Watched

by Louise River

  “I love you, too.”

  Hanging up the phone, she grabs all of the letters and stuffs them into her backpack. She’s finally decided this situation is beyond her control, and she needs to bring the letters to Sam. Determining the course of action here is outside her capability.

  It only takes her fifteen minutes to jog to the sheriff’s station. Normally, running helps to clear her mind, but the entire way she was constantly looking around for someone watching her. No matter how much she convinced herself she was being crazy, she couldn’t shake the feeling. And then Ryder’s words crept up into her mind. “Just remember your gut will know before you realize something is wrong. Trust it.”

  She walks up the front steps and follows the hallway into the main office of desks. The city approved an increase in funding, so all of the deputies received new desks. Except Ryder. He was stuck with an old desk.

  “I have a boyfriend,” she reminds herself. There is just something about Ryder that makes her forget about Aaron. Squaring her shoulders, she pushes thoughts of Ryder and her out of her mind and walks up to his desk.

  “Is Sam still here?” Her mouth has gone dry.

  “Is everything okay?” A worried look furrows his brow, and any sexual tension there had left the building.

  “I just need to talk to him. Is he here?”

  “He’s in his office. Do you want me to get him for you?” Ryder asks.

  She lifts her hand and waves him off. “I can head back there if that’s alright. I know the way.”

  “Yeah, head on back,” he says. She can’t help but notice an emotion cross his face, but she’s not able to read it. She wants to believe it was disappointment.

  Walking past Ryder, she heads back to Sam’s office. He hangs up the phone and stands to leave when he sees her.

  “Park! What do I owe this surprise?” He gives her a bear hug and lets her go.

  “I’ve been getting letters.”

  “What kind of letters?”

  “I thought they were pranks at first. They sounded like overly cheesy admirer letters. They’re now starting to talk about the girls who were murdered. I’m pretty sure I’m being watched, and there was an incident a couple of days ago at Paige’s house.”

  Reaching into her bag, she pulls out the stack of letters and hands them to Sam.

  “I’ll have one of my guys look into these right away,” Sam says. “Do you want a ride home?”

  “No, I’ll be okay. I need to clear my head. It’s been a hell of a day.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Positive,” she says. Relief fills her as the weight of what to do has now been passed to Sam.

  “I’ll walk you out,” he says and leads her out into the office.

  She walks through the office, careful not to look at Ryder too long, and out to the main doors. As she’s about to push the doors open, the overwhelming feeling of being watched washes over her. Deciding she can’t run home, she turns around and goes back into the main office to ask Sam for that ride.

  “Just look into these letters quick,” Sam says to Ryder. “I’m not too worried about them. I’m sure they’re from some lovelorn weirdo from school who just wants her attention. Don’t waste too much time on them. We have murders to solve.”

  “I’ll look through them,” Ryder says and reaches for the latex gloves in his desk.

  “You don’t need those. Just look over them and determine there’s no real threat.”

  “If there’s a real thread and I break procedure, how does that look?”

  “Don’t make me regret taking the advice from an old friend and hiring you. I know your record. I know guys like you. You have an authority problem. Get it together, or you’ll be getting out of my town.”

  Parker leans against the wall in the hallway as anger fills her from head to toe. Against her better judgment, she decides to run home, feelings of being watched be damned.

  Chapter 6

  Ryder watches Sam walk out the back door. His eyes blaze with fury, mouth set in a hard line, and his fists clench at his side. It takes everything in him to not lash out at his boss. Everyone knows how well that would go; he would be the rookie who lasted the shortest amount of time. Yet, for some reason, his boss seems to be completely unconcerned about his goddaughter’s safety. He pointed out the similarities between the victims and Parker, but he just dismissed him as though he was ridiculous. And now all he wanted to do was punch a wall.

  Pulling hard at his rickety old desk drawer with more force than necessary, he reaches in and pulls out the box of gloves and snap them onto his hands.

