Secret thoughts: (God knows I wanted him so much. I wanted him to make love to me; right there in the backhoe, I guess that is shameful of me. But Chad is a man of his word, and he kept telling me that we need to do it the right way at the right time. He wanted her so much, and how it would be such a high honor to make love to her. I guess that means if we ever got married! Oh God what a thought…)
Amelia got up and went into her room to get the shirt Chad left there when he visited, she put it on and sat back down. She didn’t wash the shirt because she wanted to be able to smell his scent on the shirt. She wrapped her arms around herself and thought about how they held each other earlier today and wished he were with her right now. She knew there was no one else for her but him. She would wait for him no matter what.
Several weeks later the commander of the base called Chad and the sergeant into his office. “I’ve heard some rumors on base about your squad and an unscheduled special mission,” the commander said. “Have you heard anything like that lieutenant?”
“Sir, no sir.”
“How about you sergeant, have you heard anything?”
“Sir, no sir,” the sergeant said.
“That’s good because that would be considered misuse of government property and might be grounds for a court martial. There are two reports here on my desk; one is an inquiry from the FAA something about an unauthorized landing at the Philadelphia Airport. The other report states that your squad has completed more successful missions than any other squad here. They don’t get much time off and when I looked at their schedule, I see you have worked them like dogs. Even so, their morale remains the highest on base. How do you explain that lieutenant?”
“Sir, we try to work closely with the group and always make it a team effort, sir.”
“I see, so that’s the secret. How about talking the MPs out of arresting drunken soldiers, and making unauthorized plane landings? Have you heard of anything like that?”
“No sir, nothing like that sir.”
“I wanted to check with you and the sergeant to see what your strategy was, while I’m not sure I agree with it, the results are superb. Your unit will be receiving a unit citation for its performance, at a White House ceremony. This brings great honor to us here on the base. I wanted to say thank you personally.”
Chad looked at the sergeant and they smiled, then he said, “Sir, my men will be elated to hear that news sir, thank you sir it’s our pleasure to serve, sir.”
“You may give the news to your squad yourself, and by the way, since the hearing by the FAA inquiring into a landing in Philadelphia and the ceremony for the citation are on the same day one of them will have to be dropped. Do you understand?”
SIR, yes, sir.”
“You’re dismissed.”
They saluted and turned to go.
Very quietly the commander said, “I hope she was worth it.”
They turned, Sir did you say something sir?”
“No, I didn’t say a word,” said the commander.
The sergeant looked at Chad and grinned.
“When they were out of earshot the sergeant said, “My ass was about to pucker when he told us about the FAA inquiry, we got off easy that time.”
“I know what you mean,” Chad said, I guess we’ll have to lie low from now on.”
Chad told the squad of their award and they wanted to all get together to celebrate that evening. When Chad and the sergeant got to the restaurant the men were all sitting at a long table. When they approached the table the men all got up and saluted and they all had on the gloves Amelia sent them on. Chad was touched.
The semester was going by fast. Amelia was busy with studying and work. She had taken a long weekend to go to Washington DC to see Chad and his squad receive their award and she got to meet his men. They teased Amelia and Chad mercilessly and Amelia laughed so much her cheeks were sore. They also thanked her for the packages she sent. They had a full day to be alone.
Secret thoughts: (I worry when I don’t heard from Chad every day, when I don’t, I knew he is on a mission somewhere and he can’t contact anyone. I worry more then and mentally hold my breath until I get a communication from him. I worry about his safety. He could never talk about the assignments they went on, although he did say once in an email that he was feeling badly because one of his men was injured. He didn’t say wounded, but I knew that’s what it was.)
[ Chapter 27 ]
A few weeks passed and everything seemed to be back to normal, no more sightings or crank phone calls, they felt good about that. Friday afternoon they went to the bridal shop in town to look at gowns for Betty’s wedding. They had a ball trying on all kinds of bridesmaid dresses, Betty tried on wedding gowns. She didn’t make a final selection, though; she wanted to go to another shop in the large mall outside the city. It was still early, so they got in Betty’s car and drove to the mall. There were actually two bridal shops at the mall, and they visited both. The mall had several restaurants and since they spent so much time trying on dresses, they decided to stay at the mall and have dinner. It was just after 10:00 o’clock when they left the mall and were walking to the car.
Without warning, a figure jumped out from behind a car and grabbed Betty from the back. He was a tall muscular man, dressed in all dark clothing and wearing a ski mask. Amelia and Shelly tried to get him to release Betty. Amelia kicked him trying to aim for his crotch and yelled, “Shelly grab the mace, the mace in your purse.”
Amelia began punching the man in his arms, his back anywhere to make contact trying to get him to let Betty go. Betty was screaming and trying to pull off the mask and scratch his face. After what seemed an eternity Shelly found the mace and aimed the spray at the ski mask. It was by no means a direct hit, but close enough to make the attacker cough and sputter. With Amelia and Shelly still trying to hit and kick him, he finally let go of Betty and ran away. Betty was hysterical and they tried to calm her down. A mall security car drove up and asked them what happened.
