by Ladew, Lisa
“Oh no,” she said digging in her pocket with her other hand, pulling out her handcuff key. “It’s a good thing I brought this or you would be in trouble. These aren’t for me.”
“No?” he said, a wide grin covering his face.
“No.” Kara unlocked the cuff, then stuffed the key back in her pocket. She grabbed his hand and within an instant had one cuff around his wrist and the other around her door handle, locking him to her car.
Zane grinned, waiting to see where this was going. Man he loved a take-charge woman!
Slowly, her eyes locked on his, Kara dropped her hands to the waistband of his jeans. He couldn’t believe it. His body jumped and twitched in anticipation. Then her knees bent and she started dropping even lower, without even looking around to see if anyone was watching them. His eyes felt like they were going to pop out of his head. He couldn’t believe what she was doing!
She slid to her knees, one hand on his waistband and the other at the top of his zipper. He could feel the palm of her hand pressing against his erection and it was whipping him into a frenzy. Zane looked around, but the parking lot was still and quiet, no one moving but the two of them. Good.
Kara’s hand fell to the ground and then she popped up to standing quickly, a sly grin on her face. “Did you drop this?” she said, and held something out to him. He looked at it dumbly. A quarter.
His mouth fell open and confusion crossed his face. He could feel it spreading there, like he was the world’s slowest mime. Her laugh tinkled through the parking lot and bounced off the building, then she turned on one heel and walked away from him.
Zane felt like he’d been clubbed over the head. His thoughts bumped up against each other not making any sense. Finally he managed to speak. “Where are you going?” he called, his voice sounding small even to him.
Kara took two more steps and then turned back around, her hand already fishing in her pocket.
“Nowhere, I was just teasing you.” She came back quickly and unlocked the cuffs, her grin wide and her cheeks flushed. She gave him a peck on the cheek and whispered in his ear, “I really did have a good time tonight. Thank you.”
Then she slid behind the wheel of her car, started it, and was gone in an instant.
Zane watched her go, desire written clearly in his jeans, his brain slowly starting to comprehend what she had done. His own laugh finally crossed the parking lot as hers had done. She was good. And now he was alone with only his thoughts of her to keep him company. At least he wasn’t handcuffed to anything.
Chapter 12
He listed to his desk, his mind in its unusual overdrive. He checked every item on the desk twice with a straight rule, to be sure of right angles and exact perpendicularity. He couldn’t work in this space without everything being perfect. He had long ago learned the coping skills that allowed him to function out in the world, with other people, without sharing his peculiarities, but in here, he hid nothing.
His mind spun so fast that his physical abilities were dulled slightly. He would make a poor superhero, he knew. He could be strong, or he could be smart, but he couldn’t be both at once. His mind didn’t work like most people’s - he’d learned he was different during frequent childhood counseling sessions. His brain formed more connections than most people’s did, and everything worked faster, at least when he didn’t have to walk or write or function. When he could just sit and think, his IQ was at genius level. When he had to move or interact with other people, his intellect was dulled by an undercurrent of anxiety. Other people didn’t see it, but he knew it was there, slowing him, stagnating him, lopping off an inch of his intelligence at a time.
When he determined everything was exactly how he needed it to be, he turned the spectacular brain of his to thoughts of Kara. Kara, his lovely, dark-eyed nymph. His strong and fearless warrior. She wasn’t quite his yet, but she would be. Someday, she would realize how perfect he was for her and she would look at him and profess her forever love. Someday.
