by Anna Scott
I spent several minutes there, moving into the room, looking from different angles, everything I could think of. It was dusk outside, so I had enough light to see without turning on the lamp. I grabbed my flashlight and shone it over the glass in a methodical grid pattern. It was on the second pass that I saw it. A smudged mark that looked like a handprint, next to another more rounded print, right there on the glass. The window looked out over the front lawn, but the house was set back far enough that no one should be standing near that window.
I was worried about her safety; it was time I asked for some help.
“Hey Trent, I’m at Hope’s. I think I found something, can you meet me over here?”
“Give me twenty, do I need to bring anything?”
“No, I think I’m good.” I disconnected the call and waited.
It was a good feeling to be closer with the guys again. Before Nolan had taken his own life, we’d drifted apart. I didn’t think it was a conscious decision for anyone, we were all just busy and let our lives get away from us. Now, we were making the effort to spend more time together and reach out if we needed help. In this situation with Hope, I definitely needed help.
I searched the area outside, in front of the picture window but didn’t find anything aside from the prints on the window and a couple of smashed plants in the flower bed just below it.
I was changing the angle of one of the security cameras to include that area of the house better when Trent pulled up. He was a good guy, and had always possessed an eye for the smallest detail. He noticed things that the rest of us would miss. With his work at the sheriff’s department, I was sure that skill came in handy.
Gavin got out of the passenger side and they both strode over. Trent glanced up at the camera, took note of the others and scanned the entire area.
“Show me what you found.”
Tilting my chin in the direction of the front window, I saw the change in his expression the moment he noticed the smudges on the otherwise clean glass.
I was interested in his method, so watched with rapt attention as he scanned the area. He used the same grid pattern that I had, but his eyes narrowed on the shrubs separating Hope’s property from her neighbor’s. I focused in on the same area, took a moment to really study it and finally saw it.
Gavin stood back, watching as he always did. He was quiet, funny and light-hearted, but quiet. He observed, keeping himself somewhat removed from any situation, but he took it all in. Gavin’s ability to read people, to see what was just under the surface was uncanny. It made him an excellent cop.
“The flower petals?” I asked, confirming that was what Trent saw. There were a few red petals under the overgrown shrubs. Hope’s grass was overly long and I made a mental note to find a lawn service to deal with the maintenance while she stayed with me.
“Yeah, no reason they should be there. No garbage cans nearby, hasn’t been windy in a while, no flowers like that in any of the yards surrounding this one.” He was right. How he’d ascertained that information so quickly, I didn’t know, but he had the best eye I’d ever seen.
Continuing the scan, he confirmed my suspicion that the smudged hand print was most likely from a man and the strange rounded print was probably a forehead. I could just imagine some asshole standing out here, late at night looking into her window, just out of range of the cameras. He’d have had to come through those shrubs to stay out of view of the cameras. I’d checked the feeds and there hadn’t been any unusual activity.
“What do you think?” I asked him, hoping he’d have the answers I so desperately needed.
Shaking his head in frustration, they followed me into the house. Trent went through the house looking for any disturbance, just as I had. Gavin stayed with me, studying me. I looked at him in question, but just before he spoke, Trent came back into the room.
“I think whoever left her that note and shit stood right there and looked in her house. This neighborhood is filled with mostly working families, so probably not many people are here during the day. It was either late at night or midday when no one was around.”
“Makes sense. Do you see anything else?” On one hand, I wanted him to find something, a clue, but on the other, I didn’t. Every part of me wished this creep would just mysteriously fade into obscurity again.
“Nothing, looks clean.” We checked the house, doors and windows again, set the house alarm and walked out front to leave. The old Chevy truck I’d noticed before was idling in the street, stopped by the curb on the opposite side of the house from my truck. When we stepped out onto the porch, I noticed it right away and motioned to it subtly so Gavin and Trent would take note.
“What’s up with that?” Trent asked, watching, but not being obvious about it.
The truck pulled away from the curb, made a three-point turn and drove away from the house. It seemed like the driver was purposely staying far enough away from us and from the cameras so we couldn’t get a good view of the driver or the license plates.
“No idea, I’ve seen it a couple of times, it looked out of place so I paid attention.”
“You run the plates?” Trent knew me well enough to know that I’d already noted the license plate number.
“No, I didn’t have a good reason to, until now.”
“Looks bad for you to run it, if it isn’t relevant to one of your cases. I’ll see what I can come up with.” Gavin said, entering the conversation for the first time.
“Thanks man, appreciate it.”
Trent nodded, then asked “You talk to Dan Dupree about this shit?”
“Yeah, Hope has an old file on her history with this guy, she asked him to add it to the pile. He’s looking around, but hard to do much without a credible threat.”
“I’ll talk to Dan, he’s a good guy, we work together on cases all the time. Let me see what we can come up with. Text me the plates and we’ll get working on it.”
I thanked them, we did our standard childish fist bump and went our separate ways. Before I pulled away, I texted Gavin the number and watched the street for a while longer.