They explained someone tried to attack Betty. We tried to fight him off and sprayed mace at him and he let her go.” The security man made a report and said he would put a look out for someone with that description.
They drove home and Betty was still worried but had stopped crying. She looked around suspiciously when they got out of the car.
Shelly and Amelia insisted that Betty take a warm bath to try and relax and they made her a hot toddy with whiskey and tea. She had a rosy glow to her skin when she came out of the bathroom and told them she felt sleepy. They went with her to her room and sat on her bed while she fell asleep.
Chad called Amelia on her cell. “Hi sweetheart, how are you?”
She told him about what happened at the mall.
Are you and the girls OK?” He said, sounding worried.
“Babe we’re all alright,” she said, we were all scared, we’re home, and everything is alright now.”
“We’re in the field about to start out on a mission that’s why I’m still up. I’m worried.”
She told him about someone following Betty.
“Honey I wish I were there with you to protect all of you, you need a man around where’s Darrell?”
“Darrell is away on job interviews and won’t be back until next Wednesday.”
“Honey, you can’t play around with this. You need to call those detectives that came when you had the 2 other incidents. This is serious Amelia it sounds like somebody is stalking Betty and since you and Shelly are there in the apartment, you’re in danger too. I don’t want to scare you Babe, but you need to take some action. If someone ever hurts you, I will have to find the guy and kill him,” said Chad. Don’t wait call the police tonight. Tell them what happened, then call me back and tell me what they said.”
“Ok, honey I’ll call them tomorrow and tell them the whole story I promise.”
<
br /> “No, I want you to call tonight. It’s important. Then call me back,” Chad said firmly, “I won’t take no for an answer.”
“Ok honey, I will, talk to you soon.”
Amelia called the detectives and told them about the attack and someone following Betty.
“Do you think you are in any danger right now?”
“No, we are in our apartment and have the door locked and bolted, so I think we’re safe.”
“Joe and I are tied up on another case I will come to your apartment tomorrow morning first thing. Please don’t leave the apartment, keep your door locked and don’t let anybody in.”
“Thank you,” said Amelia, “I will tell that to my roommates too.”
She called Chad back to tell him what they said. “That makes me feel a little better but I’m still worried. My sweetest I miss you, so very much, please be very careful and don’t go out alone stick together like glue. I have to go now. I will call as soon as I can. Think of me.”
The next morning the detectives came to the apartment to talk to them.
Detective Wilson Garber and his partner Detective Joe Schwartz. Detective Garber was a tall thin guy with dark hair he wore long enough to touch his collar, he was not bad looking and acted very professional, he was dressed in a suit and tie, as was his partner and they seemed to take their jobs seriously. They re-identified themselves and said they remembered the girls.
They asked the girls to tell him the whole story. After hearing the story, they asked if they had any idea who was doing this. They questioned them on their whereabouts in the last few weeks and gave them some security advice about locking the door and not going out alone. They also told them not to follow a set routine when leaving or coming home. It was essentially the same advice they gave them after Shelly’s attack.
“I don’t want to scare you more than you already are, but this is the third attack on one of you and I don’t think it is random at all. Somebody is infuriated with one of you and is not going to stop until he gets whatever it is he is looking for, Wilson exclaimed in a serious voice.
“There is a slight problem,” said Joe, “we don’t have jurisdiction in the Mall. What we will do though is contact the Mall Security and ask about their video cameras. If there was one in the area, we will go out and take a look. We will get back to you on that.”
“Please follow our instructions, I know it will be a pain, but if it keeps you safe it is well worth it. Anyone watching will try to establish a pattern of your coming and going. Don’t go out the same entrance or come home the same way all the time. Go through the side door or the garage, that way it will be harder to figure out who is home when you come and go and always carry a flashlight and mace. If at all possible, go out and come back together,” Joe told them.
“You need to call us even if someone looked suspicious. I’m serious about this,” he said, “don’t hesitate to call if anything else happens.”
Wilson was concerned and was going to check Luke’s background. He told the girls he would have police patrol cars ride through the neighborhood and when they were working nights, he and his partner would spend some time watching the apartment. Wilson was very understanding of their concerns and tried to make them feel safe. He called Shelly during the week to see how she was doing, Shelly thought that was sweet.
There were no further incidents for the next few weeks except for one creepy phone call Shelly had. She called Detective Wilson and he took the information and promised to call her back. When he did, he told Shelly it appeared it was a onetime incident and she should call him immediately if it happened again. All seemed quiet for the next few weeks and the girls felt some relief. Amelia filled Chad in on all that happened.
Secret thoughts: (I’m so glad that we have had no more problems. Chad was about to go AWOL if it happened again. He is so angry with Darrell because he’s never around and always doing something for himself.)
