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He was just finishing when I gave him the address, grabbed my keys and wallet off the counter, and rushed to the garage.
Who the hell was sending her things that bled? Had she pissed off a reader? Maybe someone had tried her romance advice and it hadn’t worked, and now they were threatening her.
I arrived just after Trevor and in we went. I made sure to try and relax before I introduced myself to her mom again. Was it only the other day that her mother had given me a hug when I arrived and had thought that Maggie and I were still high school sweethearts? I could not imagine what that did to Maggie on a regular basis. Did her mother ever forget who Maggie was?
The counter was a mess; the dark blood was congealing around the box, and luckily Trevor had thought to bring gloves. We were just about to cut the box open when Maggie went to answer the door, and her shrill voice echoed down the hallway.
“What? What are you doing?”
I brushed by Trevor in a flash and went out to the hallway to see two cops trying to cuff Maggie.
Luckily, Trevor knew one of the guys and was at least able to get something out of him.
“How could they possibly think she had something to do with that mess? She was held captive just like I was.”
“I’m sorry, sir, but I can’t tell you any more than I have,” the cop said to me.
“What about my mom?” Maggie was straining against the grasp that one of the cops had on her.
I stepped forward. “Maggie, you have to go with them.”
“But what about my mom?” Her eyes began to water, and I cupped her face. The purple nitrile glove that I wore was so vastly different from her pale skin.
“I got her, Mags. Don’t worry about her. You go with them; I’ll take care of your mom, and we’ll figure this out.”
“Thank you. Greg, I didn’t do anything,” she said in a plea-filled voice.
“I know you didn’t, baby.” I brushed a quick kiss over her forehead before I stepped back, and they took her away.
“Is my daughter a criminal?” Mrs. Valor’s voice seemed unusually frail.
“No, Mrs. Valor, Maggie is not a criminal. The police have the wrong information.”
“Yeah, and we need to figure out what is going on. Maybe that box has something to do with it. Should we have told the cops about that?”
“No, not until we know what’s inside.”
As we went back into the kitchen, Trevor pulled out his phone and turned on the video so we could record what was inside the box. He took a video of Maggie’s kitchen first and then the box as I began to cut open the sides.
I peeled back the edge carefully, wondering if something would go boom, but it didn’t. Inside was a dead rat, and I growled, “Who the fuck sent her a rat?”
“Is there really a rat in there?” Mrs. Valor asked as she got closer, craning her neck to see.
“Yes, ma’am.”
She peered into the box and wrinkled her nose. “What is my daughter involved in that she gets arrested and someone sends her a rodent?”
“I don’t know, ma’am, but we will figure it out.”
She sat at the table, and I found an extra-large ziplock bag to put the entire box into. Trevor searched under the sink to find cleaners, and the two of us cleaned the counter.
“What are we going to do about Maggie?”
“I need to get down there, but I’m not sure what to do with,” I tipped my head to the side as I spoke softly.
“You go, I’ll ask Davina to come over, and we can stay here with her. I bet Mrs. Valor will love to meet Devon.”
“You don’t mind?”