Hope knew that I was planning to come over here tonight and with the nightmares she’d been having I was afraid to tell her what we’d found. All I wanted to do was to protect her, but I knew that she’d lose her shit if I kept it from her. She deserved to know the truth.
As I drove back toward my house, I made odd turns and watched closely for a tail. I passed by the bar I’d spent so much time in before Hope came to stay with me. I knew that I’d been drinking way too much. The nightmares had come back full-force after Nolan’s suicide and I’d fallen back into old, dangerous patterns. Now, with Hope, to protect, I’d gotten my shit together and hadn’t had more than a beer.
Chapter 7
Hope
I jumped when I heard the front door open. Turning my head quickly, ready to run, I watched as Jake prowled into the house. Instantly, I saw that something was wrong. I wanted to know, but was afraid to ask. I wasn’t afraid of Jake; I was afraid of the knowledge.
He came straight to me, wrapped me in his strong arms, bent his head and kissed my forehead. I was taken aback, the gesture was so sweet, so intimate, it spoke of an entirely different relationship than the one we had.
Even though I’d told him I’d like to try and see where things could go between us, he hadn’t pushed it since that first night. I’d wondered a few times if my baggage was just too much for him. It had been a relief, because with all this drama swirling around me, I was in no way ready to sleep with him again.
“What is it?” I asked, pulling back slightly to peer up into his face. His strong, angular jaw flexed just before he answered.
“I found some smudges on the dining room window. One was a hand print, not sure what the other was.” I furrowed my brow, wondering why a handprint would be on that window. Nothing I could come up with was good.
“Did the cameras pick up anyone in the yard?” He’d put up three cameras on the house, they were
angled to encompass every entry point, the front and garage door were covered by one, the side door into the garage and one on the back door.
“No,” he bit out, in obvious frustration. “I called Trent, he came over and checked over everything too.” He went on to explain everything he and Trent had done, what they found and what the plan was.
I nodded in understanding, we couldn’t be sure it was the same person who looked through the window, but it probably was. I knew in my gut that it was Tim, this was just his style.
“I adjusted the camera up front to cover that area too, the only problem is that it will lose most of the rest of the front of the house. I need to add in more cameras.”
“How many, do you think?” I didn’t mind, of course, it was just the only thing I could think to ask and he seemed to need a specific problem to solve.
Jake was a very task oriented man, being the protective-type that he was, he liked to feel like he was making progress, but would take it personally if he couldn’t figure out a specific path and fix it.
“Probably two, one more on the front and one on the other side that is bare right now. I’ll get them set up tomorrow.”
“Thank you, I really appreciate everything you’re doing to help me.” Jake’s hard, frustrated face melted, his eyes looked down at me now with an inane softness I’d never seen before. I liked the look, I wanted to see it more, again and again. “Was there anything else? Anything inside?”
Jake leaned in and kissed the tip of my nose gently, the arms he had wrapped around my waist tightened before he spoke again. “No, nothing inside. I’ve seen an old Chevy truck a few times, seems out of place. Do you know if it belongs to one of your neighbors?”
I thought for a while, trying to recall the cars that had normally been on my street. I remembered seeing a truck like that, but hadn’t worried about it. “No, I mean, I’ve seen it too, only for the past month or two, but I don’t know who owns it.” I considered the truck for a few more minutes, trying to recall where it was usually parked, but the handful of times I’d seen it, it was in front of different houses. “I can’t remember it being parked in front of any particular house, maybe it belongs to a friend of one of my neighbors.” I wondered all this aloud, but I didn’t think it would help him at all.
Jake gave me a small, hesitant smile, seeming to try and reassure me more than anything else. “Have you had dinner?” The sudden topic change took me by surprise, but of course, my stomach let out an audible growl at the mention of food. Jake laughed, looked up at the ceiling and laughed. “Guess not, let’s go out. I haven’t taken you out yet.”
He released me, swatted my butt playfully and as I walked away to grab my shoes and coat, I peered back at him over my shoulder and saw him watching me, he was staring at my ass. My hair was down tonight, the long tresses flowed and skimmed the top of my jeans. Apparently, he liked the view.
Once settled comfortably in his truck, Jake walked around the front, which was nice because I got to watch him now and he climbed in the other side. As soon as we were on our way, he reached over and grabbed my hand, lacing our fingers together. He pulled my hand up to his lips and kissed my fingers. The action was so out of character for him, I wondered for a moment where the broody, grumpy man had gone. His mood had been so foul the past couple of months, all coming to a head at Luke and Aurora’s bar-b-que, but since then he seemed to have turned over a new leaf.
He still got irritated sometimes, but it was at the current situation, not at me.
Jake squeezed my hand gently to catch my attention, I’d spaced off, staring out the side window. Looking over to him, he smiled and focused back on the road. “I forgot to mention, we should probably get a gardening service to your place, the bushes are overgrown and the grass is too long. It looks like no one is there, I think it would be best if the place looks maintained.”
