Authors: Cheri Lewis
I let out a whiney groan, “Mom! Seriously, fatten him up a bit? Do you have any idea how embarrassing that is? You don’t tell a grown man especially one you don’t know you’re going to fatten him up!” She shrugs and leaves me standing there with my face puckered.
My dad walks to me and places his hands on my shoulders then kisses my forehead. “I’m glad you’re feeling better, Doodlebug.”
I whine again, “Dad, did you not hear what she said to him?”
He gives me a sympathetic smile but the words don’t match his smile. “She’s your mother and you’ve only got one of them. Besides we had plenty to share.” I let out an exasperated groan. Jessie grins from ear to ear and it makes me want to slap him. He loves the attention my parents give us both; he basks in it anytime he gets the opportunity. Prima races out of my bedroom toward their voices,
the traitor…
I’m now alone in the foyer, mindless chatter echoes from the other room and I sigh as I replay the words my mother said out loud.
Besides your little friend looks like he could use a good hot meal, fatten em’ up a bit.
Just great Mom, I need his help to stop a freak and you’re going to fatten him up in the process.
Jessie left me again too soon that afternoon for another week of training for his new job. My parents left about seven so Prima and I watch a little T.V. before I make my lunch and decide to get things ready for work the next day.
****
When I arrive at work the next morning Mr. Samford was already there and I get worried I’d looked at the time wrong before I left the house. I check the clock on my car and cell phone and they are the same. He is definitely early and definitely in a bad mood which is a first for me when dealing with him. I make sure I do my job extra carefully today, not that I don’t do that every day, but if I notice the coffee on the coffee maker is low, I make a fresh pot. If there is something I can handle without bothering him, I do it. He leaves about 1:45 for a meeting he has with a potential new client at 2:00. I don’t know if he would have left then if I hadn’t reminded him and that seemed to make him grumpier. When he left I went into his office to put away any files he’d pulled and to grab his empty coffee cup. I notice a new picture of his family, him, his wife and their daughter. They seem happy and his wife is a typical trophy wife, with beautiful shiny brown hair, and their daughter having the same hair as her mother. I set it back down on his desk, and then see a letter sticking out from under a stack of files. I quickly read over the letter then find myself sitting in his chair. It’s a letter from an attorney regarding the estate of his father
. His father had passed away. That was the family emergency and he never said a word? No wonder he was in a terrible mood, I don’t think I could’ve gone back to work so soon after dealing with something like that. I would’ve been devastated. He’s going to know I saw the letter, I wonder if I should say something? I wish I would’ve sent flowers.
I fold the letter and stick it back in the envelope that had been lying underneath it, grab the files and put them back in their proper place.
When he arrives back from his meeting it was a little before 5, he lays the proposal file on my desk. He seems happier but not his normal self “We got a new account today.”
I give him a smile. “That’s great; I’ll get started setting them up in the system.” He gave me a smile and it didn’t seem genuine or reach his eyes. “Um, Mr. Samford.” He had just stepped away from my desk, but turns back toward me. “I was putting away the files on your desk and saw the letter about your father; I hope you don’t think I was snooping. I’m sorry for your loss. I’ve still got both my parents so I can’t imagine what you’re going through.”
His face saddens, he looks down at the floor and then back at me. “Thank you, Ms. Morrow.” I watch him walk back into his office and shut the door behind him. I stare at the closed door for a while wishing there was something I could do or say. I sigh and decide to go over our new client information.
I have to work a few minutes over to finish entering the new client’s information, which works out great because I have an appointment for 6 p.m. at Hands and Hooves to get my nails filled in and my waxing done.
When I leave my appointment at the nail salon, I leave with strawberry margarita polish on my fingers and toes and less hair everywhere. It is a little before eight and the sun is setting fast. I’m starving so I decide to run through and pick up a sub to take home to eat. When I turn onto my road my heart drops. I see Tank’s SUV, a cop car and another truck I don’t recognize in front of my house. I pull into my driveway and Tank is there to open my door before I even get the car parked. “What’s going on?”
