Chapter 30
Adam
Dread and rage swirled in my gut as I opened the last of six letters from the stalker.
There hadn’t been any letters from this guy when I’d gotten her mail after she’d hurt her ankle… had there? We’d talked about it that night, and I’d stupidly failed to sift through the pile with any real focus. I’d changed the subject when she’d gotten upset, not wanting to push her after she’d admitted what’d been going on… clearly, I should’ve.
“This guy needs serious help,” Bruce said under his breath as he skimmed one of them we’d already opened.
“Indeed,” Wilder said darkly.
Each letter had been written on college-ruled notebook paper. The handwriting was orderly and clear. The language was unfortunately mature—both in terms of vocabulary and sentence structure, which meant this was almost without a doubt an adult male and not a misguided teen.
And there was the content. The early letters I’d seen were mostly unhinged praise, until the last one where he’d veered into more personal territory about his feelings for her. But these last few were graphic in a way that made me ill and escalated the concern here to massive.
Things he wanted for her, and far worse, from her, and then what he’d do when he found her.
Yes. He’d been making clear for a long while that he was working to find her in real life and hoped to meet her—hoped to “unite” them.
I tossed the letter and must’ve made a sound like a wild dog, because Bruce and Wilder both paused and eyed me right as my phone rang. Bruce patted my shoulder, attempting to reassure me without words as I answered.
“Hi, Adam, it’s Dahlia. Mandy came in and can tell you about the customer.”
I put it on speaker and she continued.
“I also sent the CCTV recordings to your email on the card and copied Bruce since I have his, too. Let me know if there’s anything else we can help with.”
“Thanks, Dahlia.”
“Here’s Mandy.”
A few minutes later, we had a description of a man who’d come in early Saturday wanting a bouquet that matched what Jo had received. He’d returned later and paid cash. He had light blond hair pulled into a ponytail she only noticed when he turned to leave since he wore a hat low on his head, slight build, and was about five-foot-seven, pale white skin, no facial hair. She guessed he was in his thirties or forties but wasn’t sure. He’d been wearing nondescript clothes she couldn’t recall, but we’d see those on the video soon enough.
It was better than nothing. We could take the description along with the letters to the police, and while there was likely not much they could do yet, Chief Whitacker wouldn’t disregard it.
“Doc, I’m going back after lunch. Cookie’s there now.” Beast ducked his head in for the update. Bruce had set up a rotating schedule so there would be someone at the bookstore all day in two-hour shifts. After we learned more, we’d figure out the way forward. Handy to be a security company who specialized in personal security, so we knew exactly how to do this.
At least, we did in theory. I didn’t know how to handle this when it was someone who mattered to me.
“What’s going on? How can I help?” Jess peeked in, body as far from Beast’s giant presence as possible. In the doorway of my office, that wasn’t much, but she still managed it.
I looked to Wilder, not sure what to say. I’d made clear we couldn’t let this out because of the personal information about Jo that no one knew. Beast hadn’t needed the full explanation, but Jess would. She’d know this was about her friend with even the smallest bit of information, and she’d demand to understand the full story because not only was she excellent at anything we assigned her to, she was also a good friend. She’d be worried and want to understand what this meant for Jo, and I didn’t know how Jo wanted that to come out.
I couldn’t make that call without Jo’s okay, and Wilder read it loud and clear.
“Still getting intel for now, but we’ll let you know if we need you. Thanks, Pop.”
Jess paused, absorbing the brush-off with a small drop of her chin, and she left. At some point, I’d circle back with her and let her know, or Wilder would. When it was okay with Jo and we could clarify it wasn’t a problem with Jess, this was the situation. No doubt Jess felt the slight, and I couldn’t ignore the fact that Beast, her rival whether we liked it or not, clearly had some amount of information she didn’t.
Beast looked after her, all squinty eyes and hard mouth, then patted the doorframe. “See you this afternoon.”
After thanking Wilder as quietly as possible, I gathered my things. I had no plan to come back to the office today. Anything I was working on before this could wait.
