by Dead Moon Rising [Siren Menage Everlasting, American Heroes- South Dakota] (lit)
“How? You checked it yourself! I keep everything updated on it, run sweeps every day. It would have picked something up. If this fucker’s smart enough to spoof an IP address well enough to keep him from being tracked, then maybe he’s smart enough to hack through your security.”
She heard him say something she couldn’t understand to Del, who clearly swore in the background. “Listen, babe, overnight your laptop to me so we can give it to the investigators to go through. I’ll send you one to replace it overnight, okay? And we need your uncle’s log in info for his Gmail account so they can access it.”
After a few minutes more of talking, she hung up, returned to Eddie’s computer, and stared at the message as anger replaced her fear. This fucker had chased her out of her home and the arms of her men. He’d put her in fear for her life. He’d dragged her uncle into this, and threatened him and her men.
The next morning, the doorman called her to let her know a package had arrived.
She walked downstairs to get it, at first smiling to see the South Dakota postmark, then frowning when she realized it’d been mailed from Sioux Falls. It wasn’t nearly big enough to be a laptop.
Uncle Eddie spotted her frown. “What’s wrong?”
“Well, why would they mail it from Sioux Falls?” The return address was John and Del’s.
She grabbed a knife to slice the packing tape open, but Eddie grabbed her wrist. “No. Don’t.” She started to argue when she spotted the look on his face. He called John, and seconds later, he pulled her away from the package.
“Okay. Right. I’ll call them right now.”
She tried to resist when he dragged her out the condo’s front door and into the hallway as he hung up and started dialing.
“What’s going on? Who are you calling?”
“911. John and Del didn’t send that. They haven’t shipped the replacement laptop yet. They told me to call the police.”
* * * *
Two hours later, with dozens of upset neighbors displaced when the bomb squad forced them to evacuate, the Miami-Dade PD sounded the all-clear. It wasn’t a bomb, but it was from her Dark Friend.
Inside lay a gallon-sized zipper-top baggy full of dirt, a knife, and a note.
Come home, little night owl. Your playmate awaits.
Otherwise those two lawmen just might meet their fates.
There will always be another dead moon rising. See you then.
Your Dark Friend
Officials in South Dakota determined the package had been mailed from a little mom and pop convenience store in Sioux Falls that had a post office counter in the back. Unfortunately, they didn’t have a security camera recording those transactions, and whoever sent it paid cash. The clerk couldn’t remember anything other than a nondescript white man, and when shown pictures of Del and John, she definitely knew it wasn’t either of them who mailed it.
Another dead end.
Local officials questioned Sarah and took her laptop into evidence to run testing on it for authorities in South Dakota. By the time she was alone again with Uncle Eddie, she’d made up her mind. “I have to go back.”
“Like hell you do. Fuck that.” He jabbed a finger at her. “You think I’m letting you leave, which is what that psycho wants, think again.”
She looked up at him. “He knows where I am,” she quietly said. “I’m not any safer here than I am there. At least there I have John and Del. If I’m here, he might come here and kill you.” She shivered at the memory of her nightmare. “I’m finished with people I love dying when I can do something to stop it from happening.”
“How do you know he won’t come here anyway and kill me? Look, we’ll head down to the Keys for a week or so. Go sightseeing. He can’t find us down there.”
She wanted to believe him, but the memory of his shirt covered in blood and his sightless eyes set her mind for her.
“Let me think about it.”
That answer seemed to mollify him. He kissed the top of her head. “I’m going to get my shower. I never got one this morning in all this craziness.”
She nodded and stayed at the table. She was about to return to her bedroom when his cell, laying on the counter, rang.
She picked it up and answered it without looking at the number. “Hello?”
The deep, obviously distorted male voice sent a chill through her core. “Hello, little night owl. Hurry home fast. My patience grows short, and their lives might not last.”
Her fingers clamped down on the phone. “What the fuck do you want with me? Who are you?”
He chuckled. “You’ve seen me. I can’t have that. I hate loose ends. If you don’t come home, I just might have to play with your two boys. It’d be a shame to have a double funeral. Or even a triple one, if I have to come take care of your uncle in that condo. What a great view of the Atlantic he’s got. I’m sure you want him to be able to enjoy it for years to come.”
He hung up as a wordless cry escaped her. She dropped the phone when her hands trembled so badly she couldn’t hold it any longer. Finally regaining a few senses, she picked it up again and looked at the caller ID.
000-000-0000 Unknown Number.
Of course. If he was smart enough to spoof his IP address, smart enough to hack into a computer or secure network, then he was smart enough to disguise where he called from.
She was still staring at the phone when Eddie emerged from the shower. “What’s wrong? What now?”
She burst out crying.
* * * *
“Sarah, let me tell you something,” Del shouted over the phone. “I am not a man to give ultimatums, but you keep your ass planted there in Miami! Don’t you dare fucking come home!”
John apparently wrestled it from him, because he came on the line. “Honey, you can’t come home. That’s exactly what he wants. Del and I can handle ourselves.”
