Drawn To You: A Psychological thriller

by Ren Montgomery

  “Wait! What did she say?” Ruby said.

  “He has one prior complaint against him from January of this year. A woman said he was harassing her at her job. She got a restraining order against him.”

  “Did it work?”

  “It must have. That was January and this is October, and we don’t have a record of any more complaints.”

  “Should I get a restraining order too?”

  He looked at her like she was stupid. “Of course. That’s pretty standard, and it scares most creeps away. I’m going to go take his statement, and then I’ll come back here.”

  “Can I finish my shower while I wait?” she said, scratching her head. “This conditioner itches.”

  “Please wait. I only need a few minutes.”

  “A few minutes?” she wailed, but he was already gone. She stood in the doorway and watched him go over to Jeremy’s house and knock on the door. It was opened by an unseen hand and the officer disappeared inside. Ruby did not go back inside her house. Instead, she sat on her front steps and waited. Less than five minutes later the officer reappeared, but Jeremy was not behind him in handcuffs.

  Ruby ran down the steps and met the officer beside his vehicle. “Where is he? What did he say? …You are going to arrest him, right?” She was beginning to feel like a broken record. “Because I’m ready to press charges.”

  He steepled his fingers together and spoke very slowly. “It’s like this ma’am. I could arrest him, he did enter your house without permission, but it’s up to the D.A. to decide if it’s worth prosecuting.”

  “Why wouldn’t they prosecute breaking and entering?” Ruby asked. She had been arrested and charged with that and Curtis had given her his keys! Why was this asshole protecting Jeremy?

  “He didn’t hurt you or steal from you, he left when you asked him to, and you admit that you dated him. He told me he was worried that you’d injured yourself—”

  “He’s lying!”

  “And as your landlord, he’s technically allowed to come inside if he thinks there’s an emergency.”

  “What? He’s a creeper—”

  “It sounds like a non-violent domestic dispute to me, and frankly, if we arrest him, I don’t think anything will come of it.”

  “But that’s not your call to make.”

  “You’re right. I’m just telling you what I think.”

  “This is totally unfair! He broke in! He…” she paused before blurting out what was really bothering her. “…he saw me naked!”

  “Here’s what I’d do if it were me. Document the harassment, on the off chance he doesn’t stop. Next, I’d get a restraining order. Then I’d change my phone number, maybe set up some cameras—”

  “I’m off to do those things after you leave,” she murmured, wishing she’d had Hilary set up the doorbell camera yesterday. She wished she could show that footage to this asshole.

  “Good! And finally, keep a journal of everything that happens, and keep a copy of any messages he leaves on your answering machine. And if the harassment doesn’t stop, we can always warn him off, or even arrest him under the stalking laws—”

  “Why can’t you arrest him under the stalking laws now?”

  “It’s been going on less than a week, and you haven’t even told him to stop yet.”

  “Yes, I have. Numerous times. Bluntly.”

  “Look. Why don’t you follow the steps that I’ve given you, and hopefully you’ll have no further trouble.” He climbed into his car, dismissing her.

  Ruby held his door open. “Wait. I want to talk to this other girl he harassed. Lauren Cosway, right? Do you have a phone number for her?”

  Officer Kipling’s face closed up. “I can’t give out personal information.”

  “Could you at least tell me how to spell her last name?”

  “No.”

  Ruby slammed his door and turned to go back inside. “What a colossal waste of time. Thanks for nothing,” she said, stalking away. She heard him drive away.

  Stupid pig.

  ▬▬▬

  She immediately called the phone company and dumped her landline. They told her it would be disconnected sometime in the next few days.

  Next, she drove to the gun store and bought another box of ammunition, just to make herself feel better.

  On her way home, Ruby realized it was after ten and Tara would be at work at Saint Joseph’s Hospital! She looked up the number and watched her battery go from twenty-five percent to one percent instantaneously. She managed to scribble the number down before her phone died in her hand. She scowled and tossed it back into the bottom of her purse. The stupid thing wouldn’t hold a charge anymore, her memory was full, and it was slow as molasses. Today. She would order a new iPhone today.

