Literally Stalked

by Eryn Scott

  “Hey, Nate.” I proceeded forward, an apology written in the grimace on my face. “Sorry I messed up so much on the worst week possible.” I assumed Nate knew what had happened with the bookstore's power.

  Nate smiled. “No worries. It happens to all of us.”

  “All of us? As in, business owners?” I asked, my spirits buoyed. “I can’t remember this place ever getting the power shut off.” My head tipped to one side. “I would be able to recall the town imploding on itself.” Which is what would happen if the people were denied their favorite coffee.

  “Oh no.” Nate shook his head. “If the power went out here, there would be anarchy. They’re barely contained animals as it is.” He scanned the customers as if they might attack him at any moment. Shivering, he refocused on me. “No, I mean when I used to sell that line of power tools, I thought I'd forgotten to pay my power bill because the tools wouldn’t work when I plugged them in.”

  He paused. After waiting for him to finish for a few moments, I asked, “So… was that it? Did you forget to pay your bill too?”

  “Nope. Turned out, they just didn’t work.” He shrugged. “It was some kind of scheme.”

  I wrinkled my forehead, not sure how that was the same at all.

  “What can I get you to drink?” Nate asked.

  After ordering my usual latte, I stood there awkwardly in the silence after I paid. “Speaking of your sche—er—side businesses…” I rocked back and forth on the balls of my feet. “How’s the knife thing going?”

  It had been a few days since Cole had died, and I was no longer woozy at the mere mention of knives.

  Nate’s face fell from where he worked, preparing my drink. “Not great. I haven’t been able to make any sales so far.”

  “Sorry.”

  “Everyone has enough knives it seems, even the local hunters.”

  “Who are the local hunters?” I asked, feeling like I should know this about my town, but I hadn’t a clue.

  “Well, Old Man Jefferson, but he said he doesn’t need any. And then there’s the Williams brothers.” Nate cleared his throat. “Brother. Emerson was even missing a knife, and he refused to replace it.”

  “Emerson? You’ve seen him?” I asked, a wobble in my voice. “He’s staying at Woodcrest?” Nate’s mention of him reminded me I needed to get more information out of Cole’s brother.

  Nate nodded, pouring shots into the steamed milk. “In the carriage house, though, not the main.”

  Good to know, I thought.

  “Did he say…” I picked at something nonexistent on my nail. “Did he say how he’d lost the knife?”

  Nate handed me my drink and said, “Hunting…” slowly, as if worried about my sanity.

  “Oh, right.” I exhaled in relief, pulling the coffee to my lips to take a sip. I stopped with the cup only halfway to my mouth. “He kills the animals by stabbing them?” I asked, gulping down the feeling of sickness creeping up my throat. Maybe I didn’t want this coffee after all.

  “I mean, each hunter has their own way, but I’m quite sure he uses the knives to skin them afterward.” Nate shrugged. “It’s pretty standard to misplace a knife in the mix of blood and flesh after a skinning.”

  A customer walked up behind me, and I welcomed the forced end to our conversation. It turned out I wasn’t quite over the knife thing, after all.

  I stepped aside and was about to leave when Nate said, “Did I tell you my good news?”

  “Uh, I don’t think so.”

  He took the customer’s order and then glanced up at me. “Victoria and I bought a house down the street. We’re moving in next month.”

  “Oh!” I said, with way too much energy. “That’s so great.” I forced my face into a smile.

  Luckily, Nate busied himself with making the next customer’s drink, so he didn’t notice my awkward reaction. And I know I had just decided that I didn’t care whether or not Alex and I took things slower, but it seemed like the squirt of lemon my slashed ego didn’t need.

  “I’d love to hear more about it,” I said, “Uh—later, though. I’ve got to get going.” Holding up a hand in goodbye, I added, “My power should be back on soon. Then we can get back on track with the promotion. Thanks, Nate.”

