Page 72 of Sycamore Circle

“It’s okay, girl,” Bo murmured. “I’m not going to let anything happen to either of you.”

Pulling her hand out of Bo’s grip, she covered her mouth. Across from her, Detective Heilman carefully placed the letter back in the envelope then placed them both in a ziplock bag.

“I’ll take this to the lab. Maybe someone over there will be able to lift prints from the letter.”

Tears fell from her eyes as she nodded.

Bo stood up, walked to the kitchen, and got her a glass of water. He returned with the glass in one hand and a couple of tissues in the other. “You want to take a few minutes?”

“No. I’m okay.” But she did blow her nose and take a big gulp of water.

The detective didn’t seem annoyed at all by her distress. He wrote a few things on his iPad while she was attempting to regain her composure.

When she finally did, he stared directly at her. “Has this person mentioned your daughter before, Ms. Howard?”

“No.” She couldn’t even look at Chloe.

“Not by name?”

“Not ever. I didn’t think he knew I had a daughter.” She looked at Bo. “But you were right, weren’t you? I was being so stupid. He probably has been watching me. Watching her.” Feeling like every worst-case scenario was camping itself in her head at the same time, she stared at Chloe. “What if he attacks you? This is all my fault, right? I should’ve come to the police two months ago.”

Tears filled Chloe’s eyes. “Mom, what are we going to do?”

“Kevin, we need a minute,” Bo said.

Looking from her to Bo, Kevin stood up. “Right. I’ll go outside and make a call.”

The moment he walked out the front door, Bo turned to Chloe. “Do you still want to stay in this room when the detective comes back? Obviously, this news is kind of hard to hear.”

“I’m staying.”

“Okay then.” Before Joy knew what was happening, Bo reached for her and neatly pulled her into his arms. Thinking about Chloe seeing this, Joy tried to extricate herself from the embrace, but her heart wasn’t in it. “Bo—”

“Hush, now. You ain’t doing nothing wrong and Chloe isn’t freaking out about me.”

“I’m fine, Mom,” Chloe called out. “Besides I think you really do need a hug.”

“See?” Bo whispered. “Relax for a spell.”

Everything inside of her wanted to argue a dozen reasons why she needed to move. And yell. And maybe even cry for a bit. But his hold felt too good. No, it felt too good to deny it. She relaxed her head against his chest.

“There you go,” he murmured. “Now listen, okay?” He took a deep breath. “You aren’t alone.”

“But Bo, I’m—”

“You aren’t, Joy. I know you’ve got a score of friends and you’ve got a good little family. So you can lean on them. But if you give me the privilege, I want you to give me a chance, yeah? Lean on me, too. Because, I promise, I am not going to let you fall.”

“You sound so sure.”

“I am sure. You and Chloe are in my life now. I want to be in yours too. Try and trust me, okay? Please.”

The front door opened. The detective was joining them again. Chloe was sitting nearby looking apprehensive and freaked out.

It was time she stopped being in denial and start dealing with everything. With Bo. With moving on from Tony. Start dealing with the texts and now these letters. She needed to even stop pretending that everyone in her life was wonderful, innocent, and good.

Obviously, that wasn’t the case. She had a stalker. It was happening and she couldn’t crawl under a rock and pretend that it wasn’t. Not anymore.

After the detective sat back down, he pulled the notepad and pen toward him. “Joy, our next step is to try to figure out who might be doing this. I’m sure you’ve racked your brain—has anyone come to mind?”

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