Of Guilt and Innocence Read Online Free PDF Page A

to the bus stop. Between the two of them they had only one car, an old blue 1995 Buick Le Sabre. However, if Louis needed the car at any point in the day, Anne would yield it to him; even though he never really had anywhere important he needed to be or go to.    
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    The entrance to Louis’s apartment was similar to that of an attic or crawlspace and Louis climbed down the wooden ladder that led from his apartment into the garage.  He pulled open the old wooden garage door, jumped in the Le Sabre, and quickly backed the old blue jalopy out of the driveway. He made his way to Boca Raton, where he had decided to spend the afternoon at the Boca Towne Center Mall. He liked to spend most of his time people watching and had been to every mall in the area to partake in this hobby countless times. Boca Raton, Boynton Beach, the various malls in the Ft. Lauderdale and Miami areas; he knew the layouts of them all.
    Despite his general poor hygiene and relatively unattractive appearance, Louis always dressed well when he left the apartment. Today he was dressed in a nice pair of blue slacks and a button down white short sleeved shirt. His thinning black hair was slicked back and he was clean shaven. He bore a loose resemblance to Alfred Hitchcock, with bulldog-like cheeks and a long, thin nose. He had developed skills as a chameleon over time. He could look very presentable, very kind and unassuming when he desired to give that impression. However, he had the capability of changing in a second and radiating evil—something he had done often over the past thirteen years.
    Louis walked down the different corridors, looking more at the other mall patrons rather than the various stores. After completing one full revolution, he sat down on one of the benches and continued to watch. This routine had been perfected many times over. He was always discrete; he never leered or stared but just spanned his gaze and sat contently.
    The mall was busy that day, too busy for his liking, so he walked to the exit he had parked closest to. Instead of leaving, he found a bench that faced the entranceway and continued his people watching from there. Finally, after a half hour of intently gazing at the herds of people entering the mall, two females caught his eye. An attractive woman with blonde hair hurried inside with a small, strawberry blonde girl at her side. Louis noticed how the blonde woman, although she was aware of where her little girl was, walked at a hurried pace and appeared to have her mind on things other than the child with her. Louis casually watched them as they passed and he began to follow at a distance.
    The mother and child appeared to be oblivious that they were being stalked and they began to shop. The wheels in Louis’s head were turning; he attempted to devise a plan unique to this situation, as he always had a general one in place. This was the reason for his trip on that particular day, the reason for all his trips, and so he always had a standard plan of action in his head, his modus operandi.
    Louis observed the pair entering a shoe store. He positioned himself just outside the store’s entrance and pretended to read and respond to a message on his cell phone. When the woman and her daughter exited the store, he noticed the small girl had on a new pair of shoes that were consuming her attention. He also realized her mother had not discovered this as quickly as he had. As the woman passed by him without the small girl by her side, Louis slid himself into the girl’s path while she looked down at her shoes. The girl’s head struck his large stomach and she fell to the ground. Louis quickly whipped his head around to observe the girl’s mother and her reaction or if she had even noticed. When he observed the woman turn and begin walking toward her daughter, he quickly looked back at the girl who was staring back at him with fear and surprise. “I am so sorry,” the woman said as