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“Understood. Putting you on speakerphone. Mute me on your end.”
Cherise needed no prompting to utilize the mute button on the radio’s face herself. Both of us were engrossed with the conversation taking place on Andre’s end as he explained his discovery. I swung into the building’s lot and parked with a squeal of brakes. Two officers glimpsed back at us scrambling out of the truck. One, young and likely a rookie, approached us with his hand out, intending to keep us from getting near the sidewalk.
Cherise threw up a hand and kept advancing on him. “This is my office, my stalker. I want to know what the hell you’re going to do about him.” She was enraged and had taken charge. It was fucking awesome as I covered her back.
The officer was reduced to stuttering in the face of that ferocity. “Ah, ma’am, we, well, we need to speak with you about your history with the man you and Mr. Underwood—”
“Staff Sergeant Underwood,” the officer older by ten years or so edited for him.
The young one blushed red. “We need your report of why you and Staff Sergeant Underwood seemed to think one specific person did this. When forensics arrives, we’ll have them dust the box and the letter then open them.”
Ten minutes later, it was a whole production wrapped in a shit-show outside the office. More officers had been summoned for the questioning of the construction workers at work nearby. Cherise gave an account of her saga with Chad promptly. While we waited for forensics huddling with Andre at the end of the sidewalk, the box started to bleed at the bottom. As my luck would have it, Cherise spotted it first. The second the blood appeared, she clammed up tighter than a virgin, went pale, pointed at the box then buried her head in my chest.
“Fuck,” the older officer blasphemed under his breath. “Tell forensics to make haste, Robinson.”
“Yes, sir.” Robinson got on the phone and didn’t get off until forensics pulled up in a repurposed ambulance.
Andre and I did all we could to comfort and surround Cherise. Shielding her from the next bad thing to happen was my priority until I couldn’t. It broke my heart when she looked up at me, frightened to death, trembling, and almost in tears.
“What if some part of Eva is in there? What if he hurt her so badly that… Her family…” Her voice cracked. She gave up on speaking, burying her head once more in my chest.
Not one time did she ask if Chad would hurt her too. So damn big-hearted, she showed more distress for her co-worker’s well-being than her own. I was here to see that her well-being stayed well. Within its limits anyway. It was time to put Operation Fuck Chad Up into rotation. He was about to be cornered like the wild beast he was. It had to happen soon. Cherise couldn’t go through one more thing because of him. I prayed he came out of the corner I planned to put him in mad and untamed on me. I had nothing but murder on my mind. The only way to ensure Cherise was safe from him was to eliminate him for good. Until then, I held her and would hold her so tight there was no way to tell where my body ended and hers began.
Cherise
What if some part of Eva was in that box? went round and round my head like a merry-go-round that I couldn’t get off of or stop. This was a horrible, horrible way for the day to begin. And I thought waking up to Tobin being gone was bad.
“Dr. Johnston,” the young officer yelled unnecessarily over the low chatter from the spectators, mostly the construction crew working for my landlord. I jumped at the sound of my own name, which had never struck fear in me when spoken. PTSD was the last of my worries. I was headed for a full-blown meltdown.
Tobin’s arms went from snug to almost suffocating around me. “Just wait until she feels ready to look at that shit, Officer Robinson.” Tobin was beyond incensed. That didn’t bode well for me. Whatever they discovered in the box had to be worse than the worst.
“We need her to examine the letter, not the content… of the… box.” Robinson’s hesitation to even refer to the box had my imagination and anxiety levels raging out of control.
Don’t think about it, Cherise. All you have to do is read the letter. Unable to let go of Tobin, I was epically failing at mentally pep-talking myself into facing the hell behind me. I tried rallying my strength out loud. “You can do this, Cherise. The faster you look, the faster you can turn away again.” Yeah, no, that wasn’t working either.
Tobin bent over to whisper in my ear, “You don’t have to let go of me, just turn around, baby.”
Turning around didn’t seem so hard. I managed it barely but didn’t have to go from the safe space Tobin represented. The officer was right there with the letter in gloved hands. The words were bold and black, obviously penned in a black sharpie for effect.
Warning! You’ve accepted the wrong man, Cherise. Stop now. Don’t make me get rid of him. It’s time for you to come home to me. I’m the only man for you.
The letter’s effect on me was immediate; unmeasurable anger and terror that Tobin would get hurt, or worse, killed because of me. Chad was going to take me like he had Eva.
“Yes, it’s Chad’s wording. Accepting him is all he talks about. Officer, I’m not going to let him hurt Tobin.” I stepped away from Tobin toward Robinson. “I’m not going to let him take me. I will kill him if he comes near me. The second you slap handcuffs on me for saving my own life, I will sue the fucking boxers off LIPD!” It registered that I was yelling at Officer Robinson, who was backing up as I steamrolled on him.
Tobin seized my arms. I struggled to get to the officer. Officers like him had let Chad intensify his terror campaign on women. Officers like him had let Chad take Eva. Officers like him were going to get us all killed before Chad was stopped. Apparently, I screamed all of that at Robinson. He was appalled. I didn’t care, I had cracked the fuck up.
Tobin picked me up off the ground from behind, caging my arms to my sides. “Cherise, dammit, calm down. Baby, we’re going to fix this.”
I kicked and screamed my frustration, rampaging in midair, and making a fool out of myself, but my stress was being exorcised. So, it was worth it. Tobin carried me toward my business’s entrance. The bleeding box had been removed from in front of the door. The forensic scientist examining the box’s contents was standing nearby with it, talking with another.
“Yep, it’s a human heart already.” He poked around in the box, tipping the block of flesh upward with a finger. Catching just a glimpse of the organ, I seized up in Tobin’s arms. The forensic scientist had no idea I was painfully riveted on him. “I’m sure it’s no coincidence that the city morgue was broken into last night, a body stolen, and a heart was found here today, though.”
It may not be Eva’s heart, was all my mind could handle right then. The rest of the world had stopped for me. I knew I was grasping at the only thing that might be sane about this whole affair, dying for it to be true. For Eva to be alive. Granted, someone’s deceased loved one being stolen and mutilated was terrible. Eva not having died so Chad could terrorize me was the lesser of the two evils, however.
Tobin stroked my face. Skin to skin contact with him unlocked my mental prison. I felt the chair beneath my body, saw the white walls and decor. Tobin perched on my desk in front of me, had gotten me inside my office without me being aware.
“Baby,” he called worriedly.
