice, “It was her mother Beth who found her. The two had been planning on going shopping today but when Stacey didn’t answer the door after she had locked she just let herself in with the spare key.”
“Oh no poor Beth. Is she OK?”
“She’s taking it pretty hard. You see she found Stacey lying on top of the kitchen table. It looked as if she was just lying there asleep but when Beth got right up close she saw that Stacey’s torso had been sliced down the middle and parted to reveal her internal organs and her throat was sliced from ear to ear as if it was meant to be a big smile.”

This time I did vomit. I leapt out of my chair and made a made dash for the bathroom but only got as far as the doorway when it all came up.

I cleaned myself up and mopped up the floor and went and sat back on the lounge with the two police officers.
“Can I ask why you are talking to me about all this?”
“Well you see Mr Malloy there was the small matter of the message left on Ms Alice’s answering machine. You may not know this but her phone has Caller ID and when you left the message it also recorded your phone number and name, a very handy feature these days in police investigations. Her phone records also showed that in the past six months that you were also the only one who really called her at home.”
I could feel myself starting to blush a very bright red, “Um, about the message last night. I don’t remember what I said. You see Stacey and I had a date last night or should I say were meant to have a date last night but when I got to her place she didn’t answer the door. I tried to ring her mobile but all I got was the voice mail so after about ten minutes I left and came home and very stupidly got myself drunk as you can probably smell. I gave her a call in my drunken state and left the message.”
“Yes we kind of got the idea that you were drunk from the message.” Constable Klein said with a small smile on her face. “But that isn’t the only reason we came to see you. We asked Mrs Alice if Stacey was seeing anyone and she remembered that Stacey had mentioned your name a couple of times to her.”
Constable Klein’s radio started to crackle, “Would you excuse me for a moment.” She got up and headed into the kitchen after a couple minutes she returned and gestured for Detective Kraft to come over to her. They spoke in hushed whispers and then sat back on the lounge again.
“Mr Malloy we have just been informed that some fingerprints have been found at the scene that don’t belong to either Ms Alice or her mother but they have been run through our database and you have come up as a positive match. Would you care to explain that to us?”

I racked my brains trying to think of how my fingerprints had got there and how the police knew that they were mine. It took me a second to remember that I had been busted five years ago for speeding while still in college and that the cop had arrested me to teach me a lesson taking both my fingerprints and mugshot but then letting me off with a warning.
“Well you see a couple of weeks back Stacey and I had a date that turned into a sleepover after we went back to her place for a night cap. Well a few drinks later I was in no condition to drive so she let me crash on her couch.”

All the time I spoke they wrote in their notebooks. Closing their notebooks once I had finished both officers stood up.
“Thanks for your time Mr Malloy, is there a number we can contact you on if we have any more questions for you?”
I got off the lounge and got one of my business cards from the holder by the phone.
“If there is anything else I can do to help you or if you get anymore information please call me. I don’t care what time it is.”
“We’ll do that.” Detective Kraft said shaking my hand.
I took them to the front door and they left talking to each other as they walked back to their car.

Once they had left and I had closed the door, I sat back on the lounge and I cried. I don’t know for how long but what brought me back to reality was the sound of my messenger on the computer beeping as a new message came in.

I couldn’t think straight at the moment let alone read an email so I left my house and went for a walk. I don’t know where, I just walked aimlessly around in circles and eventually ended back home again.

I was feeling more in control now so I got on the computer and checked my messenger. It was another message from Alura. I opened the email and decided that this time to respond to it. As it opened I blinked and I got an image in my head like when you stare at something for too long and then you see the shape when you close your eyes, retina burn that’s what it’s called. It looked like words but I couldn’t see them for long enough to make sense of them.

When I opened my eyes all I saw was a blank message again. This time instead of deleting the message I just minimised it. I dragged the original message from Alura out of the trash. It was a good thing that I hadn’t got around to deleting the email yet. I opened and blinked like I did the first time and once again I saw letters and I also made out something that looked like words.

I couldn’t believe this, I racked my brain trying to think of a way to see what those emails had said but I couldn’t think of one. After all I was a marketing executive not a computer geek if you get my drift. I disconnected from the Internet and made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t log back on until I had a solution. With that I left the lounge and went to bed because tomorrow was a workday after all.

At work on Monday I was at the water cooler during a break catching up with some of the other employees, after all there is no better place to hear all the weekend gossip than around the water cooler, when Jim walked up.
“Morning Tony, you’re looking a little under the weather. Did you party too hard on the weekend?”
I looked at him with a look of disbelief. How could he be so happy after what had happened to Stacey. I was about to snap at him but realised that he wouldn’t have heard about that yet as the police were keeping it quiet.
“Not exactly Jim. Can you come to my office? There’s something I want to talk to you about.”
“Sure Tony I’ll see you there in a few I’ve just got to photocopy these papers.”
“Okay see you in a minute.”
I walked back to my office and had just sat back down when there was a knock on the door.
“Come in.
“So what did you want to talk about Tony? Is everything all right?”
“I want you to keep this quiet Jim and I mean it, you are the only person I’m going to tell this to.” I paused for a moment to regain my composure before I continued.

This is the first 10 pages of the story. if you would like to read the rest either email me or give the first part a ranking. thanks