“Did you hear what that gal from four streets over said about the attacker? That she thought he was a meter reader or something? That there was something familiar in the way that he walked?”
“Has anyone asked the different utility companies if they have any new employees or anything like that?” Grace planned a call to Todd.
“That’s the weird thing. The meters for the whole building are on the opposite side of the complex from me. He couldn’t have seen me, so he couldn’t have known I was home.”
“Ok. Who has been to your door outside of your friends in the last three months?”
Paige thought carefully. “Well, the handyman came in to turn on the heater, but he only works for the three complexes owned by the company that owns mine.”
“That rules him out, I guess, but we’ll note it.”
“The only other options are the mailman or the UPS guy.”
Grace didn’t appear to be listening. Her eyes were riveted to the television. Jumping up, she ran to turn up the volume. “—this attack was more violent than previous attacks, but the police indicate that they are confident that the new information from this attack will help them in their ongoing investigation.”
“What did they say was different?” Grace seemed to be putting different things she’d read or been told together in one big puzzle.
“They didn’t.”
“It has to be a postal worker or a UPS driver. They’re the only ones that could have found you and someone else. You’ve seen this man many times.”
Paige was thoughtful. “Most of the packages that come to my house come via UPS. I don’t get a lot of postal packages. If it’s the UPS guy, it’s not the regular one because I would have recognized
her
.”
“Her? Um… nooooo doubt it was
her
.”
Grace grabbed her purse and asked Paige to take a drive. “Let’s go talk to Todd.”
~*~*~*~
Several hours later, Grace explained the story to Nolan over a cup of coffee at the local espresso café. “They’re talking to all the women to see if they’ve all received packages in the last three or four months.”
Nolan was interested but concerned. “What happens if this guy finds out that you’re looking for him and gets mad at you? What would you do if he came after you?”
Shaking her head, Grace reassured him that Todd didn’t think that the attacker would stray from his pattern. “It’s all about control or something. I don’t understand it, but I figure Todd knows his job. Besides, it’s not like you or Verily would let a strange man get past my front yard, and this guy always seems to go to the front door. How bold and brazen is that?”
He reached across the table to cover her hand with his own. “Just be careful. I don’t think I could handle anything happening to you.”
Grace grinned and changed the subject. “So, do you have a spare computer in your garage?”
“Computer? I’ve got a dinosaur in my garage somewhere, why?”
“I need a computer, and I can’t afford one.”
Grace’s tenacity always amused him. “Why do you need to get one?”
“Paige was showing me Etsy. It’s a worldwide boutique for handcrafted items. Did you ever look on there? The stuff Paige showed me is amazing.”
“Uh… no. I didn’t know that. What does that have to do with you and a computer?”
Grace launched into her new idea. She told about how she’d set up an account, make some little girl’s dresses for next spring and voilà—a way to supplement her income. “Nolan, some of those dresses sell for hundreds… and a lot of them are downright ugly!”
He stood and went out to retrieve his laptop from his vehicle. Signing into the Internet connections provided at the café, he called up the website and pushed it across the table. “Show me.”
Grace found the links to the little girl’s clothing slowly. Eventually, she called up pages and pages of ‘boutique’ clothing. Next, she sent him over to eBay. After scrolling through auction after auction, Nolan noticed a trend. “Look at that! Daytona_Diva has sold dozens of things and several are to Munchkins_Mommy. Look at the totals to one buyer alone.”
“See what I mean. I can do this. There is a seller… her name is something like UniqueBoutique or something, I liked her style. It was not as weird as the gal who calls herself Sassychic. I’m just old fashioned, though. I like something a little more feminine and a lot less trendy.”
“Where are you going to find a model? Do you have a digital camera? What about…”
Grace answered each of his questions and continued to ramble about her ideas. Nolan didn’t know half of what Grace was talking about, but her enthusiasm was contagious. As they talked, Nolan began planning how to help Grace get started with her new project.
~*~*~*~
“Oh, come on… what’d you get? I know you have something, because you’ve got a new box under that dinky little tree of yours. It’s only two weeks away, what did you get me?” Grace twirled the phone cord in her hand. She missed her cordless, but as exhausted as she’d felt in the last few months, it felt good to be forced to sit to talk.
