She shouldn’t be surprised. After all, they had been seventeen when they had last seen each other, a very long ten years ago. Even though she had lost her heart to him-her first love-never for a moment had she thought Johnny felt anything for her other than raging teenage hormones.
He had been the small town bad boy, and on one hot summer night, she had fallen head over heels for him. Izzie had been at her best friend’s birthday party when she had caught her boyfriend kissing another girl. She’d run out back to cry her eyes out. Johnny appeared on his Harley. He let her dry her eyes on his shirt and offered to give her a ride home. From that night on, she was completely under his spell. Just like then, he was taking care of her now.
“Is anyone else in the house?” He glanced toward the stairs.
“No. Would you like a cup of coffee?” She started toward the kitchen. “I’ll never get back to sleep, so I might as well put some on and get some work done.”
“Sure. It’s been a long night.” He sat at her kitchen table and pulled a small ragged notebook from his jacket pocket.
He’d changed, just as she had. He was older and, if possible, more handsome, but in a mature way. And he’d cut all that long gorgeous hair. Since he didn’t show any sign of recognizing her, she’d play it that way.
“So, you’re Sergeant Rafferty. I heard you’d come back to town to help your uncle out. There was an article about the shortage of manpower in the Woodview Gazette. We’re lucky to have you.”
She paused to catch her breath and he still didn’t say anything. He continued to stare at her. “I . . . heard since Eddie moved to Denver to take care of his mom the chief has had a hard time finding his replacement,” she babbled on. Why didn’t he say something?
Johnny had been in town for over a month and she had done a great job of avoiding him so far. Yet, of all the ways she had imagined their first meeting, it was nothing like this. She still felt like a teenager where he was concerned. It was probably just as well that they get this meeting over, once and for all, so she could get the man off of her mind.
“Yes, I heard about that article,” he finally said. “It’s hard to find people qualified that want to live in a town this size.” He grinned. “I owed my Uncle Louie a favor. Fortunately, I was able to take a leave of absence from my other job.” He continued to stare at her, but didn’t elaborate any further. His eyes narrowed slightly and a look of puzzlement crossed his face. “You’re . . . .”
“Izzie Norris.” She offered her hand. “I’m pleased to meet you.” His handshake was smooth and firm which caused tremors to skitter around her heart. She turned away and broke eye contact to put on the coffee. After all these years, he still had the ability to make her nervous. She could swear the very air she breathed had somehow grown heavy and warm in his presence.
“I’m so grateful you came and took that man away. Who do you think he is?” Suspecting he would recognize her at any moment, she kept jabbering. “He seemed to calm down when you were talking with him.”
“I don’t know anything about him, yet. Why don’t you tell me about that phone call?”
Crap. She had forgotten she mentioned the call to the dispatcher. She really didn’t want to go there. He’d think she was nuts if she told him a robotic voice kept calling her.
He waited patiently for some kind of answer.
She turned from his penetrating gaze to get the coffee creamer. “Well, all he said was ‘look out your window.’ I did and called for help.” Her stomach quivered with nervous energy as she pulled coffee mugs from the cupboard.
“What did you think when you received the call?” He watched her closely.
“I thought it was probably kids pulling a prank. I wasn’t too concerned until I saw that man standing out in my yard. I have no idea who might have called.”
Should she tell him about all the other calls? No, because of her wayward feelings for the man, she didn’t want Johnny involved. Damn. Why had she asked him to have coffee? When it came to Johnny she was really messed up. She needed to get him out of the house so she could have some private time without any distractions to think about how those calls had led to a naked man in her front yard.
He continued to stare at her. Her face grew hot from his scrutiny.
“Don’t I know you?” Johnny asked and wrote something in his little black notebook.
She ignored his question and set out cream and sugar. “I guess I panicked with the stranger in my yard, but this incident is a nuisance, not worth wasting your time.” She poured the fragrant brew, and hoped he would drink it fast and go. “I’m sure he’ll never come back.”
He took a sip of the black coffee and stared at her over the rim of the cup. She could always read his eyes and knew he wasn’t going to let this go so easily.
At that moment the doorbell chimed. She jumped as if someone had poked her with a sharp stick. Nobody ever came to her house except Nina to clean. Now a naked man had shown up and her doorbell was ringing at five-thirty in the morning.
“Excuse me.” She fled the room and headed toward the front door.
Hurrying along, Johnny followed close at her heels. She could practically feel him breathing down the back of her neck.
“Wait.” His voice was full of authority as he stepped around her and blocked the door. He glanced out the side window. “Looks like some kind of paper or an envelope on the step.” He pulled a gun from inside his jacket. “Get back,” he ordered, his voice gruff.
