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Melinda lets out a sob and presses her face into her free hand.
“Go get Callum,” I say, feeling strangely calm as I comfort his wife, although I do twist my neck left and right to scan the area.
“I’ll take care of it,” he replies.
“No,” I say a little too sharply. “Don’t touch it. And go get Callum. He’s in the shower so just walk into the house and yell for him. He needs to see this.”
Cameron frowns as I continue to look around, his tone concerned. “What’s going on?”
“Please just go get Callum.” I let go of Melinda’s hand to reach into the side pocket of my leggings and pull out my phone. “Someone put that there for me deliberately and I’m calling the police.”
“Jesus Christ,” Cameron breathes out but then he takes off toward our front door.
There’s no one else around except a couple a block down walking away from us. I extricate myself from Melinda who is now gripping my arm. I give her an encouraging smile as I dial 911.
I’m on the phone with a dispatcher when Callum comes running out of the house in just a pair of workout shorts. His hair is dry so I’m assuming he hadn’t gotten in the shower yet.
Because he knows Joshua is the reason behind whatever is wrong, he looks around wildly, perhaps like I did, to see if he’s close by, smirking over his handiwork.
Callum rounds the mailbox, sees the horror and levels curse after curse to no one in particular. I ignore it, giving the dispatcher the address and asking for a police officer to come. At first, they’re hesitant but I drop either an untruth or a soon-to-be truth by saying, “I have a stalker and he left a mutilated cat in my newspaper box. I want this investigated.”
That gets the ball rolling. I hang up after I’m promised they’ll send someone out as soon as they can.
Cameron takes a sobbing Melinda into his arms and they move off to the side to stand in our driveway. Callum steps between me and the cat so I can’t see it, his hands coming to palm my cheeks. “Are you okay?”
“No,” I reply honestly. I don’t even try to give him a brave smile.
“Joshua did this.” Stating the obvious, of course.
“I had a cat with that coloring. He hated it.”
Callum’s expression turns thunderous, realizing that Joshua went to great lengths to not only find a cat to kill, but one that resembled a former pet.
His hands fall away. “Call Julia right now.”
I do as he commands because it’s a good idea. While we wait for the cops, I talk to my attorney and her advice is invaluable. “Make them treat it as a crime. Don’t let them slough it off. You make them get the security camera footage from all the houses nearby. You have them interview neighbors. If they balk at it, you call me right back.”
In the end, the police are very concerned once they hear about my history with Joshua, including his visit yesterday. They call in a crime scene unit and put uniformed officers on walking the neighborhood door to door to inquire as to footage and eyewitnesses. I sit on the porch and watch as they remove the poor animal, although Callum stays down there with fury etched all over his face.
It takes almost two hours for the last officer to leave and when Callum reaches me where I sit on the steps, I can only think to say, “You missed your appointment.”
“More important things to do.” He bypasses me and walks into the house. I scramble after him, following him into his bedroom where he picks up his phone and calls Brienne.
I listen as he tells her what happened, making no apologies for the missed appointment. She wouldn’t expect one anyway. He ends the conversation with, “I won’t be in for the foreseeable future.”
He’s disconnecting as I say, “Callum… you can’t not go to work.”
“Get in the shower and get dressed,” he says irately.
“Why?”
“When’s the last time you shot a gun?”
“Wait! What? Why are you asking me that?”
“Because we’re going right now for some target practice. That fucker is twisted and if he steps foot on this property, he’s getting shot. Preferably by me, but I need you to be able to protect yourself too.”
Callum starts for his bathroom and I follow, reaching for his arm to stop his progress. “Wait a minute… I don’t mean to minimize what just happened but you’re going to get a gun?”