But she’d been bad. She’d been naughty. Should he call her on it? Or should he send her a message and not say a word about it? Or should he not send her a message at all? Oh but he wanted to communicate with her. He knew it was dangerous, and it was almost stupid. But not quite stupid. He was smart enough to erase any clues that could lead the cops to him. He’d been doing it for a decade now and they hadn’t caught him yet. And they wouldn’t. Especially if he kept his messages to a minimum. Most cops were stupid. They had their clues and they had their jail cells but they didn’t have any real intellect. Even Kara, although she was one of the smartest of a slow and sluggish bunch. That was okay. He was intelligent enough for both of them. No, there was very little danger to him, playing the game as he played it. Besides, not playing the game was too hard, especially when he bathed in her beauty every day. It felt inconceivable to keep his thoughts to himself. And she would want to know. Women always wanted to know, even if they said they didn’t.
Even now, when everything was going right and wonderfully in his life – even now when his grandest dreams were coming true - it was still hard for him to stay away from her. Not hard, impossible. She was his light, his reason for living. The mirror in her soul reflected everything back to him that was good and worth having in this world. Without her, there was no point in living, even when on the surface, his world seemed grand and good. Even when things he had wanted forever were finally in his grasp. She was his world and someday she would realize that.
He turned his computer on, hoping she would finally be in her bed, where he could see her.
She was. He got up to turn off his lights and settle in for a long night of watching the goddess sleep. He would let her beauty inspire his message, and not mention her recent indiscretions. There would be plenty of time for that later. Later when he was almost done with her. No muse lasted forever.
Chapter 13
The blaring sound of Kara’s alarm clock cut through her pleasant dream. She slammed her hand on it, opened her eyes and blinked at the morning sunlight streaming in through the windows. Normally she closed her blackout curtains so she could sleep in, but today she needed to be up early for Duke’s grooming appointment so she had left them open.
Her thoughts immediately turned to Zane, and the entire night before. She hoped she hadn’t teased him too hard, but the look on his face had made it all worth it. The unbelieving anticipation, then the dashed hopes, then the nervous, puppy dog look as he thought she was going to leave him there. She giggled into her cupped fist and sat up, yawning and stretching. She hadn’t stuck around to see what his reaction was, but she would know soon enough if he could take a joke as well as he could dish one out. She was sure he could. She felt connected to him in a way she hadn’t felt in years – ever maybe - and that connection told her he didn’t take himself too seriously.
She shivered as she remembered the rest of the night. As she had driven out of the parking lot, a shudder of unease had gone through her. She felt watched and hadn’t wanted to admit it. She looked in the rear view mirror and saw Zane watching her, but she didn’t think it was him causing the feeling. She’d been with him all night and hadn’t felt like that once. She was feeling like she had the second before Dawn's bullet had ripped through her leg. Like things were going very bad very quickly. But the feeling had faded, and by the time she got home it was gone completely. She shook her head - she was sure (she hoped) it was nothing.
She strode across the room to her desk and picked the phone up out of its charging dock to check messages. Zane showed on the screen. Yes! Heart tripping quickly in her chest, she unlocked the phone and read the message. Thinking of you. Simple, sweet, and heartfelt. She hugged the phone to her chest and twirled around once, all thoughts of being watched the night before driven from her mind. She liked Zane a lot, and he liked her too. And he could take a joke. “I knew it,” she said into the empty room.
Kara pulled on her pants, stumbled into the bathroom to make herself halfway presentable
, and headed to the kitchen to grab a bite to eat. Duke met her at the refrigerator with a muddy nose and paws.
“Duke, have you been digging? No digging!” Duke wagged his tail heartily and licked her face. “Darn it dog, you are getting everything all muddy.”
She pulled him out the back door and inspected the yard. A new hole had appeared in the back corner, right next to the fence. She didn’t think he was trying to dig his way out, but just digging for the fun of it. She showed him the hole. “No digging Duke! Bad dog!”
Duke dropped to the ground and rolled over on his back, showing her his belly, his tongue lolling out on the ground and collecting bits of dirt and grass. Kara shook her head. What a goofball.
She retreated to the house and grabbed a shovel she’d left leaning against the wall. She filled in the hole as best she could, then took Duke out the side gate to the spigot on the side of the house to wash and dry his paws. She didn’t want her car filled with mud.