  He gave me a weird salute and turned to hand the customer his coffee. I skirted out of the café. As I pulled my jacket tighter around my neck and sipped at my latte, I realized how close I was to my sister’s house. Maybe I could stop by and see if she’d let me borrow her car, so I could go have a chat with Emerson up at Woodcrest, now that I knew where he was staying on the property.

  Just as I started toward Maggie’s house, my phone buzzed in my bag. It was Liv. I stopped walking to answer the call.

  “We’re becoming regular talk-on-the-phone people since now we don’t live with each other,” I said in lieu of a hello.

  Liv laughed. “We are. How’s the bookstore? Any power yet?”

  “None.” I stepped to the edge of the sidewalk so I wasn’t blocking any passersby. “How’d Hammy do at your place while I was in class?”

  Snorting, Liv said, “She misses the couch. When I got home she was stretched out in the middle of it, fast asleep.”

  “Actually,” I said, with a chuckle, “she does that on the one my mom gave me too. Having a couch that’s Hammy approved is like—well—having any couch because I don’t think she’s met one she doesn’t like.”

  We laughed for a moment, but then both went silent. There had to be a reason Liv was calling other than to check in about the store.

  “So…?” I kicked a clump of icy snow with the toe of my boot. “What else is going on?”

  Liv cleared her throat. “I was just checking to see if you were going to stay over tonight too, and—you know—like when you would be here because either you need to come here, or I need to get out of the house.” She whispered the last part, then continued at the lower volume. “Carson got home, said two words and then disappeared into the garage again.”

  “Sorry, Liv.” I wrinkled my nose at the reminder that even the people moving in together weren’t immune from problems.

  About to tell her I would be there in a few minutes, I paused as an idea hit me. After hearing about Emerson’s missing knife, it couldn’t hurt to visit in numbers, and Maggie wasn’t the only one with a car.

  “What would you say to going on a little drive?”

  “Sure…” Liv answered warily.

  “Hot Watson,” I added.

  “Oh! Sure!”

  “Can you meet me at the bookstore in twenty? I have to grab something before we leave.”

  “Will do.” Her voice sounded bright, full of energy despite how down she’d sounded only moments before. “Should I bring Ham Dog?”

  “Of course!”

  We hung up, and I turned back toward the bookstore. I didn’t get even halfway there before my phone rang again.

  I grumbled to myself as I pulled it from my pocket. “Liv, you can’t be early and expect me to—” My words cut off as Alex’s name popped up on the screen instead of Liv’s.

  “Hey!” I said.

  “Is everything okay, Pepper?”

  “Um… yes?” I chewed on my lip, wondering how he found out about my sleuthing.

  “I’m standing in front of the bookstore and it’s dark.”

  My shoulders relaxed. “Oh, that.” I laughed. “I may have forgotten to pay my electricity bill… two months in a row.” I tried to make my voice sound light.

  It wasn’t as if I’d been trying to keep it from him. I had meant to call him last night. But Liv and I had been commiserating, and by the time we’d gone to bed, it felt too late. The fact that I’d had most of the day today to tell him squirmed in the pit of my stomach.

  Alex sighed on the other end of the line. “Forgot to pay or couldn’t pay?”

  “Forgot. I promise.”

  “Well, Frank made me take a break, so I brought you one of those lattes you like.”


  I glanced down at probably exactly the same drink I was already holding. Shrugging my shoulders, I tipped the rest back and finished it, then tossed it in the nearest garbage can.

  “Can you wait for a minute? I’m on my way to the store. I can be there in two shakes of a Hammy tail.”

  “Pepper, I’d wait two thousand shakes for you,” Alex said sweetly.

  My face pulled into a contented smile. See? We were fine.

  “Speaking of Ham Dog, isn’t she freezing inside without electricity?” he asked.

  My stomach flipped. “Oh, um… actually, she’s with Liv. We stayed at Noblebranch last night. I know you’re super busy with this case, and I didn’t want you to have to worry about me too.”

  I cringed as I listened to the silence on the other end of the line, hoping he wasn’t hurt.

  Okay, maybe fine isn’t the word.

