Chapter 23
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Nick
Noel was helping me run background checks on the list of people Matt gave me. Problem was, it took time. Doing the easy search of criminal records, grievances, and workplace citations wasn’t the part that took a while—it was the other things. Issues that were never filed with the police or at work. Like clubs that had blacklisted them, and the only place to locate that would be in their systems.
Stalkers weren’t always obvious people. Sometimes it was someone with no priors, winner of most respectful human or some shit. It was a person that one day saw someone and fixated. It was believed that stalkers had a pattern, but that wasn’t really true. They’d gone out with someone and broken it off, and they’d become obsessed. It might have never been the case for them until now.
Those little details were the hardest part. Not easy to build a profile and find enough proof that would stick.
“Did you see the bagger bike on the garage footage?” Noel spun in his chair. On top of what we had in our private bedrooms, we had an office that was dedicated to all of our “tech shit,” as Angel liked to call it. This way multiple people could work at the same time.
“No, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it wasn’t used. I just couldn’t pick it up on any footage.”
“We gotta get better cameras.”
I agreed with Noel, and I was going to have a talk with Matt about that. I respected him not wanting them in his home but by the fire escape, entrance of the building, the lobby…yes. Not legal, but fuck that shit. I wasn’t messing around anymore. This lunatic was escalating.
“I’ll get them installed.”
Noel chuckled. “You think he’ll let you?”
I grinned at him “Oh, I have my ways.”
Noel rolled his eyes and returned to his monitors. “I don’t want details.”
“I wasn’t going to give you any.”
We went back to work, poring through files, résumés, anything we could find. At this time the only person I could rule out was Matt’s dentist. He was almost seventy, and there was no way he could be the person on the videos or overpower Matt like they did.
A soft knock on the doorframe broke my concentration, and I looked up to see Matt smiling.
“Hey.”
He walked to me and glanced at my screen. I was currently doing a deep dive into his coworker Joan.
“Joan?”
I shrugged. “You never know. Stalkers aren’t always cut and dried.”
He shook his head. “More Netflix documentaries?”
“Nope, I talked to Aziza.”
Matt pulled up a chair, waving at Noel when he said hi. “And she told you that?”
“Yup. There are seven different kinds of stalkers. Did you know that?”
His eyes widened. “I didn’t. Wanna educate me?”
I turned a little so I was facing him better. “Okay, they are: rejected stalker, predatory stalker, incompetent suitor, resentful stalker, intimacy seeker, political stalker, and hit man.”
“Okay, I feel it’s safe to say they aren’t a political stalker or a hit man.” Matt laughed.
I nodded. “On that we agree.”
“So tell me about the other five.”
“A rejected stalker is self-explanatory. They were turned down by an advance they made, or after a recent breakup they’re trying to salvage what they once had.”
“And is that the one you think it is?” Matt reached out and took my hand.
“I don’t know, honestly. Predatory stalking is generally a sexual obsession. Typically, the one they are obsessed with is a stranger to them. That doesn’t feel like it fits because your super fan knows a lot about you.”
Matt chuckled. “Super fan, okay. Go on, what’s next?”
“The incompetent suitor—these tend to be people with poor social skills, lonely, and not good at relationships. They can be strangers or someone you cross paths with on the daily, but they aren’t in your circle. They will try to get you to date them, and oftentimes can’t see that what they are doing is hurting you.”
Matt hummed. “I suppose there’s something to that one. I’m still feeling maybe rejected stalker.”
“Then you have the resentful stalker. Because your person seems to want you to be with them, saying things like ‘You broke my heart.’ I don’t think this one fits, but it could.”
“How do you figure?” Matt sandwiched my hand in both of his.
“They feel as if they were mistreated. They usually have a mental diagnosis, are paranoid, self-righteous, and self-pitying. They favor stalking as a way of punishing you.”
“ Hmm …okay, not sure of that one, what’s the next?”
“Intimacy seeker believes their victim will love or learn to love them. Some think their victim does already love them; it’s a delusional thing. These are mostly the kinds of stalkers celebrities get, but that doesn’t mean an everyday guy or girl can’t.”
“I see. So, what do you think?”
I turned my hand and linked our fingers together. “I think it’s either rejected or intimate. It’s the only two that make sense with what we’re seeing. Aziza agreed.”
Matt nodded. “How dangerous are they?”
I gripped Matt’s hand, pulled until he was as close as he could possibly be, and looked him straight in the eyes. “Very. Any stalker has the capacity to see it to the end, however that may be.”
“Why are you scaring me?”
“How are you not scared by now?”
Matt’s brow dipped. “I am. What would you have me do, Nick?”
I cupped his face, trying to calm the anger and fear permeating between us. “I’d love it if you moved back in here, but I won’t ask that of you.”
“And what will you ask of me?”
“Let me set up more cameras. I won’t put any in your apartment, just the fire escape and lobby. I want them all facing your building.”
“My landlords won’t allow that.”
Noel snorted and I glared at him. “It wouldn’t technically be legal, what I’m doing, but no one would find out and when it’s done, I’ll remove them.”
Matt stared at me for a beat, then over to Noel. “Do you think it’s necessary?”
Noel nodded. “Personally, I’d be pushing for cameras in your apartment. If this person gets in there and say, does some weird-ass shit like smell your sofa, they may show their face and boom , we’d get ’em.”
“Smell my sofa? What the hell?”
I gently gripped Matt’s face and turned him back to face me. “It’s a bad example, but Noel has a point.”
Matt sighed. “I can’t say yes to you putting cameras in places I don’t own. But I guess in my apartment is okay, just not the bathroom.”
“Thank you.” I kissed his lips, smiling when he relaxed.
“So, like, you can’t say yes to the other cameras…but what if you didn’t know?”
“Shut up, Noel.”
Noel and I laughed, but Matt appeared confused. I was going to put up all the cameras.