He rubs his hand through his hair then rubs the back of his neck with his hand. “He came back.”
My heart drops. “Did you catch him?”
“No. No, we didn’t catch him.”
“What happened? What did he do?”
I try to step around him but he catches my arm. “You can’t go in there right now not till we figure out what all has gone on.”
“What do you mean what all has gone on?”
I turn when I hear a voice I vaguely recognize. He is talking to the police officer as he comes around the corner of my house. It’s the big man from yesterday, Alexander, and he looks pissed and sounds even more so when he says, “There’s an attic entrance in the storage shed in the back. It comes out into the hallway. The motherfucker crawled all the way across the house in places that were about eighteen inches wide.”
I look at Tank even more confused. “What happened? How do you know he was here? I thought the alarm company would call me if the alarm was triggered?”
Tank asks Alexander, “Is it okay to go inside now?”
Alexander puts his hands on his hips and sucks on his bottom lip in deep thought and now I’m scared shitless thinking about how hot it is for that man to be sucking on his lip. I come back to reality when Alexander starts speaking, “Yeah, she can go inside.”
I know I sound like the biggest chicken shit but I look at Tank and practically beg, “Would you come inside with me?”
I see Alexander give Tank a nod and I’m sure that is secret code for something but right now I don’t care enough to ask. I’m not sure what I was expecting when I walk into my house but what I got wasn’t it. Everything is still in its place. Nothing seems out of order. I walk into the living room and Prima is curled up asleep on the couch. She stretches and meows when she sees me. I go to my bedroom and flip the light on. Same in there. I go through every room in the house and flip the lights on. Everything is the same; I even open the fridge, nothing. Tank is in my foyer waiting on me. “How do you know he was here? Nothing’s been moved. Did he leave a note or something?”
Tank leans down and lifts a leaf on the plant and there is a little box and a little black round thing with a piece of my zebra print duct tape on it. I stare at the tape. Tears start filling my eyes. He grabs my hand and tugs for me to follow. When we make it into the living room I almost collapse when I see the zebra print on my iPod docking station. Tank grabs my arm tighter for support and I stammer. “He—he’s making fun of me.”
He walks me to the couch and I sit on the edge. “Why do you think he’s making fun of you?”
“Because I put that exact tape on all my windows and doors trying to catch him. Trying to figure out how he was getting in the house.”
I know he’s fighting back a smile and that doesn’t help my mood any. I lean over and place my head into my hands. He sits beside me and says, “I won’t lie to you, you’re probably right about it being a message that he is toying with you. But I really think the overall message was directed to me and Alexander. He made all the cameras we installed inoperable and we didn’t get anything of use on cameras, and he also bypassed the alarm system.”
I can’t help but half laugh in disbelief I look up at him and shake my head “You know if that was meant to make me feel better, you
sucked
at it.”
He stares at me a moment, his hazel eyes seem to be studying my face, then he quietly asks, “I need to talk to Alexander a minute, I will be right outside. Will you be alright?”
I sigh and mumble, “I’ll be fine.”
Prima weaves her way under my arms and I pull my hands away from my face. Her white face is about two inches from mine then she touches her wet nose to mine. I lean back and pull her to me stroking her fur, my mind blank as I continue to rub her. I look at the doorway when I hear Tank call my name, “McKinsey.” This time Tank, an officer I don’t recognize, and Alexander are walking in the room and I can tell by the look on their faces it isn’t good. “McKinsey this is Officer Johns.” The officer nods at me and Tank continues, “We’re going to file a report, it may not seem like good news but we now have proof somebody is messing around your home. He is going to document everything that has went on today and then we’re going to start from the beginning and start going over everything from the time you first started noticing anything. Even if it seems dumb and shouldn’t mean anything, I want you to tell us about it, okay?”
