Page 23 of Captivating Anika

The tears that have been brimming on her eyelids spill over. “I don’t know how to thank you. I don’t know what I would’ve done without you.”

“Hush,” I silence her, getting to my feet and wrapping her in a hug. “We’re family here, we look after each other.”

A couple of tissues later, I walk her out the back door and watch her go up the stairs until she’s safely inside the apartment. Then I turn toward my car, which is parked in the one parking spot I have along the back of the salon. I should probably tell Kim it’s safer for her to use the spot as long as she’s living upstairs. I’m not sure where she’s parked now, as far as I know, her vehicle might still be where I left it in the City Market parking lot.

I’m so tired, I don’t pick up on anything until I unlock the door. Then I notice my Mazda is tilting slightly toward the right, the side parked along the rear wall of my building. As soon as I round the hood to check out the cause, I can see the tires are flat. Both of them.

For a moment I wonder if maybe I drove through glass. It wouldn’t be the first time someone carelessly tossed an empty bottle back here. But then I catch sight of the damage done to the roof of my 2000 Mazda Miata soft top and realize this was not an accident.

I immediately grab for my phone as I scan my surroundings. Only six thirty, it’s light out and plenty of people are still milling about. No one seems to be paying me any attention though. I’m not convinced vandalism constitutes an emergency, so I hesitate to call 911 and instead dig in the side pocket of my purse where I tucked Bill Evans’s card.

He tells me on the phone he has a couple of patrol cars en route, but that I am to wait for him inside the salon. Eager to do something, I use the time to pull up the feed from the security camera mounted over the back door.

When Bill arrives ten minutes later, I’ve just watched myself pull up, park the car, and walk inside on the screen. Unfortunately, the way the camera is angled, you can see part of the driver’s side of the vehicle but not the side parked against the wall. That explains why the damage was done on the passenger side.

“Whoever did it noticed or knew about the camera,” I tell Evans, showing him a still of my parked Miata.

“It’s kinda hard to miss, walking up,” he observes. “But we may get lucky and catch a glimpse of someone. We’ll also check with your neighbors to see if they have security cameras that could have caught something.”

“Do you think Chris Cooper did this?” I ask.

He was the first person I thought of.

“That would be incredibly stupid of him, but anything is possible,” the detective shares. “Do you know if anything was stolen from the car?”

“No, I didn’t want to touch anything.”

“Okay, let’s have a quick look,” he suggests, motioning for me to follow him.

He holds the door open and lets me pass. The moment I step outside, I hear my name called.

When I look up, I catch sight of Hog, stalking straight for me.

Hog

Our shift ended much the same way it started, with one call after the other.

I never got a chance to pull Bodhi aside and by the time I’d cleaned up after the last call, and grabbed my laundry from the locker, he’d already left. A lot of the time after our shift most of us will go for a quick breakfast before we head home, but after being on the go the entire night without a wink of sleep, everyone wanted to get home.

Myself included.

I set my alarm for one—otherwise I wouldn’t be able to get to sleep tonight—and spent most of the afternoon doing stuff around the house I didn’t get to on the weekend. Except what I was really doing was procrastinating.

At some point, I contacted the real estate agent to see if there was any chance I could take a look at the small house near the fire station. Since the house is apparently vacant, she said she could meet me there at seven tonight.

As soon as I got off the phone with her, I bit the bullet and sent Bodhi a text, asking if he’d come look at a house with me. It seemed like a good excuse to get him by himself. He easily agreed to meet me and I sent him the address. Then I had to chug a glass of milk to beat down the heartburn I was giving myself stressing over this.

I’m on my way to meet him when Evans calls.

“Where are you?”

My heart rate instantly cranks up. “Just coming into town, why?”

“Thought you might like to know I’m on my way to the Chop Shop. Someone messed with Anika’s car.”

“Her car? Is she okay?”

“Pissed off, I’d imagine. Look, I just wanted to let you know she may need a ride.”

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