She’d just gone her second round of the day giving statements to Miami-Dade PD, and she felt mentally and physically drained from stress and grief. “If I don’t come home, he’ll hurt someone I love, and I can’t have that happen.”
Eddie glared at her from across the table. She lowered her gaze to avoid him. “You’re not leaving, Sarah,” he told her, echoing what her men were telling her on the phone.
“Babe,” John said, obviously struggling to keep his voice gentle, “if you do come home, he’ll try to kill you. Obviously he knows the officer here is a decoy. They’ve already recalled her.”
“If I’m going to die, I’d rather do it there, with you.”
Eddie’s fist crashed into the table, making her jump. “You are not going back to South Dakota, and that’s the end of it! I won’t let you go, and I’m sure they’re telling you the same damn thing!”
John lost the phone to Del again. She could only imagine the scrabbling going on there as they struggled to talk to her. “Listen to me, baby. I will call Miami-Dade PD and have them lock you up in protective custody if you try to come home. I won’t have it! Do you hear me? You will stay there. Just because he knows you’re there doesn’t mean he’s going to come there and hurt you.”
“Oh, yes, because being in a humongous city where anyone could come right up to me and me not know it is much safer than a small town in the middle of nowhere where I can at least have a fighting chance!”
“He could have killed you and John that afternoon. That could have been a rifle scope instead of a camera pointed at the two of you. You never saw him then. What makes you think you’d see him if you returned?”
John got custody of the phone again. “Look, let me and Del handle things here. We’ll get our reservations made and we’ll fly down and see you. The three of us will go somewhere, to a hotel or something, and have some alone time, okay?”
“Okay,” she softly said, hoping he’d forgive the lie. “Listen, I need to go lay down. I’m exhausted.”
His tone softened. “That’s a really good idea, babe. Have sweet dreams about the things Del and I will do to you whe
n we get down there. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
Del grabbed the phone. “Love you, babe.”
“Love you.” She hung up and stared at the phone.
He’d gotten her email address. Her uncle’s email address. Her uncle’s phone number, his address, and knew he lived in a condo in Miami.
She went to her bedroom and closed the door before collapsing on the bed. In her hand she held her BlackBerry. Time to configure it, or she wouldn’t be able to do any email now that her computer was in police custody.
She left her old Gmail account off it. That’d be too much temptation. But when she logged in to her new email with the Gmail function, she found an email from a strange email address she didn’t recognize, but the sender’s name was listed as DF.
It chilled her blood.
Subject: Instructions
I’m getting tired if you calling your fuck buddies’ cop friends into this every time I contact you. If you tell anyone about this email, your uncle dies. Come home to SD. Now. If you do, I’ll let all three of them live because they’ve never seen me. If you think I can’t find you and your uncle in Miami, think again.
No signature this time, but an attachment. Silently crying, she clicked to open it. The small screen made it difficult to see, but it was a picture of Uncle Eddie and one of her cousins, taken a few years earlier. She realized it came from her Picasa account.
How the fuck did he find that?
Her heart hammering in her chest, she replied.
Fine. I’m coming home. It’ll take me a couple of days, though. Please don’t hurt them.
A moment later, she had a reply.
I knew you were a reasonable woman. I’ll see you real soon, little night owl.
She closed her eyes and forced herself not to cry. How the fuck had he gotten her new email address? Briefly, the thought that maybe it was John doing this crossed her mind before she shoved that away. No, he loved her. And he’d been there with her when the picture of them was taken. He had an alibi. She felt ashamed for even thinking it.
Yet another reason to be angry, that DF had managed to shake her faith and love in her men for even a split second.
But…maybe it was John’s computer that had been hacked.
Still, that didn’t explain how DF discovered Eddie’s address and phone number and email. Or her Picasa account.
She realized she must have drifted, because suddenly Robbie was sitting on the bed next to her.
“It’s okay. I’ll be with you.”
“He’s going to kill them, isn’t he?”
“No. He wants you. But he doesn’t understand he can’t have you.”
“It’s going to hurt a lot before it’s done, isn’t it?”
He nodded. “A lot.”
“I’m scared.”
He reached out and held her hand. “It’s okay. Scared is okay. But you can do it. You’re the only one who can figure it out. You know who he is. You just don’t remember. You’re the only one with all the pieces. You hold the keys. Just remember that, the keys.”
“What keys? I didn’t see his face! I have no idea who he is!” She felt horror creep in again. “Please, tell me it’s not John or Del!”
He laughed. “No, they’re good men.”
“Am I doing the right thing?”
He nodded. “The strength you need will be there when you need it.”
“Why can’t you just tell me!”
He smiled. “It doesn’t work like that. I would if I knew.”
She awoke to find the room dim as sunset settled over the city. Uncle Eddie was doing a crossword puzzle and looked up at her approach.
“Did you have a good nap?”
She nodded. “You know what you said about going to Key West?”
He nodded.
“I think I want to, but alone. The guys can join me down there. I…need some time alone.”