I nod, and then listen to Alex and Tank do most of the talking about the cameras and how the alarm system was bypassed.
So much for having an alarm system that ran on a phone line. It didn’t even make it 24 hours of protecting me.
The police officer writes everything down and then says he wants to talk to the sergeant about having the street patrolled more. Tank stands from sitting beside me and walks the police officer to the door. Then it’s my turn. I curl into the corner of the couch and lay my head on the armrest and begin my story. Actually I mostly ramble through everything from someone stealing my lunch to my panties being laid in the middle of my bed, to thinking it was Joel because of the texts. I look at Tank. “Were you able to track down who sent me the roses?”
“No, without you looking at the card or having them to examine, that’s going to be hard.”
We both look at Alexander who is sitting quietly in the brown recliner when he finally speaks, “Roses?”
Tank rubs his neck and stretches a little. “Yeah, she had someone send her some black roses. She thought it was her ex-boyfriend but—”
I have my mouth open to argue that Joel is NOT my ex-boyfriend but the look on Alexander’s face and his question stops me. “How many roses was it?”
“I have no clue. More than a dozen, it was a bunch. I grabbed them and threw them in the dumpster as soon as I got them.”
“How long ago?”
“I guess three weeks maybe four, Why?”
I keep looking between Tank and Alexander but neither is saying anything. Tank is also looking at Alexander waiting for him to say something, but he doesn’t. He quickly stands and pulls his phone out of his pocket and walks out the back door. I look back at Tank. “What was that about? And should I be more scared than I already am?”
He straightens from leaning against the wall. “I’ll be right back.”
I sit there a few minutes and take in the quiet of my home. Prima walks around the corner from the kitchen and pads her way across the living room and jumps into the empty recliner. I watch her knead the cloth of the chair before she finally plops down.
I really need to go to the bathroom and then get something to drink.
Once in the bathroom, I stand in front of the mirror a long time and look at myself.
What does this man want with me? Did I cut him off driving one day? I mean they did make a movie about that. I saw it on Lifetime. Was it somebody from work that got fired? No that can’t be it, I don’t know any of the workers and they would go after Mr. Samford.
A soft knock at the door interrupts my thoughts. “I’ll be out in just a minute.”
I take care of my business then go to the kitchen and pour myself a glass of tea. Sticking my head around the corner, I ask if they would like something to drink. Alexander declines but Tank says he would like something.
I hand Tank his drink and then I sit back on the couch when Alexander says, “I’ve got a phone call into a buddy where I used to work and he is checking into the roses for us.”
I mean I appreciate his help but how would anybody that installs cameras know about roses?
“You have a buddy who installs cameras and they know about roses?”
I look at Tank and he is wiping his chin where he has snorted his tea. Alexander doesn’t respond but Tank does. “McKinsey if there is something to know, he’ll find it out.”
I lean back and sigh. “I guess, but I don’t see how a camera installation man has connections.”
Tank shakes his head and rolls his eyes. It doesn’t seem to faze Alexander; the focused look on his face never changes. We sit in silence until the phone rings and then we listen to the one sided conversation. I’m okay until his face changes and he locks eyes with Tank. Then I feel pure fear.
This isn’t good. Not good at all.
CHAPTER FIVE
Living Arrangements
I grab another t-shirt from my closet as tears continue to stream down my face, Alexander’s words running through my mind.
We think you’ve been targeted by someone the FBI has named The Black Rose Killer.
I throw the t-shirt on top of the pile that is forming on my bed and wipe my tears. I walk to my chest of drawers, open them one by one scooping a big pile of different clothes out of each and throwing them on the bed, not paying any attention to what I’m grabbing.
He sends roses to his next victim to let them know they’ve been chosen for his game.
The light knock at my bedroom door brings me out of my thoughts. I quickly wipe more tears before I turn to see Tank standing in the doorway as he holds up my white suitcase with black paisley designs, showing me he has found it. I try not to sound pathetic when I speak, “Set it on the bed, please.”