Page 30 of Rescued By My Best Friend's Brother

I pick up my cell phone and find a contact labeled, Caty’s Crazy Brother. His actual name is William, or Bill by his family. I decide to call him.

After a few rings, he answers. “What the fuck do you want?”

“Well, hello, Bill. I hope you are doing well,” I keep my tone even, neutral. I knew he would be like this. His temper can brew a stout cup of coffee.

“Oh, drop it. You took my sister away from us. Why would I ever be nice to you?”

“Caty made her decision.” I snap back almost yelling.

“Fuck you, Jasper. I want my sister back. You stole her from us.” His voice is loud in my ear.

“I need to ask you a question,” I say, trying to stick to the reason for the call.

“Go to Hell!” The line goes dead.

I let out a deep breath, calming the irritation that has built up inside me. Bill is an idiot. I hate talking to him, but I need to know that it isn’t him.

I scroll through my contacts and find Detective Pierce’s name, my personal, private investigator, who helps me find out information on people if a background check doesn’t suffice. I click on his name, calling him. I’m ready to get to the bottom of this.

Within an hour, Detective Pierce knocks on my office door.

“Thank you for coming so quickly, Pierce.” I stand and reach to shake his hand.

“You know I am here to do what I can, besides, whatever you have going on sounds interesting.” Detective Pierce examines the contents of the box I handed him as he sat down, using his pen to move anything around. He clearly doesn’t want to contaminate any fingerprints that may still be on the doll. He looks up at me. “This looks like an amateur.”

I nod. “I thought so. I got a note the other day at my house, too, so the sender knows where I live.”

“Do you have the note with you?”

I shake my head. “I wasn’t expecting this to escalate. I thought it was just some sort of prank by my ex-wife’s brothers.”

He nods, knowing the full situation with Caty and what happened between us. “So, you think this is about her?”

“Maybe? Well, of course, it is.” I have no doubt. Caty’s family are always a handful. Plus, the way this doll appears reinforces the idea.

“Do you know anyone who can run prints?” I point toward the doll in the box.

“Yes. I do. I’ll handle that and compare the card against the note with the doll. When you can, bring me the note. It’ll be helpful when I compare handwriting.”

“Of course. I’ll send it over tomorrow.” I glance down at my watch. It is 3:30 pm, close to when Lily needs to be picked up. “Shit.” I meet the Detective’s gaze. “If you’ll excuse me, I have to make a few quick calls.”

I pull out my phone and find Elena’s name. I really wanted to talk about what happened earlier today in the office before asking her to pick up Lily, but this needs to be taken care of first. My family’s safety comes first.

Elena answers her phone, confusion in her voice, “Hello? Jasper?”

“I’m sorry to ask you this, but can you please pick Lily from school? I have a few things I need to take care of.”

“Oh.” Her voice drops. Is that disappointment? She sounds a little disappointed. “Yeah. Sure, I can.”

“I will try not to be late.”

“Of course. Do you need me to do anything else?”

“No. Thank you. Sorry about this.” I say.

“No problem.” She is keeping her answers short.

“Thank you.” An awkward silence starts to bloom between us. “We’ll talk tonight,” I reassure her and myself. A discussion is much needed, even though I still don’t know what I want to say.

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