Page 2 of In Dangerous Water

“Did Marcus walk you out?”

“Nope.” I rolled my eyes. “I’m walking to my car all by myself, like a grown up.”

“Cordelia.” Tim’s voice was disapproving. “You promised me you wouldn’t walk around alone after dark.”

“Tim,” I answered in kind. “You don’t need to call and check on me every time I leave the aquatic center.”

“I should have sent a car from the sheriff’s department to wait for you.”

“Ha!” I laughed as I unlocked the door of my vintage VW Bug. “The Ames Crossing Sheriff’s Department doesn’t have jurisdiction in Alton.”

“I could always ask Detective Callahan to have an officer escort you to your vehicle...”

“You leave my sister’s boyfriend out of this,” I said, opening the door. “Austin is a busy man.”

“He’s worried about you, and so am I.”

“There’s no need.” I dropped down in the driver’s seat. “I’ve dealt with overzealous swim fans before.”

“Did you remember to eat dinner tonight?” he asked.

“I’m going to grab a roast beef sandwich on my way home,” I assured him as I shut the car door.

“Cordelia.” He sighed. “Did you work out on an empty stomach again?”

“I’m fine,” I said firmly, even as my stomach rumbled.

“Call me when you get home.”

“Yes, dear,” I said playfully.

“Love you,” he said.

“Love you, too,” I replied and ended the call.

I was smiling as I put the key in the ignition and started my car. When the headlights came on, I noticed there was a greeting-card sized envelope tucked under the wiper on the driver’s side of the windshield.

“Shit.”

My heart slammed into my throat. Checking my surroundings to ensure that no one was lurking nearby, I opened my door, climbed half-way out, and snatched the envelope from thewindshield. Quickly I dropped back down, then shut and locked the car door behind myself.

My name had been handwritten in block letters across the front of a blue envelope. With trembling fingers, I opened it and a single folded piece of paper fell out.

I unfolded it and saw someone had glued an old newspaper photo of me to the page. The photograph was one of me standing on the medal podium at the Olympic games.

But the photo had been torn so that my head was missing. I discovered that the absent part of the photograph was in fact pasted to the bottom of the page. All around it, red marker had been scribbled, giving the gruesome impression that I’d been decapitated.

Beneath it a single line had been printed out:This is what you deserve!

Reading the message, I swore creatively and with vehemence.

CHAPTER ONE

This wasn’t the first time I’d received an envelope with a threatening message.

A few months ago, a similar blue envelope had been found at the front desk of the aquatic center. That envelope had my name typed on it, and so it had been brought in with other inter-office paperwork and placed on the desk in my office. It too had a clipped photo from an old newspaper article of me—standing with my Olympic relay team. My eyes, along with the others on the relay team, had been crossed out with black marker.

At the time I had shrugged it off, figuring it was a prank by some opposing teenage swim team member or perhaps a coach. Then I dropped the creepy letter in a file in my office and told myself to forget about it.

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