In the Heart's Shadow

by T. L. Haddix

  Stacy rubbed her forehead. “Son of a—I’m sorry. I’ll call him now. Thanks, Carrie.” She ended the call, only to look up and see that everyone was watching her.

  “Problem?” Wyatt asked.

  “No, I don’t think so. Andre Cristos—I need to call him. I’ll only be a minute. Do you all mind?”

  “If he called dispatch, it had better be urgent,” Wyatt said. “If not, I’ve been wanting an excuse to have a ‘discussion’ with him after what happened last week. You might want to let him know that.”

  Embarrassed by the situation, Stacy nodded and stepped out onto the front porch. She went to the end near the garage and leaned up against the house, expelling a long breath. Once she had her temper under control, she called Andre.

  “Where have you been? I’ve been trying to call you for two days,” he ranted instead of a hello.

  “What do you want, Andre? I’m busy.”

  “What do I want? Damn it, do you have any idea what that little scene with my sister has done to me?”

  His self-entitled tone grated on Stacy’s last nerve. As tempting as the idea of hanging up on him was, that he’d gone to the length of calling the department worried her. “Tell me what you want from me.”

  “I want you to make this go away. My girlfriend broke up with me over this. I can’t get her to see reason. Talk to her for me? Tell her that you don’t hate me because my sister has a big mouth?”

  Utterly confused, Stacy crossed her free arm over her chest. “Why would I have any bearing on your relationship with her?”

  “Because she heard about what happened with Max, and she’s got it in her head that I talk to my sister about my sex life. About her. And she’s pissed off that I said what I did about you. I guess you worked a wreck or something a year ago that she was involved in, and she likes you.” He said the last part as if he were having trouble imagining why anyone would do such a thing. “So she broke up with me and gave me a damned blowtorch. Said I needed to learn how to use it.”

  Stacy couldn’t help but laugh.

  “Oh, yeah. You think it’s funny? Well, I don’t. My parents don’t, either. Because she wasn’t satisfied with that. She went through my phone and called all the women I’ve dated recently. And she told them I was blabbing about them, too. So guess what I’ve had coming in the door for two damned days now? Gift-wrapped blowtorches. Ten of them. I’m not laughing, Stacy. You’ve got to fix this.”

  If the anger in his voice hadn’t turned to despair at that point, Stacy would have told him to go to hell. As his tone changed, however, she relented.

  “Look, I can’t help you. I can’t fix this. I didn’t create the problem. You did, by apparently sharing private details of your life with your sister. Women do not like that, Andre. If you don’t want things like this to happen, don’t tell her stuff. And as far as your most recent ex? I’m not the one she has a problem with. You are. Maybe a public apology to me for what you and your sister said would go a long way toward changing your girlfriend’s mind.”

  “I didn’t do this. Max’s the one who needs to apologize.”

  Stacy’s head was starting to hurt, and the tension was back in her shoulders and neck. “Andre, Karma is a bitch. She’s a mean bitch. And what your sister said never would have happened if you hadn’t told her about it. So I’m sorry, but I can’t help you. Why the hell would I even want to?”

  “So you’re not going to do anything?” he whined. “Stacy, please. I really like this girl.”

  She didn’t raise her voice, but she was so mad that she would have slapped him if he had been in front of her. It occurred to her fully that she’d made a very lucky escape to have gotten away from his narcissism.

  “I don’t care,” she told him with a sad laugh. “I really don’t care that you’re inconvenienced by this. Do you have any idea how humiliated I was the other day? Something that should have stayed between us is now being bandied about by half the town. We’re not in high school, Andre. I shouldn’t have to worry about this. If you want it fixed, grow a pair and apologize. Otherwise, leave me the hell alone.”

  She ended the call and tossed the phone on the cushion of the chair beside her. If it hadn’t been such an expensive phone, she’d have thrown it as far and as hard as she could. With a frustrated growl, she cursed the man soundly. She knew everyone else would be worried about her, but she couldn’t go in yet, not as upset as she still was.

