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Marino pulls a pair of blue latex gloves from his pocket. With the delicacy of an explosives expert, he carefully removes each letter from the envelope and lays them out, one by one, much as I had done on my kitchen table the night before. However, instead of reading the letters first, Marino focuses on the necklace. I watch him closely as he studies the piece of jewelry, paying extra attention to the tiny blood spatters on the stone pendant.
My pulse starts to pick up.
He then shifts his focus to the letters, reads them one by one. Once finished, he looks at me.
“Let me ask first: To confirm, you didnotsee the person who delivered these letters, correct?”
“That’s correct. Only the backside of them—him or her—as they ran away.”
“What about a vehicle?”
“No. I didn’t see one.” I notice the necklace is still clutched in his gloved hand. This bothers me and I’m not sure why. “My guess is that they came up through the woods.”
“And you said the person was wearing a black sweatshirt with a skull and crossbones on it, correct?”
“Yes.”
“Were they carrying any kind of weapon? A gun, a stick? Anything like that?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Miss Stone, do you mind if we hang onto these items for a bit?” he asks, referring to the letters and necklace.
“No, of course not, please.”
“Thank you. Excuse me just a moment.”
“Uh—okay…”
Marino steps into the hall, necklace still in his gloved hand, and closes the door behind him. My heart pounds as I attempt to eavesdrop on the hushed conversation on the other side of the door. Though I cannot make out the words, there is no mistaking the sense of urgency in the officer’s tone.
He returns, the necklace now gone.
“Firstly,” Marino settles back into the seat across from me, “I want to say you did the right thing by coming to us.”
I nod.
“Has anything like this happened before?”
“No.”
“Not after your mother’s death?”
“No.”
“Do you have any kind of security at your home?”
“Locks on the doors and windows; that’s it.”
“I’d like you to consider getting a home security surveillance system. They’re relatively cheap. The cameras hook up to the internet and connect to an app on your phone. Put one above every door that leads to the outside. This way if he comes back, we can get a clear image of him.”
“Okay, I’ll look into it.”
“Good. I’m going to have Darla bring in some paperwork for you to go through and sign before you leave so we can open an investigation on this immediately.”
My stomach rolls. “An investigation?”
“Right. At the very least you can charge whoever did this with criminal harassment, once we find him.”
