AllFreeNovel
Share Us
12
BLAKE
My phone buzzed.A video call from the governor.
I sat upright and answered it. “Governor.”
“Blake. How’s everything there?” He had dark circles beneath his eyes, and his lips were drawn tight.
“Same as my report last night. We’ve had no issues whatsoever.”
“Look at this.” He held some photos up to the camera, one at a time. They were Callie, probably from high school. Most looked like school yearbook photos and posed portraits.
Then he held up a piece of paper with dark block letters:
RESIGN OR SAY GOODBYE
“It came in the mail in a large manila envelope.”
“Have you alerted the police?”
“Yes, Andrew has been the liaison with the authorities. They’re trying to trace it to a source as we speak. The photos are new, Blake.”
“What’s the last shot from?”
“That was in the newspaper when she won a dancing competition in high school.”
“They’re all school photos, formal portraits, no candid shots.” I rubbed my chin. “Nothing that’s not available publicly if someone looks hard enough. That doesn’t help us narrow it down.”
“It doesn’t. Do you think we should move her somewhere else? Does this mean they know where she is and are about to make some sort of move?”
I put aside all my feelings about Callie and how I’d feel if she went into hiding somewhere else. My instincts told me the threat didn’t mean anything was about to happen.
“No, sir. I don’t think that’s necessary. If they knew where she was, they might have sent a photo of her to show you that. They also didn’t claim they knew where she was or say that they’d find her. They might not even know she’s not there with you. They could have chosen publicly available photos that are more recent. I think they chose childhood photos to make the threat seem more sinister, just to scare you.”
“It worked!”
“And they counted on that. It feels like a bluff to me. The overall threat might be real, but this message doesn’t mean they’re any closer to Callie than before.”
He let out a sigh of relief, and I could see him relax as he nodded.
After I got off the phone with the governor, I called a friend who lived an hour away who knew even more about surveillance than I did and bribed him to lend me some equipment so I could wire as much of the surrounding woods as possible. I wanted to see if anyone approached long before they reached my property, just to be on the safe side.
Shortly after he left, Callie came upstairs again.
“Was someone here?”
“Friend of mine, dropping off some security equipment.”
She stretched. “I’m gonna shower. Then I think I’ll go sit by the stream to read for a while.”
I was busy looking at one of the cameras, but I glanced up. She wore dance tights that showed every delicious curve of her body, and her skin glistened with sweat.
I cleared my throat. “I’m going outside to set these up. I’ll lock the door behind me. If you come out, do the same.”
“Of course,” she said, then she went upstairs.
I was setting up a camera on one of the trees next to the start of the trail where Callie and I had jogged, aiming it into the woods and down that trail, when Callie came outside. I could see her near the stream, reading her book. Her hair was wet and hanging loose around her shoulders. She wore shorts and a tank top, the pendant I’d given her visible against her chest.
