Sitting in the center of the coffee table were the broken remains of what had once been the watch his stalker had given him. A slip of paper lay beside them: a typewritten note that said, This is what will happen to that man if you dare see him again.
Corey was on the phone seconds later, calling 911.
Ten minutes later, Corey was surprised, although he supposed he shouldn’t have been, when instead of patrol officers, Detective Foster showed up. Corey told him the watch was the one that had been stolen from him a couple of weeks ago.
“Did you touch anything?” Darin asked as he stood looking down at the display on the coffee table.
“No. I came home, dropped the grocery bags off in the kitchen, came out here, saw that, and immediately called to report the break-in.”
“Was the security box armed when you came in?”
“Yes. It was a pain to disarm with my arms loaded, but I did.”
“You’re the only one who knows the code?”
Corey nodded. “Just like I’m the only one with keys to my place.”
Darin’s phone rang. He answered, telling the caller he’d buzz them in. “The CSI team,” he explained to Corey, going to press the button on the callbox. Two minutes later he let a man and woman into the apartment. “Unlawful entry and the perp disarmed the security, so start there. He left that”—Darin pointed to the coffee table—“behind.”
For a moment Corey wondered why Scott hadn’t come too. Then he realized that doing so would have revealed he was with the police. Still, he missed his solid presence and the sense that this would have been personal to him. Which is ridiculous. This is only a job for him, he reminded himself yet again.
He and Darin went into the kitchen, at Darin’s request. The detective asked Corey for the details of how long he’d been gone, where he went, and if at any point he felt he was being watched. “Because,” Darin pointed out, “you must have been at some point for the stalker to know you were going to be gone long enough for him to break in and leave the watch.”
“I scanned the parking lot and the sidewalk when I left. It was just… normal people and no one alone. After that when I got to the store, I was watching everyone there at first.” He smiled wryly. “If anyone saw me, they probably thought I was checking out the women—or the men.”
Darin chuckled. “Possibly. No one caught your attention? You didn’t see anyone who looked even vaguely familiar?”
“Other than the people who work there? No.”
“All right. That’s all the questions I have at the moment. You might want to get your groceries put away while my people finish up.”
“Yeah. You’ll let me know if you find anything?”
“Of course, although I doubt we will. The stalker seems to know exactly what he’s doing, including how to disarm the security.”
“Not a happy thought,” Corey said, putting more than a touch of fear into his words for the man he had the feeling was probably gleefully listening.
“He’ll make a mistake. They always do.”
Corey nodded, mouthing, “Challenging him?”
Darin nodded in return then went back into the living room while Corey emptied his shopping bags.
Wow, what a waste of money on a good watch. This is getting scary for him. What if he decides that Corey needs to go so no one can have him?
ReplyDeleteAs crazy as the guy seems to be, that might be a possibility, once he's finished trying to scare him out of his wits.
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