  Luckily, she had thought to toss her disposable phone into her purse before she left the house. She pulled over at a gas station, shook out her shoulders, and dialed. The phone was answered on the second ring by a woman with a cheerful voice. “Physical and Occupational therapy. This is Mary. May I help you?”

  Ruby put it on speaker phone. “Hi! My name is Gina, and my son Raymond was badly burned in an accident a couple years ago, and—”

  “I’m so sorry!” Mary said.

  Ruby was thrown off by the interruption. “Er, it’s okay. He’s fine now, he’s much better, though at the time, things were touch and go. Anyway, he was helped out tremendously by a physical therapist named Tara. She had long blonde hair and—”

  “Oh, you must be talking about Tara Dabler.”

  Bingo! Ruby smiled in triumph as she wrote this down.

  “Although, maybe not, because I don’t think she worked here two years ago. When did you say this happened?”

  Ruby almost hung up. She had what she’d called for, but maybe she could find out more? She cleared her throat. “It happened a while back, but I recognized her last name when you said it, so I’ve got the right person. I seem to remember that…” she trailed off. What had her son been named? Ronald? Rusty? Shit! “…er, my son, was one of her first patients here.”

  “Oh, okay.” She could hear the smile in the Mary’s voice.

  “I wanted to send her a thank you card. My son wants to sign it! And so…I was wondering if you could possibly give me her home address?” Ruby heard Mary gasp, so she started talking fast to establish that she was trustworthy. “My son still talks about how kind Tara was and how much he misses her and so I just finally decided that hey, I can do something about finding her. We’d just really like to thank her.”

  “I’m sorry Hon,” Mary said, sounding like she really was sorry, “but I can’t give that information out over the phone without her permission.”

  “Not even to me?” Ruby forced herself to chuckle. “I promise I’m not dangerous. I’m just a regular mom who’d like to express her appreciation for a job well done.”

  “Well…” There was a long pause, and Ruby could sense her wavering between caution and wanting to help. Ruby was sure she’d cave, but then Mary said firmly, “I’m sorry, but I can’t.”

  Ruby balled her hands into fists, knowing it would be futile to keep pushing the woman. This phone was at four percent. Hell! “I understand. What about her phone number? Can you at least give me that?”

  “I’m sorry, I can’t. Why don’t you send the card to the hospital? She’d get it for sure then. Do you want our mailing address?”

  “No.”

  “I know! Why don’t you bring your son back for a visit someday? Tara loves reconnecting with old patients.”

  “We live in Boston now, so that’s not possible.”

  “That’s too bad.…Here, let me page her for you. Her first patient canceled, so she should be around here somewhere.”

  “No! Don’t bother—”

  “Well, here she comes now! It’s your lucky day.” Mary raised her voice and yelled, “Tara! Tara!”

  “No! I…” She thought fast as she heard the woman say, “Tara, phone for you. It’
s a mother of an ex-patient of yours, who wants—”

  “Randy honey, are you okay? Your little lips are caught in the disposal? Oh my! Mommy’s coming! I gotta go but I’lltrybacklaterBye.”

  Ruby turned the phone off, tossed it back in her purse, and drove away in disgust. This was turning out to be more difficult than she had anticipated.

  As soon as she got home, she put her ammunition away and looked up Tara online. She was so sure it would be a dead end, that she felt herself working up to one of her fits of rage. She snapped out of it when she saw the listing for Tara Dabler in Calua. She blinked. That kind of had to be her, right?

  The site promised that Tara would not find out about her search. She looked up Tara’s number, only to find that information behind a paywall. After she paid the fee, the number was hers, and she located an address for Tara in less time than it would have taken her to make dinner reservations. She shook her head in awe of her detective skills. That had been…easy. Gotta love technology.

  She sat on the couch pondering her options. She could call Tara up and warn her to stay away from Sean, but the likelihood of being found out was high. So that was out.