  She needed a few minutes for her temper to cool off, but it finally did. She scooped up the phone and turned to go in as the door opened and Gordon stepped outside.

  “You okay?”

  Stacy nodded. “Yeah. I am.”

  Despite the concern on his face, he didn’t question her further, but held the door open for her to pass. Andre’s dismissal of her appeal rang through her mind, and for the first time in days, she felt herself pulling back emotionally from Gordon. She hated that Andre had that kind of power over her, but she didn’t seem to be able to stop herself.

  CHAPTER 12

  GORDON’S CURIOSITY WAS NEARLY EATING him alive, but he managed to not ask what the call had been about. Everyone had finished eating by the time Stacy came back in.

  “Do you want me to heat your food in the microwave?” Ethan offered. He and Wyatt were clearing the table.

  “No, I’m done. Thank you.”

  “You sure?”

  “Oh, yes.”

  “Well, if you all don’t mind, we’ll get comfortable in the living room,” Beth said as she stood. “I’ve come to have a love-hate relationship with these dining room chairs.”

  To Gordon’s amusement, Beth directed the seating so that he and Stacy were together on the small love seat. He stretched his arm out behind her, letting it touch her along the tops of her shoulders. The position wasn’t quite an embrace, but it was close enough. When she didn’t pull away or shoot him a stern look, he looked away to hide his smile.

  “So we’ve got a little situation going on here, apparently. Tell us what happened today,” Wyatt asked Stacy.

  She moved so that her feet were tucked under her as she told them about the appliance order. “So the manager gave us a CD of the surveillance footage. It’s in my purse,” she finished. She moved to stand, but Ethan stopped her.

  “I’ll get it.” He brought the bag to her, and Stacy, her cheeks bright red, thanked him. Maria and Beth were struggling to keep straight faces. He was almost afraid to find out whatever it was they were up to.

  Stacy got out the CD and handed it to Ethan, who popped it in the DVD player and turned on the television. When the images came up, murmurs cascaded around the room.

  “Anyone recognize her?” Gordon asked. “We both thought she looked familiar, but can’t figure out why or where from.”

  “Yeah, I’m getting that, too. Maybe something about the way she moves?” Maria mused.

  “What did the manager say?” Beth asked. “Did he have any other contact information for her other than what she put on the delivery form?”

  “No, but he was super helpful,” Stacy said. “He didn’t even wait for us to ask for the footage. He already had it burned to a CD when we got there.”

  Gordon scowled, remembering the man’s solicitousness. “You think that might have had something to do with how you threatened to bring warrants and a parking lot full of police cars to his door?”

  Wyatt’s eyebrows went up. “Really? You said that?”

  Stacy elbowed Gordon hard. “I may have mentioned that to the sales manager, yes.”

  “Ow.” He rubbed his side.

  “Did he know you were bluffing?” Ethan asked as he handed her the CD. He smirked as Gordon put a small throw pillow against his ribs.

  “Well, I wasn’t really bluffing,” she hedged. “I figured I might have a snowball’s chance in Hades of ever getting a warrant, but stranger things have happened. And it did light a fire under the general manager.”

  “That, and a set of big blue eyes,” Gordon mut
tered.

  Astonished, Stacy turned said eyes to him. “What did you say?”

  He held up his hands. “Just that the guy took one look at you and would have jumped off a bridge if you’d asked. That’s all.”

  She scowled. “That’s not true. He was being nice after his idiot of a sales manager made an ass of himself.”

  The silence in the room after she spoke made Gordon realize that everyone was waiting for his response. He frowned. “I didn’t like the guy. He was smarmy.”

  Stacy rolled her eyes. “Please. He was perfectly normal. Perhaps a little overly fond of cologne, but normal.”

  Wyatt’s cough sounded an awfully lot like a hastily covered laugh. “Be that as it may, it was nice of him to provide us with the footage. When is the salesman due back in?”

  Gordon answered without taking his eyes from Stacy. “This weekend. He had a death in the family.”