  “Oh, right. That makes sense.” The flat tone to his voice was either disappointment or fatigue.

  “So how’s your day going?” I asked cheerily, changing the subject.

  He exhaled into the phone. “Long. We’re following a few leads, but for as many clues as we had at the scene, they’re all dead ends.”

  “Sorry.” I kept it at that, knowing I wasn’t supposed to ask or care about the details of this case. “Even the notes?” I ventured, feeling like it might be safe since I was the one who found them.

  “Even the notes. Frank gave me the one you found yesterday. But even that didn’t bring any more clues. It would be some feat to figure out who owns a typewriter around here just to find one that has a part of the e key missing. We’ve checked all of our current suspects’ homes, but they could’ve easily borrowed one.”

  “Right,” I said, but filed that piece of information away for later. My vision had been too blurry and freaked both times to notice that small of a detail.

  “How’s your day going?” he asked conversationally.

  As I replayed my day in my head, I remembered Andrea’s comments about Alex, and my fingers threatened to curl into fists all over again.

  “Not great. I mean, I feel silly about the power and then Andrea was being… extra Andrea-y today. I know you can’t go around checking all the typewriters, but hers might be a good place to start. She said some disturbing things today.”

  “We’ve already checked. She doesn’t own one. But her alibi is unsubstantiated. Also, the light stalking might be more full bodied than we first thought.”

  An uncomfortable laugh shot out of me, because he had no idea. “Yeah, it sounds like you might be her new target now that Cole’s out of the picture. She could’ve been the one to leave that note.”

  “Okay, Peps. Don’t worry. We’re taking her very seriously as a suspect. Luckily, all you have to worry about is school and running your store, once you get this power turned back on, that is.”

  I rounded the corner, and my bookstore came into view. Alex stood by the front door, leaning on the front window while he talked. Two coffee cups rested on the windowsill next to him.

  “Hey, I gotta go. There’s some dreamy guy waiting for me in front of my store, and I need both of my hands free, so I can squeeze him and ravage him with kisses.”

  Alex looked up and beamed back at me. We hung up and closed the distance between us. Arms wrapped around my back and lips found mine. As the kiss deepened, I let my hands work their way around the back of his neck and into his hair, messing it in that way he professed to hate, but always made his mouth tip up into a sexy smile.

  “Peps, I wanted to—” Alex started, but was interrupted.

  “Hey, get a room,” someone called to my right.

  Alex and I broke apart. Liv leaned out her open window as she pulled her car to a stop in one of the diagonal parking spots in front of the store.

  I waved as Alex ran his hand through the back of his hair, righting it from my fingers. Hammy grinned at us from the back seat.

  “You going somewhere?” Alex asked as he glanced between me and the car.

  Liv’s face tightened, and she leaned back inside the car.

  I swallowed. “Uh, yeah. We were going to…” My eyes locked onto Hammy’s panting face. “Take Hammy for a little snow adventure since I can’t work tonight, anyway.”

  Alex turned to Liv who nodded emphatically. “That should be fun,” he said as he walked over and grabbed the coffees off the windowsill, holding one out for me. “I’d better get back to the station.”

  Taking the coffee, I leaned up and planted a thank you kiss on his cheek.

  With one last wave, Alex said, “Be safe” as I climbed into the passenger side of Liv’s car.

  She waited until he was a few yards away to exhale. “Well, that was close.” Her fingers pressed the button on her door that rolled up her window.

  I cringed. “Yeah, sorry. I didn’t know he would be here.”

  “Him surprising you with a coffee is the cutest.” Even though Liv smiled, there was a sadness to her tone, which made my heart hurt for my friend.

  I put a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, I promise we’ll get to the bottom of this Carson thing.”

  “Thanks. Didn’t you need something inside?” she asked, gesturing to the store.

  “I was going to grab my camera, but I’ll use my phone if I need to take any pictures.”

  Liv backed the car out of the spot.

  “How was your day?” I asked as we got on the road.

  The sun was peeking through the billowy winter clouds and making the snow dance with glitter.