When I took Jo lunch and explained it was time to go the police, she seemed calmer. I didn’t detail what we’d found in the letters in her PO Box, but I did clarify that the person was here in town.
“I figured it was something like that since you put the guys out there.” Her gaze flicked to the front door, where we could see Cookie’s tanned arm and profile.
“I didn’t want to scare you before I knew more, but Mandy from Bloom confirmed it. That’s an escalation and we need to let the Chief know, for sure.”
“Thanks for your help with this,” Darcy said, his hand outstretched to me.
I had nothing but good things to say about the man, but we hadn’t had many conversations aside from book-related ones when I’d stopped in and missed Jo. He was a good man, and from what I could tell, a loving father.
Even through the haze of worry and fear shrouding Jo, I could see a glint of excitement. His statement revealed he knew—at least about the stalking and probably about Josie Wade, too.
“Hope we can get it wrapped up quickly.”
He released my hand and gave me a kind, fatherly look. “Me, too, son.”
And then he left us to settle into the reading room in the back for our lunch.
That son shouldn’t have left an impression in my mind, but it did—one I didn’t have time to take out and trace over right now.
Jo picked at her turkey sandwich, only managing a few bites, and soon enough, we’d reported everything to the police. She’d been strong and clear about everything she had explained, especially the number of letters she’d tossed. As much as she’d claimed to have put it all out of her mind, her subconscious had known something wasn’t right and had been keeping track.
As expected, they couldn’t do much, especially since we had no proof the flowers were from the stalker. We’d connected those dots, but in terms of proof and not just some nice person coincidentally giving the pretty bookstore girl flowers, we couldn’t link them.
That said, the Chief and the people in the know at Saint all seemed to agree it was too coincidental, especially since no one recognized the guy, and in a town this small, it was unlikely a total stranger had bought Jo flowers. Not that she wasn’t deserving, but it simply didn’t add up.
After they took her statement, Jo’s energy circled the drain. I walked her all the way inside her place and she slumped onto the couch.
“Let’s get you a bag packed.” I took a seat in the chair next to her.
She rubbed at her eyes, then blinked over at me. “A bag?”
I took her hand in mine and held her gaze. “Yeah. Until we find this guy, you’re coming to stay with me.”
She instantly shook her head. “No, Adam. I can’t do that to you. This is—the police know now and it’s going to be fine.” Her eyes filled with tears. “Right? It is.”
I moved to sit beside her and pulled her into a hug. “We’re going to get it figured out. We will. But for now, will you humor me? Let me take you to my house. You’ll have your own room, your own space, and there’s no pressure on this. I just want you to stay somewhere this guy doesn’t have on his radar, and while I’m hoping he hasn’t found addresses for your family, he certainly doesn’t know mine.”
She pulled back. “This is too much.”
Too much to handle? Too much for any one person to have to deal with?
Or was this woman worried it was too much for our fledgling relationship? Was she worried I wouldn’t want her there but was doing it for her safety?
She couldn’t know that half of this was for my own peace of mind. Granted, Bruce and Wilder had signed off fully on the plan to have her out of the place where this creep knew she lived, but still. I couldn’t handle knowing she was staying where this guy could find her, even if we did have someone outside her door at all times. And how long would that go on?
Jo could stay with me for as long as she needed to—as long as she wanted.
And if that rolled into indefinitely, well…I shook away the thought, banishing it from my mind because I knew better than to go there. This was not the time to start thinking of anything I wanted, let alone something so far past what I knew I could do.
“It’s not too much—don’t worry about that. Unless you’re not comfortable, and in that case, no judgment or worry, we’ll figure something else out. You can stay with?—”
Her hand slid from my shoulder to my jaw. “No. That’s not it.”
Even red rimmed and full of worry, her eyes were so beautiful it made me ache.
“Alright, then. Let’s get a bag packed and go get you settled.”
She took a slow, deep breath. “At your house.”
She said it like she was absorbing the information in a new way.
“Yes, honey. At my house.”