Page 92 of Allure

With the registration, I have Ashley's phone number and her email address. Not her physical address. I can try to do some detective work online to see if I can figure out her address, but I should at least attend my classes. I have a quiz today, and I don't know how I'll do on it, but I won't allow my obsessive personality to keep me from getting good grades.

So I go to class, and the quiz is hard. Maybe I should've tried to study instead of going to the grocery store and working out, but you can't change the past. You just have to deal with the consequences of your actions.

Only the mugger isn't the only one to get away with a crime. Ironic, isn't it? But he's hurting multiple people, stealing, shattering people's psyches and minds, and causing a great deal of emotional and physical damage everywhere he goes.

I ignore Declan, not wanting to approach him. Soon. I mean, I’ll see him on the mat. I wonder if Julie will be there.

Finally, my classes are over, and I try to call Ashley. No answer. Maybe she's at work, but I don't know if I could handle returning to life as normal immediately after getting attacked right outside your front door. Hell, I would want to move as quickly as possible to get away from the memory of the attack.

I have to be careful that I don’t overreach and interfere with the police. They’re the professionals, and I won’t dare do anything that might make it impossible for them to do their jobs. Still, something has to be done.

I eat lunch mindlessly as I work on my computer, bringing up a map and marking down each place where the mugger attacked. Ashley's house isn't that far from the others, but it does seem like a bit of an outlier, so maybe there's a second guy? A copycat mugger? If I can get a hold of Ashley, I can see if she noticed any details of his face. Hell, in my mind, if he wore a baseball hat, that helps to suggest the same guy. It wouldn't be enough for the police, but I'm not a cop.

I am able to locate her home address. That always scares me because if I can find it, so can someone else. The internet can be a scary place.

Hmm. Ashley not answering doesn't necessarily mean that she isn't home. She might be. I'm sure she won't want strangers just showing up at her house. I don't know if meeting her one time and teaching her self-defense one time counts on making me not be a stranger, but I can't do nothing. If she won't answer my calls, then I need to see her in person.

But will reporters hound her, wanting a story? She gave up her name, and I found her address so others can, too, and reporters might be willing to just show up uninvited if they can’t get a hold of you via the phone.

Maybe that’s why she isn’t answering.

But still, just showing up is rude.

If there was a way that I could try to make it not seem like it’s me prying and getting into her personal business…

I'm glad I mentioned the mugging to the women. At least she knows she's not alone in that, but I hoped none of them would ever have to feel that same fear. Ashley deserved better.

I shouldn’t. I shouldn’t feel responsible for her, for all of the women who showed up, but I do. They wanted to learn how to defend themselves, and I failed Ashley.

I failed her.

Tears spring to my eyes. I can’t do all of this. I can’t handle it. The weight of the world is crushing me, and I need help. I can’t do this alone. Despite what I want to do, which is to go over to Ashley’s house alone, maybe that wouldn’t be the best for her or for me. I mean, it’s not as if it’s late. It’s early in the day, light out.

But Ashley has a two-year-old. I don’t know if she works outside of the house and has a babysitter or the kids are in daycare. Maybe a parent helps to watch the kids.

Or maybe Ashley is home. She’ll come home at some point. I can stake out her house…

Yeah, then I would be the one who is a stalker.

But to help her, to try to learn more about her attacker and see if he's the same mugger… because going after women leaving stores is one thing, but to go after a woman outside of her house is another.

If I have my way, the mugger has mugged for the last time, but without a major lead, we’re screwed.

CHAPTER32

Before I can act on my impulses, though, my phone rings.

My mom.

Ugh.

“Hey, Mom, now isn’t really a good time.”

“Honey! Why didn’t you tell me how far you’ve come with karate? And that you put on a class all by yourself! That is amazing. I am so proud of you!”

“You are? You found out about that?” I’m a bit shocked by her praise. Even when I would bring home A after A in high school, she didn’t seem all that impressed. I guess maybe because my good grades were expected?

“This is huge, and that mugger in your area… You aren’t doing anything you shouldn’t, right?”

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