  Fuck his orders.

  He reaches for the first letter on the pile when Mack gets his attention. “You gotta calm your temper if you want to stay here.”

  “He handed me these letters his goddaughter of all people received like they were nothing but scrap pieces of paper. Right after we discussed how similar these victims look to her. It’s like he was saying her life didn’t matter.”

  “You got a hard-on for the girl?”

  Well, she has appeared in more than one late night fantasy. “It’s not about that.”

  “Good. Because he’d kill you, not just fire you.” He laughs at Ryder. “Don’t you think you might be acting a bit dramatic?”

  “What are the chances the women we’ve found murdered just happen to look like her? On top of that, this psycho is cutting them above their eyes. In the same spot her scar is. What are the legitimate chances this has nothing to do with her?”

  “Since we don’t know who this dude is, it might be a bit presumptuous to assume anything about his motives.”

  “We have no other leads.”

  “You seem awfully concerned about someone who is very unattainable.”

  “It’s not about that.” Ryder sighs. “I just know first hand what happens when people ignore signs staring them right in the fucking face. Sometimes people end up getting hurt. Sometimes people end up dead. I’m not willing to take that chance. With anyone.”

  “What are you talking about?” Mack’s full attention is on Ryder.

  “Nothing. It doesn’t matter. But it’s happened. And if I can prevent it from happening to someone else, I’m going to do whatever I need to. Chief be damned.”

  Mack shakes his head. “Dude, it’s your funeral.”

  Ryder looks back at the letter and reads it.

  Dearest Parker,

  I’m so glad you’re starting to catch on to the girls I’ve picked. They’re all very beautiful, but they can’t hold a candle to you. It’s like you already know me without meeting me yet. You were one hundred percent right talking to the deputy. You are the most beautiful girl in the world, and I wanted to show you that. Make the world as beautiful as you. This proves to me we’re almost ready to meet. I can’t wait to talk to you in person.

  Until I see you,

  K

  He jumps up and tears off his gloves. “You good here for a bit? I’m positive she’s in danger.”

  “Yeah, you big strong knight in shining armor! You go get your girl!!” Mack laughs but Ryder barely hears him.

  He heads out the back to the parking lot where his squad car is. His bike would be quicker and easier, but Sam has forbidden him from using it while on duty for some made up reason. Rushing towards the car at the end of the back of the small lot, he hears a muffled scream. Movement catches his eye in the almost dark parking lot as the sun sinks lower in the distance, and he rushes towards it. He shines his flashlight and finds the man he saw outside of Paige’s house on top of Parker in between two cars.

  “Get off her!” He shouts as his heartbeat fills his ears.

  The man has his hands wrapped around Parker’s neck as he straddles her. She’s trying to fight him off, but he’s too strong. Before Ryder can react, he releases her and takes off running. Ryder rushes towards Parker, and she’s in full panic mode. There is no chance of catching him, so he focuses on calming her instead.

  “Park
er,” he says softly. She’s crawling away from him as frantic sobs escape her throat, and she’s clawing at her collar as though it’s choking her. “It’s okay. He’s gone.”

  Once he moves the flashlight off her, she realizes Ryder is standing in front of her. She throws her arms around his neck as he crouches down to her level. The level of fear in her shakes him down to his core. Without realizing it, he wraps his arms around her and strokes her hair as she sobs against his uniform.

  They sit this way for a few minutes until Parker’s trembling limbs calm down and her sobs recede, and Ryder helps her to her feet. Walking into the station, they startle Mack who sits with his feet up on the top of his desk, eating chips and rocking out to some Metallica. He almost chokes when he catches sight of Parker.

  “What the hell happened?” he coughs. Shutting off his music, he grabs a notepad and pen.

  Parker appears to be in shock, and she just sits in the chair Ryder leads her to.

  “I went to the lot to get the squad car to try and track her down, and I found the bastard I saw creeping on her the other day on top of her, choking her.”

