Page 63 of Guilty as Sin
He went downstairs with Tobias padding behind, descended the steps from the front porch, walked along beside the cabin, and saw it.
A slight disturbance in the plantings at the base of the porch, and, if you looked closely, two rectangular depressions in the wood chips. He walked around to the back of the garage and saw what he’d suspected. His metal extension ladder hanging beneath the eaves, and a broken strand of cobweb fluttering in the morning breeze.
He swore, and Tobias sniffed at the ground, whined, and looked up at him. “Yeah, mate,” Jace said. “You’re right. What kind of stupid bugger doesn’t check the windows?” He’d need to find a better spot for the ladder, too. Alockedspot.
He’d been gone two hours. Well, a night, and then two hours. Heaps of time.
The first thing he did was ring Lily. “Hey,” she said, sounding half-wary, half-breathless. Like her heart had leapt to see his name on her phone, but she wondered if he was going to ask too much, push her for more than she could give.
One night,she’d said.And that’s all.
She’d told him, and he’d done it anyway. That was on him.
“My stalker’s back,” he said. “And I’m wondering if she could be yours as well.”
“What?”
He explained. There was a long pause on the other end of the line. “You think she’s jealous,” she finally said. “That that’s whatLeavemeant. But I got the first text before I’d done more than talk to you, and it said the same thing.Leave.”
“Good point,” he had to concede.
“Besides,” she said. “That thing I told you. The controlled handwriting. My person didn’t come into my shop. They didn’t throw anything truly nasty through the window. The kind of obsessed person you’re talking about? She would have. My person didn’t do the things that furious people, jealous people, do. They threw a brick, probably from a distance, maybe from a car.Distancebeing the operative word. They didn’t knife my goats, either. They opened the door for mychickens.I’ve got careful escalation, and nothing anybody would go to jail for. Malicious mischief at the most. You’ve got somebody breaking and entering, looking through your private possessions, wanting you to know she’s invaded your house, and talking about hurting you. And maybe most of all—doing it when you could have come home at any time. That’s a completely different mindset. She’s getting off on the risk. It’s a thrill.”
Once again, she’d taken his breath away. The woman was seriously analytical. “She’s talking about hurting you, too.”
“All of which is why,” she said, “you need to call the police again. This is serious. This is bad.”
He had a hand in his hair. She was that frustrating. “I know it’s bad. And it’s why we’re getting security. Here, and on your place as well. Alarms to the police station. Cameras. You asked why they didn’t come into your shop. How about because it’s alarmed?”
“It doesn’t have cameras, though,” she said. “Anybody could have noticed that and taken advantage of it. They certainly could have smashed the window all the way in, stolen my window displays at the very least, or even wrapped a newspaper after that brick and set fire to it. That would have taken seconds, and it would have been much more frightening even if it hadn’t worked. They didn’t do any of that.”
“You’ve done a fair amount of thinking about this.”
“Of course I have. I’m fixing the camera situation, but the company won’t come up until next Wednesday, and there’s nobody closer. But that isn’t what’s important here. I think you should leave your place. I think you should leave town altogether. Go visit your brother.”
“What do you know about my brother?”
“Jace.” She sighed. “You told me to look you up. Don’t tell me he doesn’t have security, because I won’t believe it.”
“Right.” He was getting narky again. He couldn’t help it. “I’ll run away and leave you to your own devices, then, even though this wombat’s threatened you as well. Sounds like a plan.”
“If you’re gone,” she said in a reasonable tone he found even more infuriating, “how would I be a threat to her?”
“It’s not happening. Get used to it. And we’re both getting security.”
“Next Wednesday.”
“Tomorrow.”
“They won’t come.”
“They don’t have to come. I’m ordering two systems, and I’m installing them tomorrow. Cameras in your shop as well, if you like. And you don’t have to say it. I hear it.”
“Hear what?”
“’Do you know how?’ Yeah, I know how. Leave me some pride, woman.”
She was laughing. Would she ever respond the way he expected her to? “Sorry,” she said. “I know it’s serious. I know you’re worried about me, and I appreciate that. It’s just that I’m not used to it.”
