Love you to Death

by Shannon K. Butcher

  She put her hand on his shoulder. “We’re back.”

  He straightened and stretched his long body, filling the space next to her. He blinked a few times to clear his eyes, then looked at the clock. “I have to go to work, but I’ll make time for breakfast if you want some.”

  “Thanks, but I’m going to get to work, too.”

  “Are you sure? You had a pretty rough night.” He reached over to caress her cheek. He wouldn’t have done that yesterday. She wouldn’t have let him. But today was different. He’d spent hours touching her last night, which, somehow, gave him the right to keep doing so.

  Elise leaned into his touch, soaking up the comfort it brought her. “I’m sure. I need to keep looking for her.”

  “You’re not going to do anything dangerous, are you?”

  “I’ll be careful.”

  He nodded. “You’ve got my cell number. Promise you’ll call if you need anything.”

  “I will.”

  He got out of the car and jogged across the street to his house. Elise watched him go, appreciating the view and the pleasant distraction it gave her. It had been more than a year since she’d taken a lover. She’d chosen, instead, to focus on her work. But Trent was making her think about taking another one. He was kind, caring. Not to mention gorgeous. She could see herself getting swept away by a guy like him, just for a little while.

  Elise was sure that after a few days in his bed, she’d be able to go another year without sex.

  Maybe after they found Ashley, that’s what she’d do.

  Once he was inside, she was able to stop staring and unlock the door. After a quick shower and a cup of coffee, she got to work.

  It was noon by the time Elise had gone through all of Ashley’s recent e-mail, and her e-mail address book. Most of the entries were merely online names and meant nothing—none of them screamed “Abductor of Women.” Elise drafted a letter explaining what had happened to Ashley, and e-mailed it to every one of them, asking them to please pass it along to whomever they could. After that, it was time to make the flyer she’d post on campus later today.

  She needed a recent photo of Ashley that showed her face clearly, but more than that, she was looking for one that would get noticed. She needed something sweet and full of life that would make women want to help. Something that showed off how sexy Ashley was, which would make men stop long enough to read the text.

  She couldn’t seem to find the right one in all the photos on Ashley’s PC. Most of her pictures were of other people, or objects she’d captured so she could paint or sketch them later. There were hundreds of images of birds, squirrels, and other animals; dozens of snowy landscapes all dated last winter; a handful of children’s faces Elise didn’t recognize.

  Like most of Ashley’s house, there was no real method to the madness of her organization, leaving Elise to click through all of the photos, one by one.

  She got to the last folder, which Ashley hadn’t renamed, so it was identified by the date the photos had been uploaded to the computer.

  It was the day Ashley went missing.

  Elise almost didn’t open it. She wasn’t sure she could face seeing what her sister had spent that day doing, how life had been normal right up until that night.

  In the end, there was no alternative. Elise had to open it.

  The first dozen photos were taken from Ashley’s front window. Trent had been outside, mowing his lawn. He was shirtless and glistening under the bright morning sunshine.

  Elise’s pulse sped up at the sight, and guilt rushed through her that she was actually taking the time to enjoy seeing Trent when she had more important things to do.

  She clicked through that series of images quickly, moving on to the next. Ashley had taken four photos of a bird in her backyard, three more of a squirrel, one of a bunny, two of a passing jogger and her dog. There were two more that she’d taken in her bathroom mirror, photographing herself taking a photograph.

  Elise smiled at her sister’s ridiculousness, even as she felt tears sting her eyes. That uninhibited abandonment was so like Ashley.

  The next photo was one of Ashley, too, only this time, she was holding the camera out at arm’s length, photographing herself. Her mouth was puckered in a kiss, and her green eyes were lit with a smile. Life and happiness poured out of that photo. She was so beautiful it made Elise’s chest hurt to look at it.

  That was the picture Elise needed for her flyer. That was the image that was going to make people stop dead in their tracks to look.

  Elise renamed the file so she could find it, then moved on through the rest of the pictures to make sure there were no others that were better. There weren’t. Just more of the same. Lots of birds, even a close-up of a housefly. The last few of the pictures were of a blue jay sitting on a tree branch in her backyard. It was sunset, and the lighting was oddly pink, but there was something about this picture that made Elise slow down and take a longer look.

  She stared at the bird, seeing nothing at first, but there was a prickling along her spine. Her eyes had seen something her mind had not quite recognized yet.

  Elise printed the photo and took it to the window where Ashley had taken the shot. She compared everything she saw with what was actually outside. At first, she couldn’t find anything different, other than the missing bird, but then she saw an odd knot on the trunk of the tree in the photo—one that was no longer there.

  She looked closer, squinting at the blurred background.

  That wasn’t a knot. It was a hand, a gloved hand. On the ground beside the tree, outlined in pink light, was the long, distorted shadow of a man standing behind the thick tree trunk.

  Someone had been outside Ashley’s house.

  Fear slid though her, chilling her bones.

  She stared at the photo until it began to shake along with her hand. She rushed back to the computer and went through those last few photos, one by one. Slowly, she scanned each one as she printed it.

