AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Iz-”
“Where’s my mom, Alan?!” I scream the words out, tears pricking at my eyes. I don’t know why I’m upset, she’s an awful person who has done even more horrendous things.
We shouldn’t mourn or fret over terrible people…right?
Yet I can’t help the icy dread from slithering up my spine and gripping my heart. I can’t help it. She’s my mom. And for some fucking reason, even the most fucked up parents will still hold onto slivers of their children’s hearts, no matter how much they do their best to stomp it into dust.
That’s just the way it is.
“She fled before we could pick her up outside of your house and she never went back to her place either. We did find Tina and Billy. Tina is in the hospital and Billy is rotting in a cell down at the station. I’m sorry, Izzy, we never found her.” I nod as he tells me what I already knew the moment I saw the stalker mark over my mother’s face in the picture.
He has her.
I’m frozen, my bones chilled and brittle, as I contemplate what to do next. I go over the vision I saw, pulling every scrap of information I can from what I could decipher. There has to be a clue, something I’m missing.
My mind keeps going back to the piece of metal he used to carve into Arlo’s face, but there doesn’t seem to be anything there I can glean. It’s significant, but not for this.
I pull away from Ezra to pace back and forth, my mind flitting through the details.
Why the padded military vest? Is it bullet proof? Does he need the protection? Or is it to throw me off?
The shoes were large, the footprints heavy and deep in the coffee grounds, so he has to be big. But he didn’t seem all that tall when I saw through his eyes.
His movements were efficient and clean, but alsopassionate.
He seemed to find joy in what he was doing, but that could just mean he’s a psycho.
I’ve come across many deranged people in my career, each one with their own motivations and drives. Though…they were all self centered, focused only on what they wanted or needed. That is, aside from the guy who tortured and sodomized everyone involved with his sister and niece’s attacks. But he wasn’t crazy, he was just heartbroken and fueled by revenge.
My stalker has a fascination with me. His motives are centered completely around me. But why?
I can’t for the life of me recall ever making that great of an impression on someone. The psychos I’ve somehow drawn the attention of were already psychos doing their own thing before I intervened. This one seems to have come out of nowhere, for no reason at all.
Why now? Why me?
I think back to the photo of me and Nana standing and facing off against my mother outside of my childhood home. How did he get it? There’s something…
Maybe.
Possibly.
I reach for my phone, not finding it on me. “Shit! Alan, call Nana’s care home, I need to speak to her. Now!”
Removing his phone from his pocket with practiced efficiency, he has them on the line in less than thirty seconds flat. “Hi, yeah, this is Alan Richards, chief of police, can I please speak to Dorothy Wicked? Yes, thank you.” He waits for a moment and I move to him, snatching the phone out of his hand in time to hear my nana’s voice through the receiver.
“Hello? Is this the hooker I ordered?” Her sweet, mischievous voice is happy and carefree today. I hate to ruin it.
“Nana?”
“Bell? What’s wrong, sweetie? You sound…off.”
“I’m fine, Nana. It’s not me you should be worried about. He has her. He has Mom.” The warmth of my tears finally break free and trail down my cheeks, half of them getting caught in the rim of my sunglasses.
“Oh.” She sounds stunned into silence for a moment before she huffs loudly. “Well, good riddance, I say. The woman has had it coming for a long time.”
“I agree…but I still can’t let it happen,” I whisper and she sighs at my admission.
“What do you need to know?”