[ Book Two ]
[ Chapter 28 ]
A month passed and nothing happened, the girls were beginning to relax a little and that evening discussed how good it felt not to be so scared to go out or feel so paranoid. Wilson had called a week ago to check on them and see if anything more had happened. He and Shelly talked for a long time and Shelly told Amelia and Betty how impressed she was with Wilson and his concern for them.
Several days later when they were leaving the apartment together and walking to Betty’s car, they stopped dead in their tracks when they saw the message.
On the windshield under the wipers was on a plain white piece of paper written in block letters, it said, “Time is running out, my patience is thin, I won’t wait much longer. Meet me tonight in McCullough Park. Sit on the bench near the fountain, not under the lamp post. Wear a red scarf be there at 10:30.
Your secret admirer,
Guess who
Secret thoughts: (My gut clenched as if someone had punched me in the stomach and all I could think of was, no not again. This is the last straw, this time we have to be smart about this and find this guy so we could have some piece of mind. I know this is killing Betty and she is visibly upset and is crying but we have to do more than just be upset.)
Amelia who had on gloves, grabbed the note and they all went back to the apartment and called Wilson. He was out on a case and said he would be over as soon as he could and asked them to stay in the apartment and keep the door bolted.
An hour later Wilson and his partner arrived, and they showed him the note.
“We didn’t touch the note,” Amelia said, “I picked it off the windshield of Betty’s car because I had gloves on.”
“That was smart of you,” said Wilson.
“Yeah,” said Amelia, “I saw it on a TV show.”
“I have to tell you that now this is pretty serious stuff, whoever it is, is getting more and more aggressive and upset which is not good. The angrier he gets the more dangerous it becomes for all of you. Believe me the last thing in the world I want to do is to frighten you or make you panic, but I want you to understand the gravity of the situation. We will go back to the station, talk to the captain, and see if we can set up a decoy to sit on that bench tonight. You three stay put. I will get back to you within an hour to tell you what the plan is. We have to move fast on this because there’s no time to waste. I don’t want the stalker’s patience to run out because I don’t want him to become more aggressive. I’ll see if any of the officers on the other shifts would be willing to help us with surveillance on this guy tonight.”
“Is it really a stalker?” asked Betty.
“Let me explain something to you Betty,” Wilson said as gentle as possible.
“Stalkers are a dangerous breed,” said Wilson, “usually the stalker has a mistaken belief that the person they are stalking loves them and they need them to protect and rescue their victims from some imagined evil. In general, men stalk women and women stalk other women. The first state to pass a law to criminalize stalking was California in 1982 when an actress was murdered by a stalker. By 1990, every state in the United-States had a law against this crime whether it was called stalking, harassing, or menacing.”
“One of my mother’s friends was divorced and her husband kept coming around and looking in her windows and it was creepy,” Shelly offered.
“That is stalking to,” said Wilson, “there are several categories of stalkers, some are rejected lovers, or divorced from the victim, some are seeking revenge, some want intimacy and some just spy on their victims waiting for a chance to attack them. The stalkers goal may be to intimidate, demean, and embarrass the person they are stalking. Many stalkers have mental illnesses although some are just seeking vengeance and want to make their victims life uncomfortable and to make them feel powerless, afraid, and dependent.”
There are a lot of terms used to describe stalking some are Bunny Boilers, gas lighting and p
oison pen letters. If you are a movie buff, you might remember, bunny boilers a term which originated from the motion picture Fatal Attraction In the movie the stalker takes the daughters pet rabbit and leaves it on the stove in a pot of boiling water. Gas lightening comes from the play Gaslight when a character used tricks to make his spouse think she is crazy. The poison pen letter is a note that contains an abusive or unpleasant statement or accusation, it comes from several sources mostly books and from the James Bond film, Octopussy.
There are people who report being stalked and it is a false claim, they often do this because they have delusions of persecution.
“I’m telling you all this because sometimes it helps victims to try and think about any persons in their acquaintance, who may be guilty of doing this to them. In this case, I know you all are not delusional and that your stalker is real. I’m trying to help jog your memories to help us find this crazy.”
The girls looked at each other and each shook their heads, they couldn’t think of anybody that they had an encounter with that was unpleasant, nor had they had any misunderstood relationships with anyone except Betty with Luke and they already told him about that.
Wilson stayed and asked them more questions about their movements in the last few weeks when all this started. They did their best to give him what they were able to recall.
“I’m sorry to ask questions and go over this again, it must feel like beating a dead horse, I’m just trying to get you to remember the smallest details of any kind or disturbing encounters that may give us a lead. I don’t want to miss anything.” They went over it all again.
“Since we’re not going to leave the apartment, I need to call my boss and tell him I won’t be coming to work I was supposed to do some clean up after class,” said Amelia.
Secrets of Amelia Page 17
