by Carlyn Cade
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Stacia picked up her phone on the second ring.
“I...need...to come see you...right away.”
“What’s wrong, Jamie?” Her assistant’s usually cheery voice sounded shaky and full of fear.
“I can’t explain now. I have something to show you, that’s all. Is it possible your brother could be there?”
“Ryan? Why would you want to see him?”
“I’ll explain everything to you when I get there.”
“You’re scaring me, Jamie.”
“I don’t mean to.”
“Whatever’s wrong, we’ll fix it, okay?”
“I’ll be there in an hour or sooner.”
“An hour’s fine.”
“And Stacia, please try to have Ryan there.”
“I’ll call him now,” Stacia assured Jamie. She took the phone from her ear momentarily and speed-dialed him.
Ryan answered immediately.
“Something’s wrong. Jamie’s on her way over, and she asked that you be here. Can you?” Stacia said, her voice as panicky as Jamie’s had been.
“What’s going on?”
“I don’t know. She wouldn’t say. She just wants you here in an hour.”
“I’ll be there sooner than that.”
And true to his word, her brother arrived at her condo fifteen minutes later. Only a short time passed, and her assistant was at the door. Jamie burst into the room, digging inside her purse as she walked toward Stacia. She fished out an already-opened envelope. “This was hand-delivered from your fan answering service right before I called you,” she said. She turned and gave the envelope to Ryan.
He removed its contents. “What the...” he began as he read the letter. He glanced over at Stacia. “You don’t need to see this,” he said briskly and began to stuff the paper back into its envelope.
Stacia tried to read the changing kaleidoscope of different emotions her brother’s face revealed. Grimness. Shock. Anger. Fear and worry. One thing was sure, she did need to see whatever it was that was upsetting Jamie and him. Obviously, it was a fan letter gone bad, but no matter how threatening it was, it would be worse not to read it. She stretched her arm straight out toward him. “You’re wrong, Ryan,” she said quietly. “Hand it over, please.”
She thought for a moment he’d refuse her order. His lips were clamped together in one thin, long line, and she noticed the throbbing pulse in his left jaw. His eyes had a cold, dark stare in them. She’d seen Ryan angry many times in her life, but she didn’t even recognize this stranger. She suddenly realized he was no longer her brother, but the street-wise detective who had told her not long ago that he’d dealt with too many corpses in his job and didn’t want to see his sister under those circumstances. She saw him as others must have on countless occasions, as a dedicated detective who had a dirty job to do.
Silently, he placed the letter in her hand, his face turning ghostly pale as her fingers closed around it.
Stacia scanned the paper, her attention drawn at once to a glossy photo of herself, jaggedly torn from a publicity shot that had been glued onto the white paper. A crudely-drawn black arrow was pointing toward two precisely-cut pictures of hands, thumbs up, in a strangle hold around her neck. Her once white teeth and smiling mouth were now smeared with a red substance. Was it real blood? Without taking her eyes off the paper, she gave into the weakness signals her body alarm was giving out and sank into the nearby sofa for support.
The printed black letters forming the threat did not take a back seat to the glaring red splatters, but delivered their own vile message as they stared at her boldly.
Audra, you bitch, you should have stayed dead, and I’m going to make sure you do. This time will be WORSE than the last time. I promise you that.
The words hit Stacia like someone had shoved his fist into her stomach. She shivered uncontrollably. Her heart pounded, and it took every ounce of her strength to hold her body in an upright position and hang onto the piece of paper.
“You’ve gotten notes like this before in your office, haven’t you, Jamie?” Ryan asked as he sat down next to Stacia and put his arm around her. He gently guided her head to his chest.
Jamie’s eyes grew bigger. “Never,” she said.
“Then I guess my sister’s been very lucky –”
“Until now,” Stacia interrupted.
“Most people in the public eye receive threatening notes similar to this all the time. We receive many complaints, and no matter how many we check out, more keep coming,” Ryan said. “How many people have touched this?” he asked Jamie.
“I don’t know who handled it at the answering service, but in our office, only me.”
He removed his arm from Stacia’s shoulder and turned the envelope over. “It’s addressed to you, Stace, but the inside says Audra.”
“Audra is the deceased actress who played the same role as I am in the movie we’re remaking,” Stacia said, her strength slowly returning to her.
“There’s no mistaken identity then. It’s meant for you. We have to work under the assumption the sender of this note is not a harmless quack looking for his jollies, but someone who means business. You’re being implicated or identified in the sender’s mind as a woman who he obviously wants dead for some reason.” Ryan stood up, walked over to the phone and picked it up. Seconds later, he spoke. “This is Saunders. Put me through to Brannigan immediately.”
A brief moment passed, and Ryan spoke again. “My sister’s life has been threatened, Chief. I need someone to pick up the note she received. I don’t want to leave her,” he said. He turned his back to Stacia and spoke in a low voice. “Yeah, one note.” Silence filled the room until Ryan spoke again in the same low tone. “I know one threatening letter doesn’t make a stalking, but trust me, Chief, in this case it does. We can’t run the risk this is a hoax.” His voice returned to normal, and he filled his boss in with the rest of the information he knew and ended the conversation. He stuck his cell into his pocket, went over to Stacia and held her again. “It’ll be okay. I won’t let anything happen to you.” He kissed the top of her head.