A low chuckle was the only response that she received. “Well, fine. If you’re not gonna tell me, then I’m not going to show you the cute outfit I made, and I will
not
let you help Paige and me catch the creep that is attacking women out there.”
“You’re going to do what!”
Nolan’s incredulous voice was loud enough that Grace winced. As she transferred the phone to her other ear, Nolan began shredding the mail. Seeing his unopened phone bill in tatters on his desk, he swept the mess into the trash and wrote ‘phone bill’ on the next day’s to do list before moving toward the front door. He saw the package in question under his tree and had an idea. Scooping the box into his pocket, Nolan exited his house as he listened to her ramble on about their plan on the other end of his cordless phone.
Grace, unaware that things were going to get more personal, continued her conversation. “You heard me. We figured out how Paige could ‘see’ him without him knowing it. We
were
going to have you here for masculine protection, but…”
“You can’t
do
that. Craig will murder both of us. You for doing something so dangerous and me because I will be near enough to take some of the fall out.”
“You afraid of my brother?” Grace’s amusement was not what he had hoped to hear.
He harrumphed. “No. I just thought he made an excellent threat. Guess I was wrong.”
“Sure and shootin’ you are. I cry every time another woman is attacked.”
A sudden pounding at the door startled her. Before she could get up to answer it, Nolan said, “I’m coming in.”
Suddenly, her bravado began to crumble. She mustered all of her courage, hung up the phone, and smiled. “I see you’re here! Good. So, are you going to tell me what’s in that package?”
Nolan shook his head and, pulling it from his pocket, tossed the package onto her lap. “We’re not done discussing your flagrant lack of care for your safety. If you try to do this, I will call your cop friend.”
“He knows. He can’t encourage us but he hasn’t exactly discouraged us either.”
Nolan was becoming more frustrated by the moment. “Fine. I’ll call the Chief of Police.”
“He was my Sunday school teacher in the fourth grade. Just talk to him after church on Sunday.” Grace’s smug look was more than Nolan could take. Thoughts of padded cells in faraway states invaded his imagination.
“Nolan…” The man standing before her silenced Grace.
“No. You are not going to put yourself in harm’s way. If you won’t listen to reason, then do it for me, for Craig, for Graceanna, for Cade or whoever will prick your heart.”
Tears pooled in her eyes. “What about Paige? She’s pierced my heart. She was hurt, Nolan, and the guy who did it has hurt several women since. We know it has to be either a mailman or a delivery guy. Will you just listen to our idea before you come unglued?”
She sighed as he shook his head. “It’s too late for that. I already did. My phone bill is in little pieces, and I don’t even know how much it was, but I’ll listen.”
“It’s really simple. I’ll order something for Paige every day for a week. Everything will be delivered here. We’ll track the packages as they come so that Paige will be sure to be here for them. She’ll sit in her car in front of your house, and I’ll answer the door, take the package, sign for it, and close the door.”
“And where do I come in?” Nolan was obviously not impressed.
“You are here with me. You sit in the chair there… just so that he sees you and doesn’t know I’m here alone all the time. Paige will watch him from her car. When she sees the right guy, and he leaves, she will call the police and tell them.” Grace’s tone made it all sound so simple.
Nolan shook his head. “It’s a good idea, really; but there are a few major flaws. What happens if he sees Paige watching him? What happens if he copies her license plate? What if he recognizes me from deliveries to my house and knows that I don’t live here?”
Grace grew thoughtful. In the manner of vintage cartoons, he would have sworn that a light bulb suddenly shone above her head. “We cover her plates, you can call 9-1-1 if he even coughs wrong, and you can bring over your old computer and pretend to be working on it.”
Nolan knew that the plan would work. He also knew that if the attacker really did show up, the chances of something going wrong were huge. Opting to change the subject, he nodded at the package in her hand. “Aren’t you going to open it?”
She shook her head. “No way! If I open it, then I don’t get to guess what’s in it anymore!”
“Come on, Grace… open it. I want an excuse to get something for you that I saw the other day.”
