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“Right. Gotcha. Sorry, this troll has decided to cause trouble now.”
“Yeah, well, it's all part of the package. They tend to come out of the woodwork whenever major changes or events occur.”
Sammy headed back to his desk, and Allee headed back to her office. There was still a lot to do before next week and not a lot of time left to do it in.
Stuart was waiting down near the bus stop on Brandl Street, watching the spot where Allee had walked down that morning.
He knew that she would be leaving the office shortly, as he had studied her routine closely ever since he had found her. Sure enough, she appeared less than ten minutes later, cutting through the rear car park. Stuart allowed her a bit of distance so she wouldn’t see him before getting up to follow. He prowled behind her as she walked brusquely down Logan Road, heading back towards the lights at the intersection at the Glen Hotel. Stuart had to wait for her to cross before approaching the lights himself, trying to keep her in sight, and cursed as traffic flowed, making him wait. Once he had the green to cross, he jogged across, hoping that he hadn’t lost her. He saw that she had crossed the road and was approaching a small complex of town houses with a large gate barring access, and quickening his pace, hastened towards the complex as he saw her swing a small gate open.
Quickly checking to make sure that there was no oncoming traffic, Stuart bolted across the road, reaching the locked gate just in time to see Allee get to the end of the entry road and turn right. So, this was where she lived, not even a 15 minute walk from her workplace. Stuart jogged back towards Logan Road but hesitated when he reached the outer perimeter of the complex. He could hear Allee's voice calling out to the damned cat, so he knew that she must live in one of the end houses. He would investigate further tomorrow and make sure that he wouldn't be seen.
He needed privacy to go through with what he had planned.
When Allee arrived at work on Wednesday morning, she was shocked to find that the outside of the building had been covered in graffiti. She couldn’t read what had been scrawled, as Wal was already hard at work and had removed most of it. He simply shook his head at her questions, responding,
“Nothing fit for decent eyes, pure filth it is!”
Allee shook her head, walking upstairs to the studio, hoping that they wouldn't have a repeat next Thursday for the launch.
The graffiti was the talk of the office that morning, with conversations flying back and forth on the office messenger, some discussing what may have been written, others asking if there was any footage of the perpetrator. Allee remembered that Darryl had rigged up a live web-cam feed and installed proper security cameras. There were a lot of valuable items in the studio, not just including the computer hardware. Extra security could be a legitimate expense request, especially as their profile hit the spotlight.
As Allee walked home again that evening, she had no idea that Stuart lay in wait at the back of her complex. He climbed a tree in the bushland behind the lot, hidden by the foliage, but giving him a fantastic view of the rear of the buildings and their backyards. Watching from across the road this morning, he saw the impact of his handiwork sprayed across the building. To Stuart’s annoyance, Allee seemed perfectly carefree.
Glimpsing her between the houses as she approached the end, Stuart waited quietly. She did not appear in front of either of the ones at the side, but he could hear her unlocking a door and then calling out to that insufferable cat. He smiled evilly as the building was lit from within, illuminating the lounge and dining areas through the glass doors, and watched as Allee walked into the room, bending over to scratch the cat behind one ear. He had her now; he'd found her hidey-hole.
By the end of the week, she'd know that she would never escape him.
Chapter Twenty
More graffiti had been sprayed across the front of the building on Thursday. Allee read some of what had been scrawled BLACK BUGS FUCKING LIAR, which did not bode well for the studio. Allee spoke to Wal, requesting that he pass on any information in case they had a disgruntled customer on their hands and notifying the police of any further damage.
Waiting in the hallway, once Craig arrived, Allee followed him into his office.
“We've had more graffiti overnight,” she said, “and it seems to be directed at us. Wal has been busy cleaning it off, although he's taken photographs and notified the police. He's going to give me copies of it all later today. Should we have a quick meeting, see if anybody has noticed anything?”
“Good idea. We’ll do it around lunchtime. That should give everyone enough time to get the important stuff out of the way.”
Before lunch, Allee printed off the photographs that Wal had emailed her, grabbed her lunch and a cold drink, and headed to the conference room. Sammy and Darryl were already there, and before long, they were joined by Charlie, Noah, Michael, Andre, and then Craig. Craig gestured to Allee, giving her the floor.
“As you know, the last two days have seen us the target of a graffiti artist. I don't know why, but they seem to have a massive beef with us. Anyone got any clues?” As she spoke, Allee handed out some of the photos that Wal had sent her. Sammy stared at the one he had in his hand, a frown creasing his brow. He put the sheet down before tapping through something on his laptop. “Sammy? What's up?” Allee asked.
“Hang on a sec, I just want to check something,” he replied. Moments later, his face darkened. “Shit. I knew that looked familiar!”
Allee frowned. She drew the graffitied image Sammy had been looking at towards her, a shadow growing in her mind as she saw the words RUN AND HIDE leaping from the page.
“Yeah, it's almost the bloody same!” said Sammy. “This troll, or at least one of his incarnations, started posting up seemingly random comments yesterday. This was one of them. He said, ‘Bitch can run, but can't hide.’ Nobody knew what he was on about, so the post was deleted. He's been at it again today. I saw something just a few minutes ago.”
Allee could feel panic building inside her, but she kept her eyes glued on Sammy.
“Here it is. He wrote this about half an hour or so ago...it says, ‘Got you now little pussy, watch you shiver and shake so hard, you almost pissed your tail off. Told you before, you'll never escape.’”
Allee went white. She stood abruptly and bolted out the door, fumbling with her bag for her keys. Twisting around, she cried out in fear as a body filled her vision before Noah clasped her arms gently in his hands.
“I'll drive you,” was all he said, leading her down to his car, her hand frigid in his.
Minutes later, Noah was keying the code into the security gate, heading down to Allee's house.
The car hadn’t even stopped before Allee was out and running for the front door. Her hands were shaking so much it took three attempts to get the keys into the lock, and by that time, Noah was behind her and took over. As soon as both doors were open, Allee sprinted in, stopping dead as she reached the lounge.