  She crossed her arms and deliberately turned away from him. Gordon frowned at that movement. Her behavior had been a little off since she’d come back inside. She’d been quieter and a little more brittle. Her discussion with Andre had left her disturbed. As soon as they were alone and he got a chance, Gordon was going to do his best to find out what the man had said. Beth’s comment drew him back to the conversation.

  “So aside from inconveniencing the two of you today, this wasn’t something that was harmful by itself. But if you take it in the context of everything else that’s been going on lately, I’m worried that someone’s trying to gaslight you,” she told Stacy.

  “I’m still not sure what’s harmless joking and what isn’t,” Stacy admitted. “But there was an incident last night that has me a little concerned. I had a load of laundry that I didn’t get to dry before I went to Gordon’s. When I got home, I went to put it in the dryer, but it was already there, and it was dry. I did not put it there. I know I didn’t.”

  Every hair on Gordon’s body stood up, and he straightened. “Why the hell didn’t you call me?”

  Stacy tapped her fingers against her arm. “Because I thought I’d done it. Last night, I really thought I’d done it. And there’s more…” She continued, not stopping to give him the chance to scold her again, “I thought I’d misplaced some toilet paper. Well, I found it yesterday in my trunk. Gordon knows this. That package was not there the other day. I didn’t put it there, so someone else did. And I’m sure it’s the same package, because Chloe attacked it and tore it open.”

  Everyone in the room looked as shocked as Gordon felt. He had to wonder what else Stacy hadn’t mentioned because she thought she was losing her mind.

  Wyatt rubbed his face. “This isn’t good. Someone’s trying to make you think you’re unstable, or make other people think it, or both. Who would want that?”

  “I would think it would be either personal or professional. What cases have you been working on lately that could be affected if your mental stability were to be called into question?” Beth asked.

  Stacy shrugged. “Any of them could be, I suppose. I guess I’ll have to sit down and go over everything I’ve touched for the past couple of months. That’s when the pranks started—about six weeks ago or so. Right after I came back to work part-time.”

  “Could it be personal?” Ethan asked.

  “I don’t think so,” Stacy answered.

  Stacy shared a look with Wyatt and Maria, and Gordon glanced at Ethan to see if the other man had noticed. From his focused stare, Gordon figured he had.

  Ethan persisted. “You sure about that?”

  “Sure enough for now.” Stacy’s tone was a warning, and though he scowled, Ethan heeded it.

  “Let’s try the most logical approach first,” Wyatt advised. “Though I wonder if looking a little closer at Andre might not be a bad idea. What did he want, if you don’t mind my asking?”

  Since Wyatt was her boss as well as her friend, Gordon was happy he had been the one to ask the question. He probably had the best chance of getting her to answer of all of them.

  “He’s angry with me because his girlfriend dumped him. So he probably is someone we should look at, though that’s just going to make him more upset.”

  Maria sat forward, pure disbelief on her face. “He’s angry with you? With you? That little piss ant. Where does he get off—” Wyatt put a hand on her shoulder, and she stopped, visibly reining herself in. When she continued, her voice was much quieter. “Why does he blame you?”

  Stacy’s smile held no humor. “Apparently, his girlfriend likes me. I was nice to her once. And word got back to her about what happened the other day. She broke up with him and has mounted a campaign to get all his former lovers to drop off blowtorches at the deli.”

  Ethan was the first to snicker, but everyone else wasn’t far behind. Gordon watched as an unholy gleam lit the detective’s eyes. “Oh, that is sweet. I’ll bet he is ticked. How many has he gotten so far?”

  “Ten or eleven.”

  When Maria snorted, trying to hold back her amusement, Stacy finally smiled with real pleasure. “It isn’t very big of me, but I think that’s the funniest thing I’ve heard in a while.”

  “So what did you tell him?” Gordon asked.

  “That he needed to grow up, start taking responsibility for his own actions, and that maybe a public apology to me would help him get this girl back. Apparently, she’s special.”

  The bitterness in her tone made Gordon wonder if she still had feelings for Andre or if something else the man had said was really bothering her. He didn’t like either idea, but hoped it was the latter and not the former.