She moved away from the door, but from beside Johnny she could see that someone had left a smooth white envelope in the middle of the welcome mat.
Johnny stuck his hand out and picked it up by the corner with two fingers pulling it inside the door.
“Isabella Ann Simpson Norris” was scrawled across the front of it in bold black script. Izzie grabbed it and held it against her robe so he couldn’t read her full name.
“Stay here.” He gently pushed her behind him. “I have to secure the area.”
She glanced across the lawn and didn’t see anything but the empty yard and familiar surroundings. Whoever had left it was long gone. This was very strange and she had to admit she was glad Johnny was here.
“Go into the kitchen and stay there. Don’t open the envelope yet. I’ll be right back.” He stepped through her living room door and silently closed it behind him. She was left to fend for herself.
So much for feeling safe with Johnny being here. She sighed and ran her fingers over the smooth envelope as she hurried back into the kitchen. Who could’ve left this?
A short time later, he came in and stood beside her wearing thin rubber gloves. “Let me see it.” He reached for the envelope.
“Why do you need gloves,” she asked and held the envelope out of his reach not wanting him to see her name.
“So there won’t be any fingerprints, but yours and who sent it.”
“Oh.” She hesitated for a heartbeat. “Fingerprints, there’s no need for fingerprints. It’s just a note.” She opened the unsealed envelope and read it.
We’ve got your back. Nigel.
She threw the paper on the round oak kitchen table as if it had singed her fingers. Nobody knew she had named the voice Nigel. She’d never uttered the name aloud. What the hell was going on? And who was we? She shivered. It was as if someone were reading her mind.
“Sit down. You look pale. Are you okay?” He helped her into a chair and gave her a glass of water. “Drink this.”
She wrapped her fingers around the glass and tried to get her thoughts together. Gratefully, she sipped the cool water. How can anyone know I call the voice Nigel? What do they mean they’ve got my back? And who is Nigel? She took a deep breath. Was the naked guy Nigel? Did he want me to look outside so he could flash me? Silently, she counted to ten. Her body began to relax. “Yes, I’m all right,” she muttered.
“Your color is coming back. There for a minute I thought you were going to faint.” He picked up the note, read it, and smoothl
y folded it back into the envelope.
“Who is Nigel and why did this note upset you so much?” He tapped the envelope against the kitchen table and waited for her answer.
“I . . . I don’t know anyone named Nigel.” She set the water glass aside. “Some person is out there sending me notes and calling me. Don’t you think it’s kind of weird?”
“I’ve seen stranger things.” He glanced at the name written on the envelope and sealed it in a zip lock baggie. Taking off the gloves and tucking them in his pocket, his gaze pinned her to the chair. “Isabella Ann Simpson Norris,” he said and a smile crossed his face.
“Yes,” she said and worked on regaining her composure. “My maiden name was Simpson.”
He looked her up and down, openly appraising and seemingly approving. “Sorry, I didn’t connect the widow Norris and the lady of many names to little Bella Simpson.” He shook his head. “You’ve changed. Your hair is longer.”
Busted. Tongue-tied, she sat there like a fly caught on sticky paper, unable to speak as he gave her the once-over. She felt the flush rising in her cheeks. He knew she had been pretending not to remember him.
“You look good, Bella. I’m going to string Uncle Louie up for not telling me exactly who the widow Norris is.”
At least she could pretend not to be mortified. “I stopped using the name Bella when I went away to college. Everyone calls me Izzie now. And since you didn’t seem to remember me, I decided to let it go.” She returned his open stare. “Don’t be angry with your uncle over a simple misunderstanding. He doesn’t have any idea who I am.”
There was no reason his uncle would connect the dots. Back in the day, they did everything in their power to hide their short affair and had done a good job until the end. She had been a good girl, an A student, daughter of a rich family with ties to several of the ski resorts in the Colorado mountains. Johnny was from the wrong side of town, a high school drop-out who smoked pot, drank too much, and rode a Harley. He had only been visiting his uncle for the summer and she was the girl of the moment.
“Oh, he has a good idea of who you are,” Johnny said as he returned his attention to the envelope in his hand.
Great. All this time and she’d had no idea that her chief of police had known about her teenage mistake. The things they had done in the backseat of his borrowed car brought a flush to her skin. She’d made a lot of mistakes in her younger years, but Johnny was the biggest. She glanced at his hands holding the envelope and her insides clenched. She still remembered how warm they had been against her bare skin.
Somehow she had to change the subject. She really didn’t want to think about him in that light or get into that particular conversation. “You do know that we don’t have a fingerprinting facility here, don’t you?” She must get his mind elsewhere. “I’m sure the state lab will want to get right on this.” She laughed. “Emergency. Emergency. Someone left a note on the widow Norris’ doorstep,” she said. “Really, they won’t want anything to do with such an insignificant incident.” She grinned to lighten the mood.
