You Belong to Me – 33

 

“Yeah, that occurred to me at one point,” Corey replied. “Not an idea that made me feel all warm and fuzzy. Anyway, I decided not to wear it, since I didn’t know who it came from. Besides, it was too fancy to wear at the shelter, so when I got home that night, I stuck it in my dresser drawer. I suppose I was naïve, but I hoped that would be the end of it, unless the person decided to let me know who they were.”

 

“Which, I’m presuming they did in some way.”

 

“Yes and no. I told the officers, after the break-in, about the notes I’d gotten.”

 

“Do you still have them?”

 

“No. Sorry. I realized later I should have kept them, but….” Corey spread his hands.

 

“I presume that wasn’t the end of it.”

 

Corey shook his head. “A week later, I went to a club and… ended up going home with someone. Not Brad, in case you’re wondering. Then I came home and fell into bed. The phone woke me a couple of hours later. The caller whispered, ‘You slut. You belong to me.’ That scared the shit out of me, but it also made me think. I decided to see if I could find out who bought the watch, since the store’s name was on the box. No luck with that because I didn’t have the receipt. I… I didn’t want to go back home right then, so I ate lunch out, then went to a movie. When I did get home, I was exhausted and fell asleep on the sofa.” Corey shook his head. “Not for long, though, because the person called again.”

 

“You keep saying caller and person. Was it a man or a woman?”

 

“I don’t know, because they whispered both times.”

 

“What did they say the second time?”

 

“Something about they thought I had more class than to go see the movie I did. Then they—okay, I’ll call him ‘he’ because it almost has to be a man—he told me to stay away from ‘those men,’ called me a slut, and said I belong to him. I should tell you, whoever he is, he tried calling me several times right after I got home from the movie, but the caller ID said the calls were from payphones. I told that to Officers Turner and Moore when they came about the first break-in when the watch was stolen. I wouldn’t have answered the last call if I hadn’t been asleep. I just answered automatically.”

 

“How soon afterwards was the watch stolen?”

 

“The calls were on Sunday. I discovered it was missing Wednesday night when I came home from work and immediately called 911.”

 

“Okay.” Darin thumbed through the folder and nodded. “Their report is in here. I haven’t had time to read it yet.” He scanned it quickly, then looked back at Corey. “Why didn’t you file a report about being stalked?”

 

“What good would it do? Yeah, I know it would have been on file, but that won’t stop… him?”

 

“I agree, it’s almost certainly a man," Darin said. "According to the autopsy, whoever stabbed Mr. Reynolds was taller than him, from the angle of the cuts.”

 

“It has to be the stalker, right?”

 

“Unless you know of someone else who might be upset that you and Mr. Reynolds were going out together.”

 

Corey frowned deeply. “No one knew. No one. I told you, I’m not out.”