  She could…well, what she wanted to do was call up Tara and tell her that Sean had a venereal disease, and that she was his ex-girlfriend, and that he’d given it to her without telling her he had it beforehand. But, again, there was probably no way to do that without arousing Sean’s suspicions.

  One thing she could definitely do was drop by Tara’s house later and suss things out. Get a handle on the competition, as it was.

  She chewed on her thumbnail and stared blankly into space. Okay, so Tara probably started work at the hospital at nine, which meant she probably didn’t get off until five. Therefore, if she wanted to see Tara, and she very much needed to see this bitch with her own eyes, then she needed to be waiting in front of Tara’s house by 4:30 at the latest. Hopefully this would help her think of something she could do to break them up.

  Ruby also needed to hear her voice. Did Tara have a gravelly smoker’s voice, or did she talk like Minnie Mouse? Please be a Minnie. A Minnie was not to be taken seriously. Ruby got out her trusty disposable and dialed Tara’s number. She doodled the words “bitch” and “cunt” on a scrap piece of paper as she waited for the machine to pick up.

  Tara had a lilting voice—of course she did—and the message said, “Hello! This is Tara and I’m not home—”

  Ruby’s disposable phone died. She stared at it, disgusted with herself. It needed to be charged, and she had no idea where its charger had got to. Probably stuffed into a junk drawer or a box in the garage, and her cellphone charger had a different port than the disposable one. Of course, it did.

  She glanced at the three phones sitting on the couch beside her. The disposable was perfect, but dead. Her cell number absolutely needed to be protected as Sean had that number. It was not a number she could make crank phone calls from. Either was her home phone, for that matter, but…her home phone…she had just dumped it. It would be a non-working number, probably by tomorrow, anyway. What could it hurt? Just this once? She stroked the phone as she thought it over, feeling the thrill of risk bubbling in her chest.

  What the hell. She’d warn her off, and so what if Sean suspected that she was the one who’d done it? He didn’t know her home number, so he couldn’t prove it was her, and she’d deny it until the day she died. She knew she could make him see things her way. She could be very persuasive when she wanted to be.

  She picked up the house phone and dialed Tara’s number again quickly, before she lost her nerve. She listened to the message play through again, covered her mouth with a towel, lowered her voice almost to a growl, and said in a false English accent, “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay away from Sean Chaplin.”

  She hesitated and then yelped, “He has herpes!” She slammed the phone down and started gnawing her thumbnail again. Maybe that hadn’t been such a good idea.

  ▬▬▬

  Ruby did a deep dive on her computer in stealth mode and finally located two possibilities for Lauren Cosway, the woman Jeremy had stalked earlier this year. Both had lived in California at one time, and both were a bit younger than Jeremy. One now lived in San Diego, the other in Idaho. She paid a fee to get email addresses for both women, typed out a quick note, and sent it before she thought better of it.

  “Dear Ms. Cosway:

  I’m being stalked by a man named Jeremy Van der Wyden. The police in Kamata, California, told me that a woman named Lauren Cosway had had the same problem with him this past January. It’s a long shot, I know, but if that woman is you, could you please, please contact me? I must speak with you. My name is Ruby, my phone number is (707) 555-2374, or you can email me here.”

  She hoped she got a response. She needed to know what Jeremy was capable of.

  CHAPTER 16

  Ruby held the phone away from her ear as Hilary shouted, “So, he wasn’t arrested? Did you tell him he saw you naked?”

  “Of course, I told him, but the pig didn’t care.”

  “But, but—” Hilary sputtered. “That’s it. I’m buying you two new doorknobs and installing them for you. This is fucking ridiculous.”

  “Thanks.” Ruby hung up, then used an app on her phone to send Hilary money for the knobs. She’d almost hired a locksmith, but this was so much better! She’d get the same results at a fraction of the cost.

  When Hilary arrived, she carried a large tool kit as well as the two doorknobs. She marched in, hugged Ruby tight, and set to work. She took the old doorknobs off the front and back doors, put the new ones on, and attached the new chain in under half an hour.