Beneath his brave exterior, Stacia could tell he was shaking.
“I really should get right back,” Jamie said. “There’s so much work to do.”
“Forget work,” Stacia replied. “Take the rest of the day off and the week until this all blows over.”
Jamie shook her head. “I think you need me at the office more than ever. Especially if there’s another note or this story breaks.”
“Thanks for your loyalty, Jamie, but nothing more is going to happen today. Please go home and rest up for whatever might happen later.” Stacia wondered where all this courage was coming from. She really wished she could fast-forward life until this whole experience was behind her.
“Home does sound good right about now,” Jamie admitted. She started to leave, then turned around and faced Stacia. “If anything should happen to you...” Jamie couldn’t finish because she was too choked up and tears were beginning to slide down her face.
Stacia stood and hugged her. “Nothing will happen to me. My big brother will see to that. Now dry your tears and try to have a good afternoon. Call me if you need anything.” She walked Jamie to the door, hoping her assistant believed her because she wasn’t so sure she even believed herself.
“I’ll be talking with you tomorrow too,” Ryan called out as Jamie left. He turned to his sister. “Now, Stace, let’s review what we know. You said who Audra was, now tell me about her.”
“She made the movie, London Affair, in 1949 and died before it premiered.”
“How?”
“In a…car accident.” She looked up at Ryan’s face. She hated to lie to him.
“You hesitated with your answer, just like you did when you were a kid and didn’t want to tell me the truth about something. What’s the rest of the story?” he asked.
“I...I can’t say. I sorta promised I wouldn’t.”
“Keeping my sister alive is more important to me than a sorta promise. Stace, please tell me what you know.”
“But if I do, what assurance do I have it won’t be spread all over the police report and –”
“Someone is stalking you,” Ryan interrupted. “He probably has every intention of killing you, and you worry about it leaking out and some sorta promise you made?” His tone was one of incredulous disbelief.
“This is my life, Ryan. I’m scared, but I don’t believe I’m going to die. I have to keep focused on what will happen if I don’t, not what happens if I do.”
Ryan shook his head.
“And a promise is a promise even if it’s only a sorta one.” Stacia managed to give him a small smile.
“You have to tell me what you know, in order for me to help you. You don’t need anyone’s permission to save your own life.”
She remembered Ryan’s dead-serious, anger-tinged voice. He’d used it on her all their lives whenever he wanted the truth out of her, and she’d learned a long time ago she better respect and obey him. Being an adult now made no difference in the rules. Yet... “Tell you what, I’ll call Helen and get permission to break my promise to her. If she agrees, then I’ll tell you whatever you want to know. Okay?”
“Helen?”
“Don’t ask. I’m not saying anything else until I talk to her. I’ll call from my bedroom.” She went into the next room, closing the door softly, and called Helen who readily gave Stacia permission to tell Ryan what she knew. Stacia dispersed a sigh of relief and went back into the living room.
“Okay, Ryan, I have permission to tell you about Audra, but what happens next? Will everything be splashed all over the media?”
“You know I’ll do my best to stop it, Stace. Right now, only Chief Brannigan knows, and he’s a good man. He’ll keep it as quiet as he can, but others will be involved. And if things get out of control, then, yes, I’m sure everything will be splashed all over the media.”
♥♥
“How are you doing, Stace?” Hal asked when he called her at the studio the next afternoon.
“I’m okay as long as Ryan’s with me.”
“He stopped into my office early this morning to tell me what happened and ask me some questions. Is there anything I can do? I’ll come stay with you if you’d like.”
“Thanks, Hal, but Ryan has become my personal bodyguard. He doesn’t leave my side unless he has to. He hired a security team that is stationed at my front and back doors, inside and out, at all times.”
“I’m glad Ryan’s in charge of you,” Hal said. “What about work?”
“He demanded a closed set, and his orders were followed before he’d even let me come to the studio. He’s here with me now.” Stacia smiled at her brother sitting across from her.
“You seem to be holding up well. Hang on a second, my assistant just walked in.” Hal stopped talking for a short time. “God, Stace!” he exclaimed.
“What’s the matter, Hal?”
“You said Ryan was there? Let me talk to him.”
Stacia gave the phone to her brother.
“Go ahead, Hal,” Ryan said. A frown crossed his face as he listened to Stacia’s agent. “How’s the envelope addressed?”
Not another one, Stacia thought.
“I see. Did it come by mail or messenger?”
Stacia suddenly felt sick. She placed her clasped hands gently on top of her stomach, hoping their warmth would help dispel the nausea churning inside her.
“I’ll send someone over right away to pick it up.” Ryan ended his conversation, stood up and peered out from the side of the closed blinds. “This damn perp now knows who your agent is. He’s shrewd, and he’s no amateur,” Ryan said coldly. “The envelope was addressed to you in care of Hal. This stalker is playing cat and mouse games with us until he moves in for the...” Her brother stopped talking.