  “Did you get him?”

  “Yeah, he’s in my back pocket waiting for me to pull him out of my ass.”

  Mack glares at me. “You don’t have to be a dick about it.”

  “He ran off before I could fully approach them. It was too dark to see which direction he went. Plus, Parker was a bit shaken. We just need to pull the security footage from the back lot camera to see if we got a good angle on him.”

  “Camera’s broken.”

  “What?”

  “For about a year now.”

  “The security camera at the Sheriffs Department is broken? And no one thought, ‘hey maybe I should get this fixed?’ Because, you know, it’s a fucking Sheriffs Department?”

  “Who’s going to steal a cop car?”

  “What pastor is going to get drunk at a bar and grope college girls?”

  “Who’d think we’d have a serial killer?” Parker says quietly.

  “Face it. Weird shit happens in this town,” Ryder says.

  Parker appears to have snapped out of her trance. “I went to the back lot to see if Sam was still here. I was going to ask for a ride. I could feel someone watching me when I got outside. Again.”

  “What do you mean by again?” Mack’s writing down everything she says.

  “I get the feeling someone is watching me every so often. I can’t really explain it.”

  “It appears to be well-founded.” Ryder nods to the stack of letters.

  “What made you go after her?” Mack asks.

  “The letter mentions a conversation she and I had at the crime scene. He was still there,” Ryder says.

  “What you talked to Sam about earlier?”

  “Wait, you talked to Sam about it?” Parker asks. “You told me it could be a coincidence.”

  “I didn’t want to worry you, but I fully agreed with you. It seemed too weird to not to relate back to you.”

  “Did you talk to him about it before I came here with the letters?” Her eyes are wide on Ryder.

  “Yes,” he says cautiously.

  “Let me get this straight. You told him how these women and I are very similar, and when I give him the letters he still tells you not to worry and waste time on it?” She’s pissed.

  “What are you talking about?” Mack asks. Ryder looks at him knowing full well he knows the conversation he’s referencing.

  “Don’t play dumb.” She appears to be reading his mind. “I overheard Sam telling Ryder it wasn’t necessary to follow procedure. He also threatened his job when Ryder challenged him. And you were sitting right here when it happened.”

  Ryder and Mack exchange a look, and they both know Sam is going to come down hard on Ryder tomorrow for this.

  “And you went to go and find Sam because you could feel someone watching you?” Mack asks getting back to the statement.

  “Yeah.”

  “Then what happened?”

  “I felt someone close to me, and the next thing I know, a hand reaches out between two cars and pulls me to the ground. He was saying something about how I betrayed him. Sharing the letters with Paige was okay, but I betrayed him by bringing them to Sam. And I needed to pay.”

  “He was probably following you here.” Mack makes a note as he says this.

  “Yeah, he said something about what we had being special, and I was a dirty whore who ruined it all. He grabbed my neck and started choking me. As I was fighting him, he kept saying something about telling Auntie hi for him. I don’t know what the hell he meant by that.”

  “Do you know him?”

  “No. I couldn’t really see him clearly, but his voice didn’t sound familiar.”

  “We need to call Chief,” Ryder says.

  “No. Please. I don’t want to see him right now,” Parker says.

  Sighing, Mack and Ryder finish writing the report up, and Parker sits watching Ryder with wide blue eyes.

  “Can I give you a ride home?” Ryder asks.

  “Please.”

  “Off limits,” Mack coughs as the two of them walk to the back. Ryder holds up a middle finger as he leads Parker out the door in front of him.

  “What the fuck is going on?” Travis Bell asks as he and his partner Scott Rogers walk into the room.

  “He’s bringing the Chief’s goddaughter home. She was attacked in the parking lot,” Ryder hears Mack say before the door shuts behind him.

  In the car, he doesn’t try and make small talk, and neither does Parker. The energy in the car is electric and suffocating at the same time. Ryder feels like he can’t breathe, but he likes it. She’s close to him, and she’s safe. And that gives him a sense of calm.