He frowned. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Yeah, it is.” She forced a smile she didn’t feel. “I’m a big girl. I need to do this.”
“You’re running away because you’re afraid you’ll draw the killer to me.”
“Well, duh.” No reason to deny it. “But I do want some alone time. Down time. Please?”
He leaned back and crossed his arms. “You need to promise me, absolutely promise me that you’ll go down there and let me know where you are every few hours.”
She nodded. “I promise.”
“When do you want to go?”
“Tonight. I want to leave tonight.” Maybe the boys would forgive her the lie. If they did what she expected, they’d fly to Florida to help look for her while she went home to South Dakota. She’d have to drive. If she tried to fly they’d figure it out because she’d have to use her real name.
“Hold on.” He got up and disappeared to his room. A few minutes later, he returned with a handful of cash. “There’s nearly two grand there. It’s part of what the boys sent me for you. Do you still have that pre-paid credit card?”
“Yeah?”
“Give it to me, and I’ll put the rest of the money on it for you.”
She went to get it but knew she wouldn’t use it. They could track her with it. She packed while he added funds to the card for her. She realized every time she packed now she got faster at it, traveled lighter, truly becoming a nomad.
He knocked on the open bedroom doorway and handed the card to her. “When are you telling them?”
“I’ll call them from the road. I want to get moving before it’s too much later. It’ll be close to midnight before I get to Key West as it is.”
“Okay.” He gave her a hug and grabbed her bag for her. Without her laptop to pack, all she had was a suitcase and her purse. He carried her bag down to the car for her and stowed it in the trunk. “Call me, okay?”
“I promise.” She hugged him and climbed in. It took her a minute to set up her mp3 player and stow her phone’s car charger in the glove box. She loved the Accord. Everything worked, and it was as close to owning a new car as she’d ever had.
She wondered how long she’d have to drive it, or if her Dark Friend would come out on top after all.
She waited until she was on I-95 and heading north to turn off her phone and pull the battery so John couldn’t tract it.
* * * *
John stood inside the office of Davies’ Repair and screamed into his phone, ignoring the fact that the five other customers stared at him with slack jaws. “What do you mean they don’t fucking know where she is? Del, why did Eddie even let her leave?”
Cindy, standing on the other side of the counter and writing up the work order for maintenance to Del’s truck, flinched.
When he finally realized everyone stared at him, he stepped outside.
Del tried to calm him down. “She told Eddie last night she was heading down to the Keys and would call us and have us meet her down there. Mark’s already been on the phone to FHP and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department, as well as the police departments in Florida City, Key Largo, Marathon, and Key West. There’s a BOLO out on her and the car, and Mark’s working to get a bench warrant sworn out on her as a material witness, so when they find her, they can take her into protective custody.”
“Goddammit! She’s not a fucking fugitive!”
“No, but once they get her, they’ll turn her over to us, and we can sit on her until this is sorted out. It’s the only way they’ll agree to bring her in. You know that.”
“Fuck!” He turned and saw Tom standing in the doorway of one of the repair bays, watching him. “Listen, I’ll go home and—”
“No, just sit there. My truck’s overdue for an oil change. You’re already there, and an hour or two won’t make a difference either way. Get that done, then call me when you’re home. Don’t you go flying off half-cocked either, okay?”
He took a deep breath to calm himself. “Fine.
” He hung up and ran a hand through his hair. He wanted to hit something. Hell, he wanted to shoot something.
Preferably the evil fucker that wanted to turn their lives upside down.
Tom walked over and stripped off a pair of greasy, blue gloves. “Problem, John?”
He shook his head. “Understatement of the year.” He turned to the mechanic. “You’ve got it so lucky, you know that?”
“How so?”
John waved his arm, indicating the shop and storage yard. “You’ve got a good life. You don’t have bullshit ripping you apart at the seams.”
“You want to talk about it? Everything okay with you and Del?”
He had to get himself together. “Everything’s fine between us. It’s the rest of life that’s hell. I wish they’d catch that fucker so we can get on with our life.” He stood downwind of Tom and caught a hint of chemical smell. Tom always smelled like that when he was working, like any mechanic smelled during the day, of brake cleaner and carb cleaner and any number of solvents or fluids they used in the course of a day that soaked into their clothes.
“No leads, huh? The techs finally got that damn RV and truck out of here. Never so happy to see a vehicle leave my lot.” He shook his head. “Spooky shit. Never seen anything like that before.” He thought for a moment. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe I do have it easy. I don’t have to deal with shit the way you and Del do. I never could be a cop.”
John stared at his phone, wishing Sarah would at least call him. “Sometimes it sucks. Usually it was good though.” He leaned on his cane. His worse leg was really tuned up this morning, and even his normally good leg hurt. “Mostly good.”
Tom indicated his cane. “Except for shit like that.”
“That was my own damn fault. And the deer,” he rapidly added. He wanted to turn this conversation around and fast. “Saw your new website. Looks good.”
Tom proudly grinned. “Took a class in it. Did it myself.” His smile faltered. “Sorry I didn’t have you do it.”