by Tessa Walton
He grabbed his gun and went and got in the car. It hurt just to put a seat belt on, as it pressed against the bruises formed. He drove to Dove’s house and parked on the street, wanting to make it not entirely clear what house he was there for. He hoped it would help that it was an unmarked car. He had a feeling the other car ran once they saw or heard the police coming. He didn’t want to give the man the benefit of knowing an officer was nearby.
He sat there for hours, quietly playing on his phone, and looking up every little bit to see if anyone was snooping around her house. He saw no one. He wondered once again if there was really anyone following her. Of course, it was possible whoever it was had figured out she wasn’t really home. It had been twenty-four hours; if he had been watching her for a while, then he was used to her routine. He would probably know when he could see her in the kitchen and the living room.
Nate understood the reason behind the man wanting to stalk. He wanted to learn everything about Dove. The difference was, he wanted to learn it all straight from her mouth. He wanted to talk to her until there was nothing left to talk about. He doubted he could ever get to that point, though. She seemed infinitely interesting. He wondered if the stalker felt the same way.
But he had no right to make her feel unsafe, though. Nate thought he might be willing to do absolutely anything to make Dove feel safe. Even attack someone with a frying pan.
There was no one to be seen. He waited until it was getting late, then decided to drive back to his home. He wanted to sleep in his own bed, maybe ease the ache of some of his bruises. He didn’t think Dove could get upset about that. After all, he had stayed there for hours.
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter
Nate took a look at the guy in the holding cell. He had certainly given them a run for their money. Nate had to admit he didn’t mind being in a car chase. There was certainly something exciting about it. But his body still ached. He wanted to ask him just why he was running. Did he have something he was hiding? They found nothing in his car or on his person, and there was no warrant out for his arrest. In fact, he was entirely clean. He had no reason to be running.
Which gave Nate an idea. “Hey, Jess, he was driving a red car, right?” Nate asked.
“Yeah. Why?”
“Ms. Orolv said the stalker was driving a red car.”
“Crap, you’re right,” she said, jumping away from her desk. “Let’s go tell Chief.”
“So this is big enough to tell Chief?” Nate asked.
“Yeah, totally.” Jessica went forward and knocked on the door.
“Come in,” Chief Diamond boomed. Jessica went in first, and Nate followed.
“Captain, Nate had an idea,” Jessica said.
“Oh? And what was that?”
“Well, Ms. Orolv said the stalker was driving a red car. She didn’t know what make or model, but the speeder, he was also driving a red car. It seems like a pretty big coincidence.”
“Good work, Officer O’Bannon,” the chief said, looking over him. Nate couldn’t help beaming in pride. “Get that grin off your face, though. A woman is getting stalked.”
“Right. Sorry, sir,” Nate said, quickly dropping the grin.
“I’ll have Lieutenant Monroe talk to him, but if this goes well it will reflect well on you,” Chief Diamond said.
“Thank you, sir.”
“Feel free to watch. You’ll be interrogating before you know it.”
Nate thanked him again and left the room. Once he did, he couldn’t stop the stupid grin on his face. He had been told he would be interrogating soon. They didn’t let rookies interrogate. Maybe he would lose the dreaded title soon. Maybe he’d be seen as a full cop.
“What happened to the no smiling thing?” Jessica asked, grinning herself.
“He said I’d be interrogating soon.”
“I heard him.”
They heard Leslie Monroe be called into the office, and Nate was practically shaking with excitement. They’d be watching someone get interrogated soon. Someone he had caught, and he had figured out was a criminal. This was a big moment for him. He’d be getting further and further as time passed.
Leslie came out a moment later, and walked over to the cage where the man sat. “Trevor Wilkins, please come with me,” she said, opening the cage. She took him to one of the interview rooms, and Nate walked over to the window.
“Why were you speeding?” she asked.
“I told you before; I didn’t want to get a ticket.”
“So you thought you’d outrun the police?”
“Sure, it looks stupid looking back, but it made sense at the time.”
“I think you were running from something. Something you did.”
“What would I have done?” he asked. Nate found that he was holding his breath. He wanted him to be the one. The chief wouldn’t forget that quickly. Nate would be able to remember this forever, the first time he caught a suspect.
“Do you know a Dove Babcock?”
“Who? No, I’m not from the area.”
Nate tried to get a peek at Trevor’s nose. Long and straight. Just what Dove had seen.
“Well, I think you’ve been stalking her. And that’s why you ran. You saw the police behind you, and you thought we had caught you. That we knew who you were.”
“That’s crazy.”
“Is it? It certainly seems possible.”
“Why would I stalk her?”
“I don’t know. Are you in love with her? Are you in love with Dove Babcock, Trevor?”
“I’m married.”
“But you have enough love to spread around, don’t you, Trevor? You just love all sorts of people. Most of whom never see you.”
Nate wondered where this tactic would get Leslie. If anyone actually admitted things this easily. But he supposed soon he’d be seeing for himself.
“Go ahead and call my wife and ask. We have a perfectly happy marriage.”
“Where were you Wednesday at 1?” she asked.
