Chapter 32 She Was Safe
SHE WAS SAFE
Two days later, Meredith was in her arts and crafts room working on a project she wanted to perfect for the kids. Something for Halloween in a few weeks. Her phone went off with a ding.
She picked it up and saw someone on her front porch. She couldn’t see his face in the dark and her porch light wasn’t on.
Something was in his hand that he lifted like a cylinder, not like a box for a delivery that she didn’t even have coming.
She jumped to her feet quickly when her phone rang. It was Clay. Just the person she was going to call.
She hit answer. “Go lock yourself in your room right now! I’m on my way and so is Ford. He’s got a man en route also.”
Her hand went to her chest. “I don’t know who that is. I don’t know what he’s doing.”
“Get to your room now!” Clay shouted. “Lock the door and push whatever you can in front of it. Do it!”
She ran to her room and did as she was told by sheer force of his command. Shut the door and locked it, then shoved her dresser over.
“It’s heavy,” she shouted, then grunted when her foot slipped and she hit the wall with her socked-covered toes. She was fueled by adrenaline only.
“Are you locked in there?”
“Yes,” she said, her voice shaking harder than ever. There was a lump in her throat making it hard to speak.
“Stay put,” he said. “Ford is calling me. Call or text me, but stay quiet and don’t let anyone in that door unless you hear from me. Got it?” She nodded her head, but he couldn’t see her. “Tell me yes, Meredith.”
“Yes!”
She hung up the phone and sat on her bed, then thought that was stupid as it was right in front of the door.
She looked around frantically for any kind of weapon. She should have grabbed the darn scissors she was using she’d dropped when she’d noticed someone on her front porch.
She spun around her walk-in closet and shut herself in there also. The minute she did, she was surrounded by darkness. And the stupid eerie feelings she’d been having and pushing back into her brain where she’d been shoving them lately.
Tears filled her eyes. She wanted to pull up the camera and see what was going on, but knew that would terrify her even more.
Her phone went off with a text lighting up the cramped space. It was from Karl.
He told her someone walked up to her porch and he called the police. That the truck was still in front of her house and he got a picture of the plate and gave it to them.
Okay, between that and the camera, maybe they’d get some answers.
Her phone rang in her hand and she thought it was Clay. He would still watch what was going on. But it was Karl.
“Hello,” she answered, her voice barely a whisper, her hand struggling to hold onto the phone with the way it was quivering.
“Are you okay?” Karl asked. “Come over to my house now. Just come out the back. No one can get in the gate or over the top of it. I’ll take care of you.”
“No,” she whispered. “I’m not leaving.” Not that she thought she could get her feet to move. “The lights are out downstairs. He might think I’m not home.”
Which was stupid since her light was on in the bedroom upstairs. Just a small desk light that provided little brightness.
“But you might not be safe in the house,” Karl said. “I should go outside and ask him what he’s doing.”
“Don’t,” she said urgently. “I appreciate it, but stay safe.” She wasn’t even going to say she was in her room locked in the closet. No reason to work anyone up.
“I’m safe in my house. I’m watching from my office right now. I can’t imagine what he’s doing out there. It’s not another one of your exes, is it?”
What the hell kind of question was that?
“No. Why would you think that?”
There was hesitation, then Karl said, “I’m sorry. I’m just anxious for you. I want to help. Do you hear anything?”
“No,” she said. “And I don’t know that I want to be talking right now.”
Her voice was still low, but she didn’t want to be distracted from anything that might go on around her. Hadn’t she been like that enough lately?
“I don’t like you there alone. I’m going to turn my porch light on. Maybe that will scare him away,” Karl said firmly.
She wanted to yell at him to stay out of it. “The police are coming. Let him stay. Maybe they will catch him.”
“I doubt it,” Karl said. “They are slow all the time. I’ll take care of it for you.”
Karl hung up on her. Just great. One more thing she needed on her shoulders.
