Mr. Lewis usually didn’t say a whole lot, but he chose that moment to chime in. “We told her she got off lucky the first time she tried to shoot him. There was no real evidence and they couldn’t charge her with anything other than reckless discharge of a gun. Which was bad enough, mind you. We told her she needed to move on, and leave him alone. But, now this.” The older man truly looked pained.
“It almost seems like she knew when Mindi got back in town.” Mr. Lewis’ voice seemed to trail off on that last sentence. His voice got stronger with the next one. “Wouldn’t you know? She’s been watching him the whole time. I’m sorry I didn’t think of it before.”
His wife looked at him like he’d lost his mind. “What do you mean? She was in Kansas City. She couldn’t have.”
“We should have known she wouldn’t have left that easily. It was all just a cover story. She’s been here the whole time,” he said, sounding grim. “She’s using my old hunting cabin. Try looking there. It’s at the back of our land. There’s a road on the other side. The cabin is about a hundred yards off it. The trees are really thick, so it’s hard to see it from the road.”
“Oh, no. She couldn’t have stayed there all winter. She would have frozen to death.” Mrs. Lewis seemed shocked by the thought that her daughter had been here the whole time, just lying in wait, and watching Luke. And the moment she felt there was a threat to what she perceived as her relationship with Luke, she reappeared. Zane could see the moment reality sat in with the older lady.
“I insulated it well when I built it. She could have used a space heater. She would have only needed one if it was a good sized one. There wouldn’t have been enough spike in our electric bill for us to notice,” Mr. Lewis said, feeling like a fool.
“It runs off your electricity for this house?”
“Yes. Why?”
“That’s just good to know. It might come in handy later.”
“Please,” Mrs. Lewis looked desperate. “Catch her before she hurts someone else. Or worse, kills them. But don’t hurt her.”
“We’ll do our best. This isn’t something we’re use to in our little town. Most of the crime here is speeding tickets and public drunkenness,” Zane said, wanting to reassure her, but not wanting to get her hopes up either.
Zane left the Lewis’s house with renewed resolve. This was the best clue they had got yet. He’d be glad when this mess was over. Luke and Mindi had been arguing the last three days. Luke wouldn’t let her out of his sight, which was causing a lot of tension.
*******
Tracy was getting frustrated. She had been waiting for Mindi to go out alone. Luke and her family were always with her. She was going to make her suffer for that.
She had been living out of cars for days now. One of the reasons the police had been unable to catch her, is that once a car she was driving was associated with her appearances, she would leave town long enough to steal a different one. She had gotten really good at hot wiring cars. She always looked for cars that looked like they had been siting for a while. It usually took longer for those to be reported as stolen. She had been keeping track on an old police scanner of her dad’s, so she would know if she needed to go ahead and get a different car. So far, every time, she had moved on to a different car before one would be reported. She was having exceptionally good luck.
Just another sign, I’m doing the right thing. I know if I just keep waiting I’ll get my chance. Then I can make the little whore pay for what she has done. She has no right to take Luke from me. He belongs to me.
She was sorry she had to shoot him. But she knew he would forgive her once she had freed him from this nasty spell that little Mindi had cast on him.
He’ll come back to me. Or else.
*******
What Tracy didn’t know was, while she was spying on Luke and Mindi, the local police were over taking her father’s hunting cabin. They would soon see how obsessed she really was.
Zane knocked on the door, gun in hand at the ready, with his back up standing by. When there was no answer, he tried the key that Mr. Lewis had given him. He unlocked the door, and stepped to the side of the door frame. Then he flung the door open. When he wasn’t met with gunfire, he leaned in to see if he could see anyone. There was no one in the main area, and the bathroom was open and empty. He stepped to the other side of the door and looked in once more before entering.
He stepped in and flipped the light switch. His jaw dropped as bile rose in his throat. Tracy really was sick.
She had a weird assortment of items she obviously meant to use to torture Mindi. In the center of the room was a chair with a pair of handcuffs on each leg. She had car batteries and jumper cables with sponges attached to them. She must have been watching old crime movies to come up with that one. Zane was feeling like he had just walked into a B rate horror movie. She had pliers and a really lethal looking knife. There was even a sledge hammer of all things. The woman was obviously demented. There was other stuff, but he didn’t want to look too close.
He stepped back outside. He didn’t think he could take looking at that much longer. He used his cell phone to call his dad. “Whatever you do, don’t let either one of them out of your sight. Don’t let them out of the house. Either. One. Of. Them. We’ve finally caught a break in our search, and it’s not pretty.”
*******
As crazy as Mindi was about Luke, the tension from the current situation was making it difficult for her to be around him without wanting to scream. Every time she stepped toward the front door, he would start in on her about not going anywhere on her own. She couldn’t even go out on the front porch by herself. Someone always went with her. It wasn’t just him. He was just the worst one. He was practically shadowing her.
She needed some space. “I need to go somewhere.”
“Fine. We can take my truck.” Luke stood up and started to take his keys out of his pocket.