“Home. I work at home.”
“Was anyone there with you?”
“No. My wife and I are still trying for kids.”
“Well, we’re going to show your face to Dove Babcock, and she is going to make sure you go away for a long time.”
“Go call Dove in for a lineup,” Jessica said, looking at Nate.
Nate groaned. It was just starting to get good. But he knew he had no option but to listen to Jessica. Lieutenant Leslie could easily make sure Trevor Wilkins was taken care of. That was the most important thing. He walked to make the phone call.
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter
Dove realized something the next day when her school day finished. She had a hair appointment. It took her forever to make one, much less keep it. She didn’t want to ask Teressa for a ride. It seemed like she was always asking her for things. Better to just take care of it herself.
She was slightly nervous walking over to her house alone, but she figured she had been there with him plenty of times before. He had yet to hurt her. Anyway, all she was doing was jumping in her car. She did it with no pause, though a tingle ran down her spine. Once she jumped in, she felt perfectly safe. It was when she was driving there she wondered if she really wanted to get her haircut.
The salon was known for the amount of gossip passed back and forth. She was smart enough to know she’d be the brunt of it. She wanted to be strong and unbothered, to go anyway. But maybe she wasn’t as brave as she seemed, as much as it hurt her. She heard her phone ring and ignored it, driving with more force, hands gripping the wheel tight. She would be brave. She would go get her haircut and laugh softly at their borderline offensive jokes.
Once she got in, everyone went silent. Delilah motioned her to a chair. “Dove, so glad to see you. Especially with everything going on. Let’s start by washing your hair.”
Dove loved her hair getting washed. When her phone rang, she knew there was no reason to answer it. Whatever it was
could wait till she was done.
The salon was mostly silent, and Dove tried not to read into that, despite the fact that it was normally filled with idle chatter. “So, Dove, what is going on with you besides the stalking? You know, it can almost be taken as a compliment. Someone clearly finds you very interesting.”
“Right,” Dove said, forcing a small laugh. She didn’t take it as a compliment at all. There were much better things than being stalked.
“Oh, I didn’t mean to make light of it, sweetie. Of course it’s a hard thing. Especially with you living there all alone. Haven’t you thought about getting a man to fill that big old house?”
“I am pretty happy by myself there,” she said. She was realizing that maybe that was less than true. She was never lonely when she had her schoolchildren. But maybe a bit of companionship for when old age came wouldn’t be completely remiss.
“If you say so. But if you change your mind, I bet I could get you a date with Russell,” the stylist said. As if getting a date with the local drunk was a prize. As if she couldn’t get her own date with Russell if she tried.
“Thanks for the offer,” she said. “I’ll consider it.” She knew Russell was the stylist’s brother, and she always had this hope that the right person could change Russell somehow. Maybe he just needed the right girl to give him a reason to get clean. Dove thought it was rarely so easy.
She decided to do something different with her hair when the time came. She wanted to be a different person. She knew it was cliché, and a haircut wouldn’t get her anywhere, but she wanted it anyway. Maybe he wouldn’t recognize her with short hair. Her phone rang a few more times, but she didn’t answer it until the bob was finished.
Dove didn’t answer, and Nate figured he could be scared now. He got Jessica, and they drove to go pick her up from Teressa’s house. When they passed her house, he noticed something wrong. “Where is Dove’s car?” he asked when they went by.
“What?”
“Dove’s car; it’s not in the driveway.”
“She must’ve needed to get somewhere out of the town. You can only walk so far.”
“How do you know he didn’t take her and make her give him the keys so he could drive away with her?” Nate asked. It was as if his worst fears were being played right in front of him.
“Okay, relax. Let’s put in a call saying we looking for her car, and maybe someone will notice while out patrolling.”
“Let’s go find her. How far could she have gone? I just want to make sure she’s safe.”
“Relax. There’s no need to jump to conclusions. We just need to trust that everything will be fine. We’re going to go find her, or get a friend to find her. Let’s start with finding Ms. Orolv.”
Nate sped over to her house, using everything in his power not to turn the lights on like he so desperately wanted to do. He jumped out almost before stopping the car, and ran to the door, knocking on it hard.
“Hello?” Teressa said, opening the door.
“Have you seen Do—Ms. Babcock? Her car is no longer in the driveway,” Nate said, filled with concern.
“She’s probably just having a drive to cool off.”
“Could you call her and check?” Nate asked.
Teressa took out her phone and pressed the speed dial up to her ear, and Nate watched it ring. After a pregnant pause, she put it down. “She’s not answering.” Nate thought he could sense discomfort on Teressa’s part as well now.
“That’s something,” Nate said.
Jessica sighed. “We’ll just have to go find her, Nate. Everything will be fine. We’ll find her and then she’ll be fine.”
“Stop saying fine!” Nate said. “A woman is missing; a woman has been getting stalked. That’s not fine!”
“I’d hardly call her missing.”
“No one knows where she is. That sounds like missing to me.”
“Let’s try this. Let’s go sit on the highway coming into town, and we can send another patrol to go watch going out, and someone will have to catch her. Besides, our best suspect is currently in the police station.”