When he was clean and dry, she led him by his collar to the front of the house, intending to put him in her car, then go back inside for his leash. A bright orange something caught her eye. Her eyebrows drew low and tension shot through her body. As she rounded the car she could see that the orange something was an envelope taped to her driver-side window. She ripped the envelope off with one hand, her other hand trying not to let go of Duke. She curled her hands tighter around his collar and looked up and down the street. No people in sight.
Maybe Bea had put it there, her mind offered, grasping for an innocent reason for the envelope the way a dying man grasps at the lifeguard who has swum out to save him. She knelt quickly, holding on to Duke’s collar, and propped the envelope between her leg and her body so she could use her other hand to open the clasp. She peeked inside and what she saw immediately sent her brain spinning into a desperate tailspin. No, no. This couldn’t be happening. He’d been in her house?!
Fear lanced through her, lifting the hair on her arms and neck. She looked around wildly, but the street was as quiet as before. She ran to her door, pulling Duke with her. The front door was still locked, so she ran around to the back, releasing Duke into the yard and pulling open the back door. She made a beeline for her phone, her mind chanting no, no, no, over and over again as dark images tumbled into her brain.
Setting up her phone, Kara dialed a number by heart. Joe picked up on the first ring. Before he even said hello, words spilled out of her mouth in an angry, terrified torrent. “He was in my house Joe, while I was sleeping! He left me pictures!”
Joe was silent for a moment and Kara’s fear morphed into anger. “In my HOUSE!” she screamed into the phone.
“Calm down Kara, I’m in the area, I’ll be right there.”
“Okay,” Kara said, looking around her house as if she’d never seen it before. Through the back window she could see Duke digging in the same hole again. With shaking hands, she spread the contents of the envelope out over her kitchen table.
“I’m turning onto your street now Kara I’ll be there in one minute.”
“Okay,” she whispered again, dropping the phone onto the table.
Kara looked at each picture in turn carefully, her world constricting painfully. Something wrong stuck in her brain, but she couldn’t get her thoughts to stop racing in anger and outrage long enough to figure out what it was. She shook her head and concentrated harder, trying to take deep breaths as she bent over the table. A knock sounded at her front door but she didn’t even hear it. Her own ragged, offended breathing filled her senses completely. Finally, her name being called broke through to her. She looked up at the door in time to see Joe unlocking it with the key she had given him when she went to Las Vegas for a week. He stepped inside and Kara felt a bit of the tornado raging inside her skull calm at the sight of his concerned and familiar features.
“Kara, are you okay? Did you clear the house already?”
Kara grabbed Joe’s arms as he came close to her and stared into his face. “I didn’t clear the house,” she said weakly.
Joe nodded at her. “I’ll do it.” He glanced down at the table and a look of disgust crossed his face. “Fucker,” he said under his breath, and then lifted his shirt, pulling a gun out of a slim holster on his belt in one smooth motion. “Don't worry, I’m sure he’s not here, but just to be safe.”
Kara watched him head into the kitchen. He came out quickly. There was nowhere to hide in there. He checked behind the couch, inside two closets, then headed down the hallway to the bedrooms and bathroom. Kara sank into a chair, glad he was here. He would know what to do. She couldn’t think right now. She was too upset.
Joe returned quickly, his gun already back in its holster. “Clear, now tell me what happened.”
Kara told him all she knew, which was almost nothing. Joe studied the pictures and Kara watched him closely, the storm in her head blowing out bit by bit.
There were twelve pictures total. One showed Kara, clad only in underwear and a lacy T-shirt, walking in front of her bed. The eleven other pictures were darker, with a greenish tint, like they had been taken with night-vision capability, but she was still clearly visible in all of them. They showed her sleeping, only sleeping. In each one she reclined in a slightly different position. One of them showed her blankets kicked off of her, knees pulled into her chest, almost all of one butt-cheek fully visible. Kara stared at this one the longest, feeling violated. A dull, resentful anger thudded across her brain, making it hard for her to concentrate.