  The last image showed the very edge of a man’s face. She could see his cheek, one eye, and part of his jaw.

  He was staring right at the camera. He’d been watching Ashley.

  Elise sucked in a deep breath, trying to calm herself enough to figure out what to do.

  The police needed this photo. So did the press. She needed to get it out there so that someone would come forward and identify this man.

  There was no longer a question as to whether or not Ashley had been involved in some kind of auto accident. She hadn’t driven off the road. She was not trapped in her car. Elise didn’t know where she was, but this man did.

  Elise was going to find him.

  That feeling of being watched was getting worse.

  Gloria glanced in her rearview mirror, certain she’d see the devil himself on her bumper. Instead, all she saw was a weary-looking woman with a pile of kids in the back of her minivan.

  Gloria turned left at the next intersection, which was going to make her late for class, but so be it. She needed to see who was behind her—or at least see that someone was there so she had something to report to the police. After all the documentation she’d had to provide to get a restraining order against her ex, she didn’t think the police would accept her creepy feeling as proof someone was after her.

  Even Gloria’s best friend didn’t believe there was anything to worry about. She said it was probably just one of Ken’s buddies playing a sick joke on her.

  Maybe she was right. Ken was still mad at her for leaving him. Maybe it was just a joke, but it sure as hell didn’t feel like one.

  She made another left, then merged back into heavy rush-hour traffic near a line of fast-food restaurants. The whole time, she kept glancing at the road behind her but saw nothing odd. There were lots of cars, but none seemed to be following her.

  Gloria glanced at the clock, wincing at the time. Her class started in ten minutes and she was still five minutes away from campus. Stalker or not, her parents were going to kill her if she
let her grades slip. Attendance in her morning dance class was mandatory.

  Besides, there would be lots of people on campus. She’d be safer there than anywhere but the police station.

  By the time she pulled into a parking spot, she still had three minutes to make it to class. If she ran, she might make it, so she took off at a jog down the sidewalk.

  A car horn blasted not ten feet away from her, making her tightly strung nerves vibrate in shock.

  An angry young man flipped off a car that had slowed down to a crawl, then sped around it. The offending car had tinted windows, making it impossible for Gloria to see inside. What she did see was that the car was keeping pace with her, slightly behind her so she wouldn’t have noticed it if not for the honking horn.

  Whoever was in there was watching her, and that car was way too nice to belong to one of Ken’s loser buddies.

  Gloria stood frozen for a second before anger washed away some of her fear. She’d spent the last two years walking on eggshells, worrying that she’d set Ken off. It had taken a lot of guts to get rid of him, and there was no way she was going to let some other creep ruin her life.

  She charged the car, preparing to face down whoever was inside and give them a piece of her mind, but before she could, whoever was in there gunned the engine and sped away.

  The car behind him was right on his tail, making it impossible for her to get the license plate. All she saw was a shadowy silhouette of a man behind the wheel.

  The good news was that she wasn’t crazy—she hadn’t imagined any of this. The bad news was that someone was definitely following her, and she had no idea why.

  Elise handed Officer Bob Tindle the printouts of the photos she’d found.

  He stared for a long moment at each one, his mustache twitching as he chewed on his lip. “Did you bring the original files with you?”

  Elise handed him the camera. She’d checked and the photos were still in the camera’s memory. “I also e-mailed the files to the address on your business card.”

  “I’ll have someone look at them and try to clear up the image. In the meantime, I’ll get with the composite artist to see if she can make anything out of this.”

  “Can she combine it with the sketch she got from the guy I talked to at the bar?”

  “He didn’t remember anything except what your sister had been wearing that night, and how short it had been. I’m sorry, but that was a dead end.”

  “You could show him this picture. Maybe that would spark his memory.”

  “Sure,” he said, nodding. “We’ll do what we can.”

  That sounded too evasive for Elise’s comfort. “What have you found out?” she asked. “Have you managed to find any leads?”

  “We put out the description of her car, so there are a lot of officers looking for it. My guess is that the car is either not in the area, or it’s been hidden. Otherwise, we would have found it by now, seeing as how it’s such a unique paint color.”

  “Is that all you’ve done? Drive around? I already did that. You need to be out there looking for her, not just her car.”

  His eyes narrowed in irritation. “We are looking for her. And we interviewed several people that were at the bar that night. We even went through all the video footage from the bar, and there was none there showing her going in or out of Sally’s. I’m sorry that we haven’t been able to find her yet, but you’ve got to be patient. Give us time to do our job.”

  “My sister clearly had a stalker. She’s been missing since Friday night. You do believe she’s in trouble, right?”

  His mustache flattened in a grimace. “Yes, ma’am. That’s clear now.”

  “Maybe if you’d believed me when I reported her missing earlier, you would have been able to find her.”

  “I understand that you’re angry, but getting mad at me isn’t going to help. We’re doing all we can do. I suggest you do the same. You mentioned putting out flyers, and I think that’s a great idea.”

  “You’re just trying to get rid of me so you can go back to drinking coffee and eating donuts.”