“Kill,” Stacia finished for him, surprised that she felt as cold as Ryan sounded. “That’s what you were going to say, wasn’t it?” She pressed her hands together tightly. They were ice cold. There was no warmth there, so she let her arms drop into her lap.
“Sorry. I was thinking out loud planning my next strategy.”
“It doesn’t matter. I was thinking the same thing. Now I know exactly how Helen felt when she told me her kidnapping story. No matter what, she had to finish it or the monsters won, she said. I’ve already come to the conclusion I can’t let this stalker control my life. As long as I’m scared, he does control it...and me.”
“I know one thing I can control, and that’s not letting you film anymore today or until this perp is in custody. I want to keep you as safe as possible, and the only way is to keep you holed up at home.”
“You can’t let him win, Ryan. If you shut down production, he will.”
“Your definition of winning is different than mine. Keeping you alive is winning to me. Let’s go.” From the determined set of his jaw, she knew he’d delivered the maximum irrevocable command.
“But I don’t understand why you can’t protect me here just as well,” she persisted, smiling up at him. “I feel safe as long as you’re with me.”
Ryan rolled his eyes. “Come on, Stace. This isn’t a silly issue you tried to talk me out of doing when we were younger. There are no options to this. We’re going home, even if I have to carry you out of here.”
Same brother. Same determination. Same winner. “Well, I can see some things in life never change. She grinned at her brother and grabbed her jacket. “But one thing, Ryan, before we leave, tell me what this note said.”
“You weren’t shocked enough last time?”
“I have to know,” she said.
“It read, Are you ready to be screwed again, Audra, before you die?”
♥♥
The next couple days passed slowly and quietly. No new letters from the stalker surfaced. Stacia was beginning to tire of being a prisoner in her own home. The drapes in her condo had to be drawn at all times. The only light she saw was artificial. Even the skylights had plywood nailed over them. She couldn’t go out on her patio, although that restriction she understood.
Ryan was gone for a few hours. When he came back, she intended to talk to him about how long she had to live this way. Even though she knew his answer would be, “until the stalker is behind bars.”
Maybe whoever was sending the letters was bluffing. Perhaps all he intended to do was to frighten her, and he’d certainly succeeded in doing that. But holding up filming on London Affair had to be putting Nathan and Arthur over budget, and she’d never done that before on any movie she’d worked on.
Because she had nothing but time, she practiced meditating two or three times a day. Her dedication to it rewarded her by making it easier for her to relax and enter her special place. The rest of her days were spent thinking about Clay and wondering what he was doing. How she wished she was at SwissDen instead of here. But that was impossible until the right time ventured into her life. And the way her nightly dreams kept revealing themselves to her, she doubted the right time would ever be a reality. Each one kept reinforcing her belief of a life composed of no marriage...or a short one ending with disaster, and she wondered if this could be the disaster they were foreshadowing.
Ryan suggested they leave town, but she wouldn’t. She had to get back to the movie set as soon as the stalker was caught. Besides where could she go? Home to Wisconsin? And run the risk of him following her there, and putting her parent’s lives in jeopardy? Absolutely not. So, she and Ryan had come to a compromise which was actually more like an impasse. She agreed to stay home under his protective custody, and he quit his campaign to force her to leave town.
Days and nights, more or less, faded into one another. She’d peek out the side of her drapes in the bedroom once in a while just to see the sunshine or the moonlight.
It was strange thinking someone wanted her dead because she resembled Audra and was filming the same movie
the deceased actress once had. She had so much to accomplish yet in her life. She’d barely begun to live, and now everything she’d hoped, dreamed or wanted to do in the future could be snuffed out as fast as blowing out a candle. Was that all there was for her in this lifetime?
Tears collected in her eyes. She swiped at them angrily with the back of her hand. She wasn’t going to let some psychopath dictate when her life would end. She had Ryan to protect her, and he would now just as he always had in the past.
She could hear the low hum of voices in the living room. She opened her bedroom door and saw her brother was on the phone. His back was to her, and he hadn’t seen her enter the room.
“How many men can you spare?” Ryan asked. “He has to be stopped, Chief, one way or the other. If we can’t do it, I’ll have to find someone who can.” Ryan began to pace the room as he talked. “He’s through playing games and ready to go for all the marbles. He...” Ryan stopped talking as he turned around and saw her. His face replicated the Grim Reaper’s.
Stacia’s heart began to pound. A sudden burst of heat rushed to her face.
“I’ll call you back, sir,” Ryan said as he tossed his phone on the nearest chair. “How much did you hear, Stace?”
“What happened?”
“He’s through toying with us now.”
“Another note?”
“It’s not only the note this time, it’s where he put it. Somehow he managed to slip past security and...” Her brother paused as if he didn’t want to continue. “They were watching the area on cameras, and the security people got there fast, but they were too late, he was gone.”
“Where, Ryan? Where did they find the note?”
“It was taped inside your elevator, folded up with the word ‘Audra’ on it. One of the security guards gave it to me when I came here just now.”
Stacia panicked. “My private elevator? How did he find out...” Pressure mounted from her hot face and spread itself to her throbbing forehead. A cold, clammy feeling washed over her body. Everything seemed to be turning black around her. Why were her legs shaking so much?