He gave her that look again. “I don’t intend to send it to the state lab.” He had the nerve to smile as he frowned and pulled the envelope out of her reach. “When I’m not doing Uncle Louie a favor, I work for a private firm. My agency has a competent facility and staff and we do this sort of thing all the time. It won’t be a problem.”
“You don’t have to go to all this trouble. It’s nothing.” She didn’t want Johnny Rafferty poking around in her business.
“Don’t worry about it. They can handle a little fingerprinting for me. It won’t be any trouble at all.”
“But Johnny, it’s no big deal. Can’t we just forget about it?”
“Who is Nigel?”
She hoped he had forgotten about what the note said. Damn. “Well, you see that’s the funny thing. Like I already told you, I don’t know anyone named Nigel. Actually, I’ve never met anyone by that name.” She hesitated not wanting to talk about this anymore. “They must have the wrong address or something.”
“Maybe, maybe not, but it had your full name on it. What are you trying to hide?” His low voice rumbled giving her no room for argument as his magnetic glance silenced her.
“I . . . I’m not hiding anything.” She cringed. “I don’t know what’s going on.”
“Okay, if you say so, but I’ll continue to check it out.” His intense gaze nearly scorched her skin. “I’d never do anything to put anyone in danger because of my negligence. Especially, not you.”
* * *
Johnny tucked the evidence inside his suit pocket. This was the most interesting case he’d come across since coming to Woodview, Colorado. So far, he’d had the privilege to talk to a kid about shoplifting a candy bar from the corner grocery store. Then there was the argument about the parking space over at the bowling alley. Yes, at least this was something he could wrap his mind around as well as give him an excuse to see Bella, ah, Izzie again.
It had been a real shock when she’d looked at him over the coffee cup with that same gleam in her eyes she had when she wanted to be kissed. All those teenage memories rushed back. In his mind, she’d remained the same timid skinny seventeen year old girl he had once loved. Now this luscious blonde sitting before him was all woman with curves in the right places and from what he could see there was nothing timid about her. At least now he was able to conceal his emotions better than he could at seventeen.
Uncle Louie was going to pay dearly for this set up. He wondered if Louie had anything to do with the naked guy in her yard. It’d be just like him to play some kind of prank on him. But, naw, that character in her yard had been in a world all his own, talking to aliens or so he claimed. But Louie could have at least warned him that the Widow Norris was Bella.
Johnny didn’t fluster easily. Not even faced with this pretty woman who looked naturally sexy. Her golden blonde hair was pulled up on top of her head, and her robe tied snuggly over a nicely-shaped body. Her smart green eyes glinted in the harsh kitchen light and her lips pressed together in determination. From past experience, he knew she wouldn’t fall for him again, not into his arms, not into his bed, and not into a relationship, short or long. These days she was into the real thing. He didn’t have time for that. He liked easy, at least where women were concerned. Bella, no, Izzie rose from the kitchen table.
“Listen, it’s getting late and I have a whole lot of work to get done today. Can we wrap this up,” she said.
An obvious dismissal, it was as if she were tapping into his thoughts and saying, ‘yes, buster, I don’t want anything to do with you so get out of my house.’ He glanced toward the window to see the sun rising low on the western horizon.
“Sure, I think I have all the information I need for now. In the meantime, keep your security system armed day and night. Here’s my card. My cell number is on the back. Call me if anything else should happen.” He laid it on the table and walked toward the door fully expecting her to slam it behind him. “I’ll let you know what I find out about your gentleman caller.”
She turned toward him in the doorway. “I’ll keep the alarm on.” No doubt, she told him what he wanted to hear to get rid of him. “I do appreciate all you’ve done for me tonight.” The tone of her voice softened as she reached out her hand. “Thank you.”
In one swift motion, he pulled her into his arms, hugged her close and whispered in her ear, “Izzie, my girl, it’s been my pleasure.” Unable to resist, he kissed her on the cheek then slipped out the door and closed it behind him before she could utter a word.
He glanced at her front door and laughed as he slid behind the steering wheel. This incident, his first real investigative case in Woodview was a little strange, but most likely perfectly harmless. Now, Izzie, the grown-up Bella, she was a whole other ballgame. One he wouldn’t mind playing in.
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Starseed ~ Book One
Copyright 2014 by Jude Willhoff
ISBN: 978-0-9916364-1-9
Cover and Book Design by
THE KILLION GROUP
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All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission, in writing from the publisher. Ebooks are not transferable. They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement on the copyright of this book.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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