He had to know she watched him by now. It was her only hobby besides reading. Her collection of disguises was rapidly approaching ridiculous and she had them secreted in locations around the city. Some were near his apartment, others near work; there was even one near his partners place ( Read more... )

Once Nicole left Hudson University, and certainly after she divorced Gavin Haynes, fewer and fewer people knew her as Elizabeth Hitchens. Many who had known her under that name followed her trial and later assertions by NYPD that she was in fact Nicole Wallace. Those people would never deign to speak to her again. She'd been snubbed more than ( Read more... )

modernsherlock abused with full knowledge of his muse.

( If a crystal ball could tell you the truth about any one thing you wished what would you want to know? )

For decades she traded on her beauty. As a child her fine, fair hair earned her mother's approval. Her mother struggled with curls in Victoria's heat and the easy plaits Nicole could manage meant less work for the woman. Nicole didn't realize that was the reason for all her mother's compliments until the job went to her father ( Read more... )

Ahead of her in the line at the market, a mother sang songs with her little girl to keep her occupied. Their voices were soft and unobtrusive, just enough for the girl to know she was heard but not so loud as to disturb the old lady ahead of them. Both mother and child touched each other often. The song included pantomimes done in as call and ( Read more... )

Nicole's current employer was almost ten years younger than her. The boy had a newly signed master's in business and was certain he knew all the best ways to do everything. Nicole couldn't care what the best way was; she only wanted to know what was expected of her so she could do it well enough to please but not so well as to stand out. ( Read more... )

The new letter came when she had almost given up hope. The last letter gave no indication there would be a hold up on the next. Gwen's letters were filled with the usual childish details that made sense only to her and her playmates, but Nicole still read them over until the paper wore through on the folds ( Read more... )

Nicole smiled politely at the woman ahead of her in line as she thumbed through her wedding album repeatedly. The woman fussed that she couldn't find the photo she wanted to have copied and was afraid she'd brought the wrong album. Finally the clerk asked her to step aside so he could help Nicole ( Read more... )

She realized somewhere along the line that her problem was she never did go insane. Truly insane would have been so much easier. She would miss her daughter less. She would never have cared for Gwen. The failure of her second marriage would be something to get angry about, not cry over ( Read more... )

(  If someone took her up on it, things would finally get interesting. )