The suspect

DANIELLE'S POV

I closed the file I'd been ordered to organize earlier that morning and stood up, stretching my back and groaning from sitting for too long. I knocked on my boss's office, and when there was no response, strange since I hadn't noticed him going out, I opened the office and entered. I was just going to drop the file and come right out, I told myself.

After the day I'd been interviewed, this was the first time I was entering his office when he wasn't in, and even though it wasn't my first time in it, it was still so unfamiliar. His words came back to me. ''I respect privacy, both mine and yours, so I'll try not to invade your space, and you shouldn't invade mine either. Just do the things I tell you to, and we will be fine."

I scoffed at his words. Which secretary was banned from entering her boss's office anyway? Since I was inside already, I was going to make the best of it.

I checked through the window, and seeing no sign of my boss, I walked deeper into the office, taking note of the neatness and organization. He must be a neat freak, since no one else was allowed into his office; I held that for future reference. I'd been working for my boss for over three months, and still knew nothing about him-not really an oddity in my life since I didn't make it a habit of mine to get close to people I got to know corporately, but my nosiness wasn't letting me settle for that.

He was the handsomest man I'd ever seen; I didn't care that handsomest wasn't a word. It was what I chose to describe him as. He was tall with gorgeous blue eyes, a bit too young to be in his position in my opinion, and way too quiet. Other than greetings when he arrived and demands he needed, which was mainly done through the intercom, I'd never seen him talking to anybody else, not on the phone and not physically, which made me very curious about what kind of man he was.

I briefly glanced through his table and moved towards the organized folder cabinet, but suddenly turned back towards the table. That couldn't be.

Sure enough, I picked up the beautiful green and golden fountain pen that had been next to the remote on the table, my eyes blurring at the influx of memory.

I could hear Daddy screaming, a sound I had never heard before, and it was suddenly cut off.

The man came closer and squatted in front of me, my eyes meeting his masked one. 

"And who do we have here?" He asked, caressing my cheek.

Whimpering, my eyes followed the click sound of the pen in his hand, and he laughed and pocketed it when he saw the direction my eyes had gone.

"There's no need to be scared, little girl. I'll make sure you don't remember anything."

He grabbed my hair, which Daddy had carefully packed for me with my favorite bow, and the bow fell and broke. He released my hair, patted it, then bent and picked the bow up. 

"What do we have here? How beautiful."

That was the last thing I heard and saw before Mummy's screams woke me up. The man was gone, but Daddy's body was still where it was, and he was just staring at me. My eyes recognized the blood, and I passed out again.

I shuddered and fingered the pen, seemingly the same one I'd just seen in my memory, when the sound of a footstep alerted me I was about to be found out.

I contemplated remaining in position and confirming where he had gotten the pen since I'd searched around the world, almost, and found nothing like it, not since that fateful day, but my courage failed me. I hid under his desk, realizing what a stupid mistake I had chosen to make as I watched his expensive shoes enter the office and start towards me, and I stopped breathing.