  “Fine.” She shrugged. “Yours?”

  “Oh, mine was fine too. Though, I have a few more things to add to Andrea’s list when we get back home.”

  Liv’s eyes widened. “Tell me everything.”

  12

  As we drove up to Woodcrest, I described my conversation with Andrea to Liv.

  Because she’s my very best friend, she gasped incredulously and narrowed her eyes as I explained the way Andrea had talked about Alex and how I suspected her of leaving the notes in my apartment.

  “I appreciate how you put the Liv in livid for me.” I smiled at her show of support as she pulled the car onto the valley highway.

  “She crossed the line so many times it’s like she was doing some sort of evil double Dutch over it,” Liv said, looking as if we weren’t already on a mission she would turn this car around to find Andrea and teach her a lesson. “Are you worried?”

  I nodded. “It really sounds like she’s moved on from stalking Cole to Alex, right?”

  Liv raised an eyebrow. “I mean, I’m not fluent in crazy but from what I’m picking up… yeah.”

  My laughter died away as I remembered what Alex had said. “She doesn’t have a typewriter, though. They already searched her place.”

  “She might not own one, but does she have access to one? You don’t have a typewriter, but I would bet money you could get your hands on one in less than an hour if you needed to.”

  “True.” I tilted my head as I thought. “My mom saved my dad’s old machine and—come to think of it—Fergie has one too.”

  Liv sucked in an excited breath.

  I put up a hand to stop her. “I’ve used it, and every letter is in pristine condition. Alex said the e on the note was half gone.”

  “Of course you’ve used Fergie’s.” She smirked, focusing on the road.

  “You’re not wrong about her having access to a typewriter, though. That’s a good point.”

  Liv took the turn toward Woodcrest, and her car climbed up the hill. “But you said Andrea admitted to seeing the two of you kissing in the hall, right?” she asked.

  “Yeah, so?”

  “Peps, anyone who sees you and Alex as much as look at each other has to recognize you two are the definition of head over heels.”

  Hope swelled in my chest, and I tried to hold on to the peace I’d found about our relationship earlier. The good feeling fell away just as quickly as it came.

  “That may
have been part of the problem. We caught her attention. If we’d been a picture, I doubt she would’ve missed a beat before pasting a photo of her face over mine.”

  Liv let out a wry laugh as we pulled up to the mansion. An uncomfortable silence sat in the car with us like a terrible passenger sitting in the back next to Hammy. It was hard to say if it were more from what I’d said or the eerie house looming in front of us.

  “He won’t be at the main house; we need to drive around to the servant housing and stables.” I pointed to where the driveway pavement continued on to the right of the building.

  The whole thing was dry, clean of snow as if it’d been shoveled right after our last storm.

  “Stables? Who are these people?” she muttered as she followed my directions.

  “I’m beginning to realize I have no idea.”

  Behind the immense main house, stood a veritable small village of buildings. I knew most of them to be servants’ quarters and detached garages. When we were younger, Maggie and I actually felt bad for them when we’d seen their garage wasn’t attached to their house like ours was.

  “They have to walk in the rain to get home, and what do they do when they have their arms full of groceries?” my sister and I had wondered aloud to our parents when we’d come home from Cole’s tenth birthday party.

  Little did we realize that they had people to do their shopping for them, and a chauffer most likely drove their cars into the garage once they were done with them.

  After Cole’s birthday party, almost every major event happened here at Woodcrest: end-of-the-year parties, summer pool parties—partly because he was one of the few people with a pool—and even our graduation party.

  “You know my friend, Fiona?”

  “The EMT?” Liv scrunched up her face.

  “That one. She grew up right there.” I motioned to one of the cottages next to the garage. “Her dad was the Williams’s gardener. Oh, that’s the barn over there.” I pointed to the large building to our left, and Liv turned the car in that direction.

  No other vehicles were parked in front, but I wasn’t worried. Emerson had never been one to drive himself, unlike Cole who didn’t like to use the chauffeurs if he could help it.