Broken by Matthew Storm

promise.” The words got out before I remembered how much I
hated making promises. Now I was going to have to come see them. Well, I hadn’t
said when .
    I got in
my car and drove a block before pulling over again. I needed to pull myself
together and I didn’t want the Harrisons to look out of their window and see me
sitting in my car while I was doing it. My sweating seemed to be slowing down
now that I was sitting again. I still felt weak but that was par for the course
these days. I’d probably feel this way until I’d eaten solid food for a few
days in a row and gotten my metabolism going again.
    I shut
my eyes. How stupid was I? I’d meant to ask them about their son, but I’d been
in such a hurry to get out of there I’d completely forgotten about it. I’d been
avoiding human contact for so long I’d forgotten how to talk to people like a
normal person.
    My hands
were less steady than they had been earlier, but they still weren’t shaking. I
could keep going for a while yet. I needed to stay sober for a few more hours,
at least long enough to get up to Heather’s condo and take a look around.
    I took a
deep breath. There. I was okay. Things were going to be fine. I put the car in
gear and pulled away from the curb. Next stop: La Jolla.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 6
     
     
    It took me
a good half hour on the freeways to reach the exit that led into La Jolla, and
then another half hour of searching to find Heather’s condo. That would teach
me not to look at a map first.
    Heather lived in a luxury two-building complex on a
ridge overlooking the Pacific Ocean. I could only imagine what a place like
this cost. The ten grand Davies had given me earlier might be enough to cover
one lease payment. Then again, it might well not.
    Heather’s
complex had a small guest parking lot adjacent to the resident parking. That
was something I didn’t see very often. In my part of the city an apartment
building might have one guest parking space near the building management office.
Two would be a luxury. An entire lot was just extravagant.
    I locked
the car up and headed into the lobby, which seemed to be constructed entirely
out of glass. People always tell you not to go outside during an earthquake,
but if the ground started shaking when I was in here, I’d be running for the
door like a teenager going to see a boy band.
    A
security guard in a dark suit sat by himself at a desk in the lobby. He looked
up at me and smiled as I entered. “Good evening, Ms. James,” he said.
    I
blinked in surprise. “If that was a guess, it was pretty amazing,” I told him.
    “Mr.
Emerson called ahead and told me you would be stopping by. He was good enough
to describe you.”
    I nearly
asked how Emerson had described me, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear
it. I wasn’t sure how the guard even knew who Emerson was, but then I
remembered the lawyer’s name had been on the lease paperwork. The staff here
must be used to dealing with him.
    Not
having to explain who I was and what I was doing here only made things easier
for me. “You have any problem with me going up to her place and taking a look
around?”
    “Not at
all,” the guard said. “If you didn’t bring your key I can let you in.”
    I held up
the key Emerson had given me. “You guys think of everything.”
    “That’s
what we get paid for,” he said.
    I hit
the button for the elevator and the doors slid open instantly. So far this
visit was going really well.
    Heather
Davies’s condo was on the third floor, on the side of the building that faced
the ocean. I knocked at the door, not really expecting a response, but it
seemed like the polite thing to do. For all I knew she really was just hiding
out here, not wanting to be bothered.
    There
was no response. I knocked a second time and put my ear up to the door to
listen. I couldn’t hear anything coming from inside. I stepped back and looked
up and down the hallway, half-expecting curious neighbors to be