  Next, Hilary began setting up the doorbell camera.

  “Where’d you learn to do all this?” Ruby said, looking at her friend with awe.

  “Honestly, this isn’t hard. It’s all intuitive. You could’ve done it yourself.” Ruby nodded placidly and handed Hilary the drill.

  Hilary sat down with Ruby to explain the doorbell camera. “I’ve set it so it only begins recording when someone is within three feet of your front door—on your deck. So, it won’t be triggered by someone in your yard or when a bird swoops by or something. Now, do you want these videos to have sound or be silent? And how long do you want the footage to be stored? One day, a week, a month?”

  “I really don’t care,’ Ruby said, waving her hand. “You pick.”

  Hilary rolled her eyes. “I’m setting it to record everything with sound and archive videos for a week, okay?”

  “Whatever.”

  Hilary walked her through opening the app on her phone so she’d be alerted and sent footage in real time when anybody rang her bell. Hilary refused Ruby’s offer of lunch and flounced off in a huff soon afterwards.

  Ruby felt herself suddenly deflate. Adrenaline dumps like she’d gotten with Jeremy that morning always left her exhausted. She set her alarm, pulled her black out curtains closed, and fell asleep. By three, she was awake and feeling much better. At four o’clock, just as Ruby was gearing up to go watch Tara’s house, her cell phone began playing “Big Spender.” She smiled. It was her editor, Hal.

  She picked up the phone but left it plugged in because she would need it tonight. “Ruby?” Hal said. “I’ve got good news—”

  “Thank goodness. I’ve had a…difficult week.”

  “What happened? You okay?”

  Ruby had the overwhelming urge to confide in him. She stuffed it down because they weren’t close and it would make Hal uncomfortable. Instead, she said, “I got distracted working on these new cartoons—”

  “What new cartoons?”

  Ruby grinned. “I’ve added a new character as Shelby’s crush, and I’ve already written months ahead. They’re my best work yet. I’m super excited.”

  “A new character should really spice things up. But your fans have been clamoring for Shelby to make a commitment to Rick. What’s going to happen to him?”

  “Rick�
��s boring. I’m glad Ruby will finally have someone worthy of her.”

  “Ruby?”

  “What?”

  “No, I mean, you called your character by your name. Freudian slip?”

  “Ha! …So, what’s the good news you called about?”

  “That article about you in ScuttleBUZZ Magazine hits the shelves tomorrow—”

  “I’d forgotten all about that!”

  “It’ll be some great exposure for you. You’ll probably pick up some papers because of it.”

  “I hope you’re right.” She frowned. “And I hope it’s a nice article. That photographer didn’t seem to like me much.”

  “Don’t worry. The article’s short, but very positive, and the picture’s cute.”

  “Oh. How come I didn’t get to see an advance copy too?”

  “Actually, I subscribe to ScuttleBUZZ. I just received my copy in the mail.”

  She raised her eyebrows. Hal subscribed to ScuttleBUZZ?

  “…and I look forward to your new toons.”

  “I can’t wait to get your feedback on them.” She was hanging up when she thought of something. “Wait! I dumped my home number today, so just call me on my cell from now on.”

  “Isn’t this your cell?”

  “Yes, but I mean, from now on. My landline will become inactive sometime in the next few days. Oh! And please don’t give this number out to anyone.” She looked at her watch. It was after four already. “I gotta get back to work. Talk to you later,” she said, and hung up.

  She was running late now. Dammit. She threw on a black hoodie and sunglasses, grabbed her camera and keys, and set out.

  It took her fifteen minutes to drive to Calua and another twenty before her GPS found Tara’s address. By the time she arrived, she was frazzled. Why’d Hal have to keep yammering on and on like that?

  Tara lived in a cute little house with no garage on a busy, two-way street in Calua. There was no car in her driveway, so Ruby figured she was still at work. Good. She pulled around until she was parked on Tara’s side of the street in front of her neighbor’s house. She had a clear view of Tara’s entire front yard, and she was parked so that she could leave quickly in case she was spotted.