Giggling, she tore at the package with exuberance. Finding the narrow jeweler’s box under the wrapping, Grace stopped short. “I have a watch. Why did you get me a watch?”
“Open it. It’s not a watch.”
“I’m having fun guessing. Now leave me alone.” Grace shook, peeked, and weighed it against her watch before finally taking off the lid.
“Tissue! You got me tissue! How did you know I was almost out?” Her giggles cracked him up.
“Grace…”
Tossing a wicked grin in his direction, Grace folded the tissue back to reveal her gift. Lying in a bed of velvet was a lovely charm bracelet. White and yellow gold intertwined delicately in order for charms to hook onto the links easily. Grace lifted the bracelet, twisted it, and turned it to catch in the light.
“I can’t believe that you bought me a
mouse
.” Her voice failed to impart the disgust that she pretended to feel. After several moments of trying to connect the ends of the bracelet together, Grace handed the bracelet to Nolan and held out her wrist.
“Need a little help with it?” Taking the bracelet in hand, Nolan worked to open the clasp.
“I have a hard enough time trying to get a watch connected. I am not very coordinated with jewelry. I never have been.”
Nolan carefully connected the ends of the bracelet around Grace’s wrist. “I never noticed it before, but you don’t wear much jewelry, do you?”
“And where would I get the money to purchase it? I have more important things to do with my money. You know, eat, stay warm…”
Before Nolan could ask Grace’s favorite stones, she was off on another tangent. “I have to show you the outfit I am working on. I think it’s going to work well. I just have to set up that account and paint the pretty stand that Craig made me, and I’ll be ready to list it.”
“I’ll bring over my computer then. I figured out how to do it. I am going to bring my desktop computer and set it up here. I’ll call and have you print out anything I need. How does that sound?”
He had considered buying Grace her own computer system but knew that she’d object to the idea. The next best solution was to set his system up at her house. The dinosaur that he’d talked about would drive her crazy with its lack of speed. He expected some resistance to this idea as well and was prepared with all the reasons that she should agree to his proposition.
“Great! When will you have time to transfer it?”
Nolan blinked, stunned. All the objections that he’d prepared himself for were left unsaid as Grace waited impatiently for his response. “Well, I think I can get it ready to move tomorrow…”
“That’s great! I’m so excited. I want to list this dress; look!” Grace moved slowly, as if she was groggy, to the closet and pulled out a beautiful dress.
“That is amazing. You did that? Already?” Nolan found it difficult to curb his astonishment. Knowing that Grace sewed was a far cry from seeing just how talented she really was.
They made plans to take pictures and for him to give her lessons in how to operate the software necessary for the upcoming clothing production. Nolan made a mental note to add a digital camera to his Christmas list for Grace. Taking pictures, developing film, scanning and uploading the scanned pictures would be a process that grew old quickly.
Grace yawned and shooed Nolan home with the excuse that she needed a nap before Cade arrived. “I’m so tired. I woke up feeling like a truck hit me. I can’t seem to get any
rest,
no matter how much I sleep.”
Concern clouded Nolan’s eyes. “Will you do something for me?”
“Sure, but after my nap, ok? What is it?”
Nolan hesitated. “Will you call a doctor and make an appointment. Tell them your symptoms and see if perhaps there is something wrong? You’re always so tired, and from what I understand, it’s not like you.”
She shook her head. “No can do. I have to pay for Christmas and then my house insurance is due in February, and I have to make sure that I have a cushion in case it goes up. The bill isn’t here yet.”
“I’ll pay for it. Please, Grace.” Nolan’s voice was strained and slightly desperate.
Her chin came up in the familiar determined way she had about her. “Nolan—”
Placing one finger on her lips, he shook his head. “Please, please don’t let this happen again. I know I brought it up. I know that you don’t like to hear it. I know that you want to ‘make it’ on your own. I understand all of that, but please don’t let your wants over ride your good judgment. Something is wrong, and over a dozen people are waiting in the wings just hoping for a chance to thank you in some tangible way after all you’ve done to help them. Please, Grace; let us serve
you
just this once.”