“No. I’m going by myself.” She gave him her best belligerent stare.
“No, you’re not. If you leave this house alone, she’ll come after you,” he said, getting frustrated for about the twentieth time in an hour.
“You don’t know that. And how can we know if I don’t try to leave the house?”
He kicked the baseboard on the wall. “No, but it’s a pretty good guess. She has tried to kill you before.” I love that she can stand up for herself, but now she’s just be downright stubborn.
“I need out of this house. I’m getting cabin fever.”
“No one said you couldn’t go anywhere. You just can’t go by yourself.”
“Actually, you’re not going anywhere.” Mindi’s dad was coming down the stairs. “That was Zane on the phone. She’s sicker than any of us had ever imaged possible. He doesn’t want either one of you outside of this house until she’s caught.”
“What do you mean?” Luke looked like he couldn’t believe his ears. “Are you saying I can’t go anywhere either.”
“Zane said to keep you both in with your heads down. Something about her being more unstable then we knew.” Carl came to a stop in front of Luke. “He didn’t give me details, he just seemed to think the longer we held her off from Mindi, the angrier she would get,” Carl said, sounding very concerned. “He’s afraid if we push her hard enough, she’ll go after both of you, and she won’t care where or when. Or if there are witnesses. He said he’d give us more details later, when he comes by.”
“I have a business to run. What am I supposed to do about that?”
“I don’t know. Start by talking to James,” Carl added, trying to help. “Maybe he can run the shop by himself for a few days.”
“James can do the business side by himself, but there are mechanical things that he can’t do,” Luke stated with resounding frustration. “Plus, I don’t really feel it’s fair to him to leave him all alone for an undetermined number of days.”
“Hopefully they’ll catch her soon, and everything can go back to normal. In the meantime, most
of the town know what’s going on. They’ll be patient. He may have to answer a lot of questions, but everything should be fine.”
Luke yanked his cell phone out of his pocket and stormed off through the swinging doors to the kitchen.
Carl turned to talk to Mindi, but before he could say a word, she took off up the stairs, slamming the door to her room when she got there.
“This is not going to be fun,” Carl said to the deserted living room.
Five minutes later Luke returned, and at least he looked to be in a better mood. At least for the time being.
“James said he’d come by, so we can go over a few things. He’s going to get me some stuff from my apartment as well. I hope they find her soon,” Luke said, looking up at the ceiling with a frown on his chiseled features. “I don’t think your house will take too much of this.”
*******
When Zane finally got to his mom and dad’s house, everyone else had finished dinner already and Mindi had went back up to her room to hide once again. Luke ran up the stairs and knocked on the door before entering. He didn’t wait for a response. He didn’t figure he would get the one he wanted.
Sure enough, when he opened the door, a book came flying at his head. He caught it and tossed it on the bed. “Zane’s here, and he wants to talk to us both with your dad.”
He walked over and took her head in his hands, and looked her straight in the eyes. “I know this is making you crazy, but it will be over soon. Don’t let it damage what we have, please. I’m begging you,” he said, sounding almost broken. “Be mad at me if you have too, but please don’t...” His voice trailed off. He was unable to go any farther. There were tears in his eyes.
“Luke, don’t.” She used her finger to wipe a tear away as she started crying herself. “I’m just really frustrated, and I have to admit, it’s not really your fault. It’s just, that you’re the only one I feel like can understand what’s going on in my head right now. And I’m taking it out on you. I’m sorry.”
That seemed to be enough to sooth him. He leaned down and kissed her on the lips in answer and took her hand and lead her out the door.
When they got back downstairs, Zane was waiting in the kitchen at the table scarfing down leftovers from dinner. Luke took a chair across the table from him and asked, “Okay Zane, what’s going on? Can this really get any crazier?”
“You have to wait till Mom and Dad make it down. I only want to go over this once,” he said, sticking another bite of food in his mouth.
Luke started to protest until he heard Carl and Jamie coming down the hall. A few seconds later they entered the kitchen. “Okay, Zane, spill it.” Luke wanted to know what was so bad that he couldn’t even go to work.
“Everybody, please, sit down,” Zane said, before he started with his horror story.
The other three, who had been standing till then, took seats around the table and waited for him to go on. In between bites he explained what he had seen at the hunting cabin. “She has pictures of you everywhere. The walls are completely covered. She has some with Mindi in them too. Her face is marked out with little red x’s. Like in the movies. I think the woman has watched too many cheesy horror flicks.”
He took another bite, and continued. “Some of these pictures of you clearly date back to when she and Mindi were still in high school. She was obsessed with you long before you asked her out. It might have started because she knew Mindi was in...”
There was a thump from under the table and Zane hollered, “Ow,” with a jerk. He gave Luke a dirty look.
“Anyway, this has been building for a very long time. And it explains why she’s willing to shoot you, if it comes to that. It was never love, or anything like it. Which I think we all had figured that out already. It was a need to strike out at an enemy.”
