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“You’re going to find them, right?” Blair demanded. “This isn’t acceptable. They can’t get away with it.”
Nate gave a long sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. “We’ll do the best we can. At least on this occasion, they’ve broken the law by trespassing and vandalizing personal property, so if we do find something that makes a connection to the stalker, we can haul them into the station and rake them over the coals.” He looked at me. “We probably can’t charge them with any crimes against you, but Grace could press charges if she wants.”
“I do,” Grace said, hurrying toward us with Tyler in tow. She must have taken the time to dress, because she was wearing jeans and a blouse, but her hair was a mess. “You find him, and I’ll press whatever charges I can.”
“Thanks,” I murmured, feeling torn between relief that we could pin a crime on the guy for once and frustration that despite the messages, videos, the weird gift, and the word that stared out at me from the place that had been my refuge, there was still nothing the police could do about me being harassed. Unless I was directly threatened or harmed, or unless they managed to find evidence of who had damaged my car, they couldn’t arrest a stalker just for taking an unhealthy interest in me. It was so damned unfair.
Nate nodded toward the uniformed officer. “This is Constable Mehrtens. She’s been trained to gather evidence from crime scenes. We’re not able to get crime scene technicians out here, so Mehrtens will gather what she can. While she does that, why don’t we head into the main house, and you can talk me through everything again?”
“Yeah, okay.”
I leaned against Blair as we went inside. Grace busied herself in the kitchen, making tea and coffee. Meanwhile, Nate asked for permission to record our conversation, and I granted it. He might be a hothead when it came to his friends and family, but I trusted him to do things by the book.
While Grace served hot drinks, I recounted the whole story from start to finish. By the time I stopped talking, Grace had brought her laptop over and was replaying the video recorded by the security cameras that morning. We all watched, glued to the screen, but only a few minutes after the video showed me leaving, the image was blotted out, as if something had been used to cover the camera lens. A short time later, whatever was blocking the lens vanished, but there was no one visible in the recording. Grace rewound and played the feed at quarter speed, but we couldn’t see enough for it to be useful. Whoever had spray-painted the door had been incredibly careful.
“I want a copy of this,” Nate said. “With our tech, we might be able to isolate part of the perp while they’re covering or uncovering the camera lens.”
“Absolutely,” Grace agreed, and I echoed the sentiment. Whatever he needed, he could have.
Nate turned to me, his expression solemn. “We’re going to do as much as we can to find the person behind this. In the meantime, don’t take any risks with your safety. It would be best if you could stay, at all times, with someone you trust.” He hesitated, then added, “Have you told Liam about this latest development?”
“Not yet.”
He caught my eye and held it. “You should. He’ll want to know.”
Strange how that statement felt like a taciturn acceptance that things had changed for the better between me and Liam.
“I’ll call him when we’re done here.”
ChapterThirty-Five
LIAM
Sometimes,I pick up my phone to tell you something and realize I don’t even know your number anymore. - Unsent text message from Liam to Kennedy
I sauntered into work,feeling like everything was sunny-side up on Monday morning. I’d spent an awesome day with Kennedy, and if I hadn’t been reading things wrong, I think she’d been tempted to invite me to stay for longer last night.
In the staff room, I unpacked my gear and went to the kitchen to start coffee brewing. That done, I flopped onto the sofa.
“You look pretty pleased with yourself,” Asher said, joining me.
I grinned like a goof. “I had a really good weekend.”
“Must be nice,” he grumbled. “What did you get up to?”
“Went hiking with Kennedy.” I took in his morose expression and frowned. “What’s wrong with you?”
He sighed. “My folks have been talking to some friends of theirs whose son recently got engaged and they were on at me all Sunday to find a nice girl and settle down.” He jabbed a finger in the air. “I already know every girl our age in Destiny Falls, and I’ve dated half of them. If I haven’t found the one yet, I guess I’ll just have to double down on flirting with the tourists who come through. Maybe one of them will fancy moving to the middle of nowhere to live with a sexy paramedic.”
I laughed. I knew all about that well-intentioned parental pressure. “Can’t help you there.”
My phone buzzed. A quick check of the screen showed Kennedy was calling.
“Hi, beautiful,” I said, getting to my feet and putting some distance between Asher and me because I didn’t trust him not to eavesdrop. “Don’t tell me you miss me already.”
Her breath hitched. The silence became awkward. Damn.
“Um, I wish that was the only reason I was calling.” Her voice was strained, instantly putting me on alert.