Finally Joe spoke. “I don't think he was in your house, Kara. All of these pictures are taken from the exact same angle. I’ll bet there’s a camera in your room somewhere.”
A bit of relief flooded through Kara at these words, but only a bit. A noise caught her attention and she looked to the back door. Duke was squeezing through the doggie door, his nose and his paws muddy again, his tail held high and wagging madly. He dashed straight for Joe. Joe scratched him behind the ears and held him at arm's length, trying to keep the mud off of his pants. Kara didn’t have the strength to get up and put Duke back outside.
“You’re dirty Dukey, I know, you’re happy to see me, I’m happy to see you too, good puppy, but you gotta go outside for now,” Joe said, pulling Duke to the back door. Joe put him outside with a final pet and then closed the doggie door so Duke couldn’t get back inside.
“I’m going to go look in your room, see if I can figure out where these pictures came from.”
Kara pulled herself together. “Okay, me too.”
They walked down the hallway to the room, and Joe went right for her desk. He picked up items on it and examined them, then turned around and knelt, looking at her bed. He ran his hand across the wall behind the desk and then turned to her. “What’s this?” he said, indicating the small black box on one end of the desk.
“That’s my phone dock.”
Joe cocked an eyebrow at her. “Give me your phone.”
Kara ran back to the kitchen and got it off the table, then sprinted back to Joe, her mind filled with roaring blankness. Joe placed her phone in its dock, turned it on, then took a picture. He picked up the phone and showed the picture to her. It was of her bed, with the same viewpoint as the ones on the table.
“My phone? He took those pictures with my phone?”
“Looks like it,” Joe said grimly. “Let’s go compare them.”
Back in the dining area, they both looked from phone to pictures, until finally Kara broke the silence. “Bastard. How dare he?” Her powers of reasoning were coming back now that she knew he hadn’t been in her house. Somehow that had been the worst of it, thinking of a man she didn’t know standing over her with malevolent intent while she was sleeping. She had felt she would never sleep again.
“Yeah, he’s a sicko all right.”
“So what do we do now?”
“Now, we call Sgt. Gale. Did she give you her cell number?”
Kara shook her head.
“Okay, I’ll try the sta
tion, if she’s not there I’ll have the desk sergeant call her at home.”
But Joe caught Sgt. Gale at her desk, and she said she would be there within ten minutes. While they waited, Joe turned each picture over. On the one that made her the most uncomfortable - the one with much of her bare ass showing - there was a note.
Your beauty puts the night sky to shame
Causes oceans to dry with envy
Forces sunsets to try again
Kara read it three times, then gagged down deep in her throat and read it one more time. Was he trying to woo her? To win her? Did he think this was normal behavior?
“That’s pretty good actually,” Joe said.
Kara stared at him, outraged. “It’s not good! It sucks! It’s awful! It’s horrible! It -”
Joe held up his hands. “Okay, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it. You’re right. It sucks.”
A knock sounded on the door and Joe walked over to open it. Sgt. Gale stalked in, her blonde hair pulled tightly back, her icy eyes sweeping the room. She was in her usual outfit of jeans, black boots, a dark, button-down shirt, with her gun and her badge clipped to her belt. “What do we have?” she demanded, all business.
Chapter 14
Joe showed Sgt. Gale the pictures and explained everything Kara had told him, then offered up their theory about the phone. Sgt. Gale examined every picture, read the note, took Kara's phone, and then asked to see the bedroom. After she had satisfied herself that there were no other cameras in the room, she returned to the dining area and gathered up the pictures carefully, placing them in a large plastic bag she had brought with her.
“I want to dust your car for prints and it wouldn’t hurt to check the doorknobs also.”
Kara nodded wearily, but a thought sprang into her mind, lending her sudden energy. “The cameras!”