“Which explains why you think the longer we evade her, the more dangerous she’ll become,” Luke said with a disgusted look that reflected how everyone in the room felt right then.
“Yeah. It looks like she’s been staying in that cabin ever since you broke up with her. She’s been here the whole time.”
Zane looked at Luke, trying to decide if he should tell him the rest. He decided it would be best if he knew it all, and he went on. “She’s been doing some sort of sick surveillance the whole time. There’s journals,” he said, shuddering. “It explains why she knew the moment Mindi was back in town. There’s even entries from when you went camping back in June.”
By the time Zane was done explaining, Luke understood quite well why they didn’t want them leaving the house. He was hoping that Mindi understood as well.
Luke looked up at Jamie, and felt like he had been punched in the gut. She was absolutely terrified. He hoped she wasn’t ready to kick him out and put her daughter under lock and key. When she finally spoke, he realized she was as scared for him as she was her own daughter. That just made him feel guilty.
“Under no circumstances are you two allowed out of this house until she is caught. I don’t care what you think you’re needing to do. Have someone else do it for you. Or it can wait.” Momma bear had her claws out, and apparently that applied to him as well. “I may do the woman a bodily injury myself if I catch her out alone.”
When Luke got up to walk out of the kitchen, Zane followed him. He waited till they made it through the batwing doors.
“Luke, there’s more, but I didn’t want to say it in front of Mindi. I’m going to leave it up to you to decide if she should know or not.”
“What’s going on, Zane? I don’t see how this nightmare could get any worse.”
“Believe me, it can. She’s planning on torturing Mindi when she gets her hands on her. She’s really a lot sicker than any of us realized. Including you.”
“What?” Luke asked, bile rising up in his throat. He wasn’t sure if it was more from the fury or the fear. “If I get the chance, I may very well strangle her. Your mom’s not going to have to.”
“Just make sure Mindi stays in this house. Don’t let her get more than two feet away from you, at all times. She will try to sneak out if she gets stir crazy enough. And she will get stir crazy enough. I know I would.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll be happy to glue myself to her if I have to.”
“You may very well have to.” Zane gave Luke a strange look, thinking about him kicking him just a little bit ago. “Why did you kick me under the table? I thought you two were past that.”
“We are, but we’re on hold because of this crap with Tracy.”
“Why? Why does it matter?”
“Way too much emotional energy. I want to know when she tells me she loves me, it’s because she loves me.” Anything else will kill me.
“Oh, my gosh. You two are making me crazy,” he said, rolling his eyes. “I’ll be so glad when you two have gotten married. I’ve got to go. See you later.”
*******
Tracy had been sitting outside of the Townsend’s house for almost four hours now. It was already past dark, and Luke still hadn’t come out. James had come by earlier with a duffle bag. He had been in there for about an hour, and then left. By himself, without the bag.
Not to long after James had left, Zane came by with much the same results. He was in there for about an hour, then left by himself, leaving Luke in there with his whore of a sister.
What is going on in there? Is Luke moving in with the tramp? This is getting ridiculous.
Well, they have to come out sooner or later. And when they do, I’ll be ready for them.
Chapter 22 - Saturday July 21
Mindi and Luke had been arguing all day. It didn’t seem to matter what he said, she would argue with him. She couldn’t seem to help herself. She needed space. Being shut up in the house like this was making her crazy. And she was blaming him. If it hadn’t been for his insistence that she be put under constant guard, she would have been able to sneak out. But he seemed to know that she would try, and he was following her around.
They
had been arguing about him helping her fix breakfast, and hadn’t noticed when Mindi’s little sister, Zoe, had walked in, and tried to get Luke’s attention.
All the sudden Mindi was hit in the back of the head with a spray of water. When she tried to turn around, it hit her right in the face.
Mindi noticed Luke trying hard not to laugh a second before the spray was turned in his direction. When the spray hit him in his face, his laughter cut off immediately.
Mindi took a step toward the sink and slipped in the water puddle that had been created when Zoe started spraying them. Luke reached out and caught her before she hit the floor. It caused him to slip and they both went down together in a tangle of arms and legs.
They were still struggling to get up off the floor when Tonya walked in and turned the water off. Tonya was laughing so hard she could barely stand up. This just made Luke think again about how much like Zane she was.
Mindi was sitting on Luke’s lap glaring up at her younger sisters. “Tonya, go get some towels out of the laundry room. Dirty ones will do. And stop laughing. You don’t need to encourage her.”
Mindi struggled to get to a standing position, but Luke grabbed her and pulled her back down. When her bottom made contact with his body, she understood why, and her eyes almost popped out of her head. She was left speechless for a few minutes, until she saw Zoe start to turn the water back on.
“Young Lady, don’t you dare turn that water back on.”
Zoe’s head snapped back around, and she glared at her older sister. “You’re not my mommy. I don’t have to listen to you.”
Luke poked his head around Mindi, and gave Zoe a disapproving look. When Zoe saw him, she stuck her bottom lip out, but climbed down.
Summer Obsession (The Townsends Book 1) Page 20