“Maybe it’s not him. Of course, she could’ve been kidnapped and murdered,” Nate said.
“Ms. Orolv, can you try calling her again?” Jessica said.
“Fine.” She dialed again, and the same routine was repeated. “Nothing.”
“Can we call the state police?” Nate asked.
“Because we don’t know where one woman is?” Jessica asked, raising an eyebrow. “She probably went out for food or something. We’ll find her.”
“Then let’s go do that,” Nate said, turning away.
“Thank you for your help, Ms. Orolv,” Jessica said, giving her a nod before turning away. Teressa nodded back.
Nate got in the car. “What now?” he asked.
“We call her again,” Jessica answered. She took out her radio and got Dove’s number. A moment later, the phone was ringing.
This time, she picked up. “Yes?”
“Ms. Babcock, this is Officers Daniels and O’Bannon. We’re checking up on you since your car is missing and you’ve been being threatened.”
“I’m fine. Just had a haircut.”
“Very well. We’d advise you not to go home.”
“I won’t again,” she answered. Nate frowned. She didn’t seem to sense the seriousness of the situation.
“Thank you for checking in with us, Ms. Babcock; please be safe. We were wondering if you could actually come into the precinct for a lineup. We have a suspect.”
“Oh, really? I can’t promise I’ll recognize him, but I’ll leave in a few minutes. I’ll come try.”
“Thank you,” Jessica said, then hung up. “See, nothing to worry about. Telling me to stop saying fine,” she muttered.
“Thank you,” Nate answered.
“Don’t thank me. It was you pushing that made us call. That was probably some good detective work, Nate. I didn’t even notice the missing car.”
“Probably?”
“Probably.”
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter
Dove pulled into the station. She hadn’t gotten a chance to ask them where exactly they had gotten a suspect. Maybe he had been snooping around her home. She hoped it was something so clear-cut.
She walked in the precinct, and Nate walked up to her. “Perfect! Do—Ms. Babcock, we have a room all set up for you. Now it’s going to be easy. Remember, you can see them, but they can’t see you. You have nothing to be scared of. There’s one suspect and five cops in the lineup. You just say which number is him, and then we make the arrest. Understood?” She saw him staring at her hair, clearly noticing the shorter, almost bob, of her blonde curls.
“What if it’s not him?” she asked.
“We’re pretty sure it’s him,” he answered. “We wouldn’t have brought you in here if we weren’t.”
“How did you find him?”
“He drove away from us when we tried to pull him over, in a red car.”
Dove felt a little more comfortable hearing that detail. Teressa had been pretty sure about the size and color. And running from the cops certainly was a positive. “Okay, I’m ready,” she said.
Nate led her into the room. There was a two-way mirror, and six men standing in jeans and T-shirts holding numbers. She looked slowly from one side to the other. Most of them weren’t even close. She noticed Jessica had followed them in, but tried focusing on the men. “Maybe number 5?” she said.
“Any others?” Nate asked. “Take a close look.”
Dove studied them all once more. None of the others had the sunken eyes she expected, or the nice, straight nose. “No,” she answered.
“Okay, thank you, Dove,” he said, and led her out the room. “You can go home now. Or rather, to Ms. Orolv’s.”
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter
When Dove left, Jessica rolled her eyes at Nate. “I’ll tell Officer Reynolds to stop stalking Dove.”
“Yeah, but the defense isn’t going to easily forget this when we try him. And juries put a lot of stock in eyewitness testimonies.”
“Why? Everyone knows eyewitnesses are horribly inaccurate.”
“Maybe every cop knows that. Juries love them.”
Nate tried not to feel horribly downtrodden, but he couldn’t see a way out of it.
Lieutenant Monroe walked over to them. “It’s probably not him,” she said.
“Just because of the eyewitness testimony of one person?” Jessica asked.
“No, he said he was on a business trip, out in Hungary, this week. He had flight tickets and all that. That’s pretty intense for just hiding stalking.”
“Do you want to tell her or should I?” Jessica asked.
“I’ll do it,” Nate answered. He called Dove’s number once more, and she answered.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Ms. Babcock, it’s Officer O’Bannon again.”
“Hey, Nate. What’s up? I’m not even to Teressa’s yet.”
“The man we had custody of wasn’t it,” Nate answered. “He was out of the country for most of your stalking reports. You can count on us to keep looking, but we don’t have him yet. By the way, I, uh, I really wanted to say I liked your hair.”
“Thanks,” she said, and he wasn’t sure if she meant it.
“By the way, about the other day—”
“Don’t mention it; I understand completely.”
“It was just because of the case. It wasn’t—wasn’t me. Not at all.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” Dove said, and he thought that time she meant it.
Chapter Twenty
Chapter
The police chief had given Nate the permission to take Thursday off if he wanted to rest up. He had refused. There was too much to be done to miss for a little whiplash. Part of him reminded himself that it would give him more time to watch Dove’s house, but after the hours alone the day before, he had a feeling the man had already realized Dove wasn’t there. Besides, he and Jessica could go look around every once in a while like they had before.