  She’s off limits. She’s off limits. She’s off limits. No matter how many times he tells himself this in his mind, he still wants to reach out and grab her hand, pull her close, and tell her everything is going to be alright. He shakes his head at the thought because this is not who he is.

  He pulls the car to a stop outside her house and he turns to her when she doesn’t get out. “Do you want me to come with you?”

  Parker shakes her head no, but still stays in the car. After ten minutes, Ryder decides to get out and walks to her side. Opening the door, he holds out his hand and she accepts it. They walk side by side to the font door. Slowly, she opens the door. She grabs his arm and pulls him inside with her.

  Chapter 7

  Parker opens the front door to her house, and she is overcome with a feeling of fear. Reaching out, she grabs Ryder’s arm to pull him inside with her. The weight of the day, and now the evening, are weighing on her, and her leg muscles start to give out. Ryder holds her tightly, and she remains upright.

  “Parker!” Anne rushes towards her.

  “Where have you been?” Peter asks as he shuts off the TV and walks over to them.

  As Parker tries to tell her parents what happened, she bursts into tears. Anne walks over to her daughter and wraps her in a tight hug. Regardless of how old she is, a hug from her mommy makes her feel better. There’s nothing like a mother’s love.

  “Is she okay?” Peter looks at Ryder, who is standing there awkwardly in his deputy uniform.

  “She’ll be alright,” he responds. “Do you want me to tell them what happened?”

  Without looking up, she nods yes into her mom’s shoulder.

  “Parker came into the station tonight to drop off a few letters she received. She left, and as I was reading the most recent letter, I knew she was in trouble. I didn’t want her to be outside alone, so I rushed to my squad car. While I was in the back lot, I found a man attacking Parker. He was trying to kill her, I believe.”

  Parker pulls away from her mother even as her grip tightens. Looking at her father, Parker says, “Ryder saved my life.”

  “Why didn’t you bring these letters to Sam?” Peter is angry.

  “I did!”

  “T
hen why was Ryder looking at them?”

  “Chief delegated the investigation to me regarding the letters. I was to determine if there was a threat, or if it was just some classmate from school vying for her attention.”

  “Don’t lie for him.” Parker looks to her father. “Sam didn’t think it was worth looking into. I heard him tell Ryder to forget procedure and not waste too much time on them. When Ryder challenged the order, he threatened his job. I’m glad Ryder took the letters seriously. I don’t know if I’d be standing here if he hadn’t.”

  “How do we know these letters are real?” Peter is looking at Ryder.

  “There was a mention in the last letter regarding a conversation Parker and I had that I did not put into the statement. She was questioning the similarities between herself and the victims as well as the signature cut above the left eyebrow. He was there when I took her statement, sir.”

  “And you didn’t put it in the report?”

  “No, sir.”

  “Why not?”

  “It wasn’t pertinent to the specific questions regarding Parker finding the body.”

  “He told Sam, though.” Parker looks at her father. “This isn’t Ryder’s fault.”

  “You told Sam?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Anne’s eyes meet Peter’s, and there is an unmistakable thought that passes between them, but no one says anything. Ryder is about to speak up, but Peter interrupts him. “Why wasn’t Sam there?”

  “He already left the station, sir.” Parker can see Ryder wants to ask more about the unspoken understanding between the two, but he keeps quiet.

  Ryder refused to throw Sam under the proverbial bus, but Parker wasn’t so forgiving of Sam’s comments. “He offered me a ride home, but I felt relief after giving the letters to him. He didn’t press the issue.”

  “He didn’t insist on driving you?” Anne asks.

  As if on cue, Sam bursts through the front door. His eyes fall on Ryder and his face immediately turns red. “Why the hell did I get a call from Mack regarding Parker being attacked in the parking lot of my station instead of you? Why didn’t you call me immediately?”