Her phone went off again, a text from Clay that Ford was turning in right now without the lights on to not spook the guy.
But her nosy neighbor was most likely going to do it.
She was just ready to call Clay when she heard muffled shouting outside, then more yells.
She covered her ears with her hands and rocked back and forth in a ball on the floor.
This had to be over soon. Please let it be over, she was chanting in her head.
There was a loud bang a minute later and she hoped it wasn’t a gunshot.
Her phone was ringing next to her on the floor. She had to uncover her eyes to get it.
She peeked through her fingers and saw it was Clay and hit the button.
“Is it over?”
“Yeah,” Clay said. “I’m here. Come out. We’ve got him.”
She breathed in and out a few times. “I’m not sure I can move. I need a few minutes.”
“I’m coming up,” he said.
“I’ve got the door covered with the dresser and it’s locked.” She took a deep breath. Clay was here. She was safe. If she mentally repeated that enough, she’d be fine. “I’m standing up.”
“Don’t pass out or trip,” he said.
“I won’t. I’ve been shut in the closet in the dark.”
“Good girl,” he said. His voice was calmer. She could hear footsteps coming upstairs now.
She hung up the phone and put it on the dresser, shoved with all her might to get it out of the way, then unlocked the door, and pulled it open.
Clay had her in his arms and was hugging her tight.
“It’s over? Finally over?”
“I’ve got you,” he said. “Asshole was spray painting your front porch.”
She breathed in and out. “Do you know who it is? Karl called me after you. He reported it to the police and had the license plate number.”
“Ford said the call came in when he was closer. He was in town working. Come on. The guy is in the car and cuffed.”
She pushed back fast. “Why didn’t you tell me that?!”
“Because I wanted to make sure you were calm and you knew we had you. We won’t let anything happen to you. But it will help you know what is going on and why. If you even know him. Though Ford would have an ID by now.”
Her legs were shaking, but she was forcing them to move. “What if I don’t know him?”
“Then you don’t,” he said. “But we’ll get some answers.”
Which was what she wanted.
She really hoped it wasn’t Fredrick. Not that she cared if he got in trouble, but she’d be so mad at herself over her lack of judgment if she’d been with a man that could do this to her.
Then she remembered Karl said it was a beat-up old truck and Fredrick had a boring silver sedan. Not him.
“Are you okay?” Karl asked the minute she went out on the porch. “Thank God I saw it and called it in so they could catch him.”
She forced a smile. “Thanks, Karl. I’m good.”
“I’ve got her,” Clay said, moving her toward the back of the car. Karl’s eyes narrowed, his lips tight, but he didn’t say a word. She couldn’t be bothered by her neighbor’s annoyance.
Ford was standing there talking to his deputy, then flanked her so that Ridgeway men surrounded her.
It wasn’t light in the car, and the guy’s head was down. No baseball hat on though.
“Lift your head, asshole,” Clay snarled.
“It’s Richie Stubban,” Ford said. “We’ve ID’d him. He’s drunk. Not even sure how the hell he got here without hitting something.”
“Macy’s father. Why?” she asked.
“He admitted to throwing the rock through the window,” Ford said. “We might have been able to match the writing with the spray paint to the paint on the rock.”
She shook her head. “Why did you do this?” she asked, bending closer to the car.
Richie lifted his head. The familiar stench that was on him over a month ago floated out.
Booze and body odor.
“Fucking bitch is going to get my kid taken from me. I got kicked out of the house by my mother. If I didn’t leave Macy would go into foster care.”
“Then you should have cared for her better!” she yelled. “But I didn’t do anything.”
“You’re always asking her questions. If she’s eating enough. If she’s happy at home. All she wants is food and says you give it to her at school. That Ms. Banks likes her. She eats. She doesn’t need more, but she has to wait.”
“I do nothing to her that I haven’t to any other child,” she said. “I care. I’m doing my job.”