“Oh, good idea, I’ll call Aurora, she hired a service to take care of Nolan’s house.” At the mention of Nolan’s name, I watched as Jakes face changed, he nodded in agreement but stayed focused on the road.
I knew about his friend Dylan and what had happened when they were all deployed. What I didn’t know, was how Jake was handling Nolan’s suicide. Had anyone checked in with him? I knew that something tragic like that would dredge up those old painful memories.
He had nightmares, I knew that, had experienced a few during the week I’d been staying with him, but were they ongoing or had they just cropped up again recently. I didn’t want to bring it up now, we would be in public soon and that wasn’t a place to bring up painful topics, but I knew I needed to broach that subject with him soon.
Thus far, our relationship consisted of him taking care of me. I knew that if we were to be a healthy couple, I needed to step things up and take care of him too. Give and take was essential. One person couldn’t feel like they were constantly burdened by the other; that caused frustration and frequently anger in the long run.
We were about ten minutes away from the Italian bistro Jake was taking me to, so I leaned down, picked up my handbag and dug out my phone. Scrolling through, I lighted on Aurora’s contact information and placed the call.
It rang three times when she answered, seemingly out of breath. I worried that I had interrupted some fun times between her and Luke, but then heard the incessant barking in the background and figured she’d been out back playing with their dogs. I could just see the domestic scene in my mind, I was so happy for my friend, she deserved to find happiness, after all this time.
I did wonder why Luke had waited until after Nolan’s suicide to make his move, I’d known for years that he liked her, Nolan and I had actually talked about it. He thought that Luke was trying to work out his personal demons before going to Aurora, it seemed like Luke had bad timing. I knew that he’d wanted to approach her one night when everyone had gone out together, but she’d brought a new boyfriend. Another time, he’d kissed her and was in Afghanistan a month later. Apparently, he’d gotten sick of waiting and had just gone for it. I was so glad he had, I’d never seen either of them look so settled and content.
“Hey, sorry to interrupt, but when you have a chance, will you give me the information for the gardener, you’re using for Nolan’s?” Jake stiffened again, since my hand was still held firmly in his, I felt it. I snuck a quick peek up at him, to read his expression, but his face was blank. Eyes trained on the road, there was a definite lack of emotion on his face, like he’d purposely wiped it away. That troubled me, a memory niggled at the back of my mind, there was something there and it defiantly worried me.
“Of course. I’ve got the card right here on the fridge, do you want me to just text it to you?” Aurora’s voice brought be back to the present, but the strange feeling of apprehension remained in the back of my mind.
“That would be perfect. Thank you. You guys doing alright?”
“We’re great, how are you doing? Are you still staying at Jake’s?”
“Yes, I’m fine, nothing to worry about.” I spoke so casually, trying to invoke the feeling of breezy disconnect into my voice. I didn’t want to convey the anxiousness I actually felt.
We spoke for another couple of minutes until the restaurant came into view, then we disconnected the call. A few seconds later, a text came through with the image of the business card on my screen. I texted back a quick thanks and hopped down out of the truck when Jake parked. He met me at the front of the truck and we went into the bistro, hand in hand.
It was a lovely little place, the floors were hardwood, old, scuffed wide planked oak. Worn from years of tread, but still somehow appearing clean and perfect for the space. Small, intimate tables lined the back and far wall, larger and family style tables up front.
I thought that this had been an ingenious plan, so often a couple would be seated near a boisterous family. The noise would drown out the soft conversation they were having. It was hard to get to know someone or even to feel pretty and flirt with them if you had to compete wi
th a large group nearby.
As I followed the hostess to a back, corner table, Jake took position behind me and placed a hand at the small of my back in an obviously caring, but possessive way. The gesture spoke of intimacy, of protection and of concern for the other person. It made me feel cherished and yet an underlying concern swamped me.
I did my best to hold it back, but as he quietly guided me with just the slightest movement of his hand, directing which way to walk, I felt an unexplainable desire to melt into him and submit every part of myself to him. I couldn’t do something like that, I wouldn’t ever give a man that kind of power over me again, wouldn’t allow someone to hurt me the way Tim had or even in the way my father had.
As far as I knew, my father never hit my mother, but he ruled our house with his harsh words and demeaning commands. My mother gave him everything, her love, her total obedience and even her joy. I hadn’t seen her truly happy since I was a little girl, I could remember it like it was yesterday.
Mom had taken my older sister Faith, my younger brother Christian and me to visit her parents for a week. They were in Louisiana, and we’d driven. With three little kids in the car, the drive seemed to take forever. But that week, as my grandparents fussed and spoiled us, I saw a different kind of couple. I was only about six, I think, but my grandparents were nothing like my parents.
My grandpa was kind, always smiled and kissed his wife all the time. I’d thought it strange, then, I’d never seen anything like that, but over the week, the sadness in my mother’s eyes went away. I remember thinking that Louisiana was a magical place, that people were so happy there. When we’d gotten home, I told my father that I wanted to live in the magic place; that it made everyone happy. That hadn’t ended as a pleasant day, I never mentioned it again.