  “The only problem with your prankster being Andre is that in order to do some of these stunts, he’d have to have access to the department,” Beth said. “So as much as I’d love to find out this has been him, I don’t see how it could be.”

  “Yeah, and I don’t like the implications there. Whoever is doing this has to be closely associated with the sheriff’s department. That means that someone we all work with is out to hurt Stacy. After everything else that’s happened in the last couple of years, this could tear the department apart.” Wyatt’s face was grim.

  The year before, Wyatt had been the target of an extortionist with a vendetta. The resulting scandal had tarnished his near-perfect thirty-year record, but he’d regained control of the situation.

  “Even without all the other crap to contend with, the sort of betrayal we’re talking about would endanger the brotherhood.” Ethan swore. “So who would have access to your house, your car? Who all has keys, Stacy?”

  She drew her knees up to her chest, resting her head on them. Gordon took a chance and laid his hand on her back. She stiffened for a second and glanced at him, but didn’t complain. “I changed the locks when I moved in, and Maria and Neva have keys to my house. Of course, now I have the electronic keypad at the front door, thanks to this.” She held up the wrist that had been broken. “Maria and Neva also have the code,” she said, referring to the department’s receptionist. Neva Brewer was a fixture there, having been at the department in one capacity or another for more than forty years.

  Maria nodded. “I don’t have it written down anywhere. I just remembered it. I’m not sure where Neva keeps hers. I do keep my keys in my purse when I’m at the office, but I keep the drawer locked where they’re at, and that key stays on my person.”

  “Yeah, same for me. I have a set of ‘work’ keys and ‘house’ keys,” Stacy explained. “As to the car keys, I have both of those for my personal vehicle. I keep it locked at all times. Who all would have access to the keys for my cruiser?”

  “You’re the only one who’s been assigned that car, if memory serves,” Wyatt answered. “But the spare key is in the motor pool office. Easy enough to get to by someone inside, I would think.”

  Ethan helped Beth change positions, and she moved so that he could rub her back. “So who can we trust at work? I’d like to think we don’t have a traitor in our midst, but I’m afraid we do,” Ethan said
. “This is the worst thing that can happen to a police organization.”

  “I trust everyone in this room,” Stacy said. “Jason, Neva. I want to say I trust Robbie, but after last night? If it comes down to it, I’m not sure I do.”

  “What about Gretchen?” Wyatt asked. “I know you, and Maria, she, and Neva go bowling regularly.”

  Stacy hesitated. “We’re not as close as we were,” she admitted. “There was a state trooper she was interested in a few months ago, and she found out he was calling me. It was just for help on a case he was working on, strictly professional, but she didn’t see it that way. I’ve not been able to convince her that I’m not interested in the man.”

  “You mean the one guy—Caleb?” Maria asked.

  Stacy nodded.

  “I was afraid of that. She said something to me about it, and I didn’t have any luck getting her to see reason, either.”

  The realization that the list of people within the department they could trust was so short was chilling. “It narrows our suspect pool if we only consider people who’d have access to you at the department,” he told Stacy. “What all sorts of things have you noticed? I know there has to be more than what you’ve mentioned.”

  She assessed him. “Little things. The pencil holder on my desk not being exactly where it should be, all my paperclips being gone, full notepads being replaced with almost empty ones. And then there are the not-so-little things, like my car not being where I parked it when I came out of the grocery store. The toilet paper, the laundry, running out of gas.”

  “Who was dispatched with the gas that night?” Gordon asked.

  “Robbie.”

  “I could be way off base here, but I don’t think Robbie would be capable of something like this,” Wyatt said quietly. “He’s a good kid. Has a lot of responsibility he shouldn’t. Obviously, I can’t guarantee you he’s not behind these pranks, but I just don’t think he would be.”

  “I don’t want to think that, either. Especially after he saved my life a few months ago.”

  Gordon wasn’t so sure. “Do you think maybe he has feelings for you, and he could be trying to get you to notice him? Scare you into needing someone?”