How was it possible that by doing her job this happened?
She should have remembered he accused her of calling social services before. It was right around the time the rock went through her window and she never put the two together.
“It’s not your job to be nosy. The rock didn’t scare you. This was the last straw.”
Clay took a step forward. “You think spray painting my door is going to make me not care?” she asked.
“We’re done here,” Clay said, moving her to the side.
“Go in the house,” Ford said. “We all need to talk.”
Clay still had his arm around her and escorted her back up the front steps. The red paint was pretty much dry, her porch ruined.
Her landlords were going to be pissed over this too. They’d probably raise her rent on top of it.
“I’m going to have to move,” she said.
Clay swung her up and over the letters so she didn’t have to step on them. She saw Karl watching everything, then going back into his house, his door slamming hard.
The last thing she wanted was to be talked about.
“Why?”
“If my landlord doesn’t make me pay more for my troubles, then my neighbors are all going to be talking about me. I can’t stand that.”
“You did nothing wrong,” he said. He sat on the couch and pulled her under his arm.
“I feel like such an idiot. Looking back, the timing was there every time something happened with Macy, then something happened to me. But I didn’t report him. All I did was make one phone call to his house that Macy was hungry and the kids were picking on her for being dirty.”
“Don’t blame yourself,” he said. “Aren’t you the one that told me you can’t understand what is in everyone’s head?”
“I know,” she said, sniffling. A tear escaped. Maybe it was the aftermath of it. “I don’t want to be afraid to help kids in need or do my job.”
“Then don’t be,” he said. They turned when Ford came in.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“He had a knife on him,” Ford said. “Between his blood alcohol level and driving here, the weapon, and damage to the property. Plus he’s got priors. He’ll go away for a bit.”
Hearing about the knife wasn’t what she expected. “Was he going to hurt me?” She watched Clay and Ford share a glance. “Tell me. I want to know everything. Don’t keep it from me.”
“He said he was hoping you opened the door. Or came out to see what was going on. He was making enough noise for it.”
She shook. “If I didn’t have the camera I would have. I wouldn’t have known what was going on and would have opened the door to find out.”
The thought of being attacked in her home by a guy with a knife made her tremble with a deepening haze glossing over her eyes. The heat hit her spine and she was covered in sweat immediately. Clay’s arm tightened on her more.
No. She would have been better off not knowing that information.
“It didn’t come to that,” he said. “And don’t let your mind do that to you.”
“It’s hard not to,” she said. “I don’t want to not be able to stay here.” She was sobbing. “But now I’m scared. I’m not sure I can go through the door without thinking of him there.” She barely got over the flies and dead fish there not long ago.
“It’s healthy to be scared and aware,” he said, his fingers stroking her arm. “But now it’s gone. Don’t let the fear overrun you. Don’t let it consume you. Remember what you told me? Don’t pretend to know what is going through someone’s mind.”
He pulled her to his chest and held her tight as she cried on his shoulder. She turned her head when she heard the door open and saw Ford leave.
“Where is he going?”
“Back to deal with paperwork. You’re going to have to go down to the station at some point and make a statement tomorrow. Right now, let’s just get through the night.”
“Will you stay with me? Please. Just hold me. If I don’t stay here tonight, I don’t think I’ll be able to again.”
“I’ve got you,” he said. “I’ll always have you.”
“No, no, no!” Fredrick shouted. She couldn’t move. Not yet. Not until she moved in with him!
He was the one who was saving her. Not her boyfriend or his brother, but him. Karl Green. He was just ready to confront the guy when the sheriff pulled in.
Why couldn’t he ever get anything right?!
He let out a scream, then slapped his hand in front of his mouth.
Meredith wouldn’t like that.
He moved to his bathroom and opened the cabinet again, pulled out two bottles of pills. Would it hurt to take one and remove the edge?
No. He was doing well on his own now for months and he’d continue. Meredith would want it this way.