  Officer Tindle’s face darkened all the way up to his salt-and-pepper hairline. “Stress and grief can make people ugly, so I’m going to ignore that comment. I suggest, ma’am, that you leave now, before you make one I can’t ignore.”

  He was right. She was lashing out at him when none of this was his fault. “I’m sorry. I’ll go now.” She picked up the photos of Ashley’s stalker.

  “What are you going to do with those?” he asked.

  “Take them to campus. Ask around to see if anyone knows who this guy is. Get them on the news.”

  “That’s not a good idea, nor is it safe. You need to leave the investigation to us.” He held out his hand for the photos.

  Elise ignored his outstretched hand and tucked the papers in her purse. “If I’d done that, Officer, we wouldn’t have this new lead, would we?”

  “Fine, then go back to her place and look for more photos; just stay off the streets and out of harm’s way. And for God’s sake, don’t give these to the press.”

  “Why not?”

  “If this guy sees his face on the news, he might panic and do something… desperate. If he’s still got Ashley, we don’t want to do anything to set him off.”

  Elise hadn’t even considered that, but he was right. “Fine, I won’t go to the press, but I’m not going to sit back while Ashley is still out there with this psycho. I’m going to find her, with or without your help.”

  She turned and left his office, got in her car and drove toward campus.

  * * *

  Bob dialed Trent’s cell phone. He didn’t know if Trent had any pull with the feisty young lady, but he sure as hell hoped so.

  Someone needed to rein her in before she got herself hurt. Or worse yet, before she disappeared right along with her sister.

  CHAPTER TEN

  After a quick trip to a local office-supply store, Elise was armed with several hundred flyers, a loaded staple gun, and a dozen rolls of tape.

  She plastered the campus with flyers, handing them out to anyone who would take one. Several of Ashley’s friends from the art department pitched in and helped her cover more area, but none of them had any idea who the mystery man was.

  Elise was bathed in sweat, dirty and worn out after spending the afternoon under the hot sun. Campus had seemed to clear out from one moment to the next, and every bulletin board she could find now bore a picture of Ashley. It was time to leave.

  Tonight, she was going back to Sally’s in the hope that the man in the photo would show up, or that someone might at least know who he was.

  When she pulled into Ashley’s drive, Trent was sitting on the front porch next to a sculpted frog. His hair was damp, and a crisp white shirt glowed against his bronze skin.

  The muscles between Elise’s shoulder blades started to unknot just looking at him. She felt like she could take a full breath again, that the weight pressing against her chest had been lifted.

  As Elise got out of the car, she pulled in a deep breath and let it out slowly.

  “Rough day?” he asked, eyeing her up and down.

  Her clothes were a mess, and she could only imagine how bad her hair looked, weighed down with sweat that had not yet had time to dry. “I actually made some progress today, so it was worth it.”

  She pulled the key out of her purse, sliding her fingers over the subtle ridges of paint that Ashley had layered on the surface.

  “Bob Tindle called me today,” he said, following her into the house. “He’s worried about you.”

  “He needs to worry less about me and more about Ashley.”

  Elise headed for the fridge and took out a pitcher of water she’d put in this morning. She poured two glasses, handed one to Trent and started in on her own. She hadn’t had anything to drink out there today, and she hadn’t realized how thirsty she was until just now.

  Trent watched her as she drank. “I went over the case with him
. He’s not missing anything. He’s doing everything he can.”

  The cold water pooled in her belly, making her shiver. “It’s not enough. If it was, Ashley would be safe at home right now.”

  “Don’t make him the enemy here, Elise. Don’t alienate the men who have the most power to help your sister.”

  Elise sank down on the purple couch, giving her weary feet a rest. She speared her fingers through her damp hair and rested her head in her hands. Flecks of colored paint stained the hardwood floor under her feet, blending with pencil shavings and plenty of dust.

  Ashley wasn’t much of a housekeeper, and proof of her life was everywhere, reminding Elise how much was at stake.

  Trent was right. She had to be nicer to Officer Tindle. Taking her anger out on him wasn’t going to bring Ashley home. “I’ll apologize to him again tomorrow, and this time I’ll actually sound like I mean it.”

  “He’s a good man. I’m sure he understands how upset you are.”

  Elise didn’t agree—how could he understand unless he’d been through what she was going through right now? But she kept her opinion to herself and sucked down more water.

  Trent disappeared into the kitchen. She could hear him shutting cabinet doors. He came back with a bag of potato chips in his hand. He opened them and held them out to her. “You need salt. It looks like you lost quite a bit today.”

  “Is that your way of saying how sweaty I look?”

  One side of his mouth lifted in a teasing grin. “I don’t mind a sweaty woman, I just prefer to be the one to get her that way.”

  Something soft and liquid shifted inside Elise, releasing even more of the tension that had built up inside her today. “Is that an offer?” she teased back.

  His grin disappeared and his gaze darkened as he stared at her. “Under different circumstances, yes. But I won’t take advantage of you.”

  “Because you’re a nice guy? Because Ashley is gone and I’m not thinking straight?”

  “Exactly.”