Chapter 3
When Willow got back from the beach, there was a package waiting on the doorstep. She wasn”t expecting anything. She hadn’t ordered anything online. Was it more information from Micah? Or maybe the detectives put it there to play a joke on her or it was another one of their attempts at getting her to talk.
“No return address.” She picked up the discolored box and carried it inside. It was old and rough around the edges. Even though her name was on the box, she called Brandi before she opened it to see if she was expecting anything. She wasn’t. The package was indeed intended for Willow.
Once she finally got it unwrapped, she looked inside to find an old dingy shirt. When she removed the shirt, she saw that it had holes and what looked like dried up blood stains on it.
“Oh my God!” She gasped and slung the shirt to the floor. “This is what Charlie was wearing when I last saw him.”
That wasn’t the only thing inside the box. There was a letter, typed in bold font addressed to Willow. Her hands shook as she read the letter.
You should have never come back here. Now that you’re here and people know who you are, things are going to get very interesting. You think a little fight with your husband warrants you to throw a monkey wrench into everybody else”s lives? It doesn”t. Now you both will suffer the consequences. Charlie owes people a lot of money. I hear there’s an account with your name on it. One that holds the money I”m owed. If I don”t get that money, there will be a lot more bloodshed.
P.S.,
When you find Charlie, tell him it’s only a matter of time.
She quickly threw the letter back into the box and rushed into the bathroom to throw up. Her nerves were so shocked and she was so scared for her life, that was all she could do. It was late in the evening and whoever had written that letter knew exactly where to find her. The only thoughts that came to her mind was to get to the police station. Quickly.
Willow grabbed the box, the bloody shirt, and her keys and sprinted out the door. She didn’t even remember locking up before she left. She was in such a rush to get the package over to Sheriff Tommy.
“Can I help you?”
The female officer at the front desk didn’t even bother to look up at Willow as she stood over her. She kept her head down and continued to work on her paperwork while Willow stood there panting, trying to catch her breath.
“Yeah, I need to speak with Sheriff Tommy. It’s an emergency.”
She finally looked up at Willow when she mentioned him. When she got a good look at who Willow was, a smirk polished her face, and she sat back in her chair.
“Are you here to turn yourself in?” she asked. “The sheriff is busy right now, but I can get another officer to take your confession.”
“Confession?” Willow frowned. It took her a moment to realize everyone there knew she was a suspect in the Sanibel Scandal but when she caught on. She was offended. “I’m not here to confess to anything. I need to speak with him now! Someone threatened me tonight.”
The woman continued to ignore her request to speak with Sheriff Tommy, which only agitated the situation even more. It wasn’t until Willow started to raise her voice that Sheriff Tommy came from his office to see what the problem was.
“What’s going on out here?” he asked, glaring directly at Willow. “Are you here causing trouble?”
“No! I’m here because someone left this package on my doorstep tonight and it”s got Charlie’s bloody shirt on it!”
His face softened a little. Not enough to say he was sorry for accusing Willow of helping Charlie, but enough to say that he was interested in what she had to say.
“Come into my office. This better be good.”
She gave the woman at the front desk a bitter look and followed Sheriff Tommy into his office. He simply went back to his desk, sat down, and stared at her for a moment.
“What you got?” he asked. “What’s this about a box and a bloody shirt?”
She slammed the box down on his desk and waited for him to take a look inside.
“I found this when I got home tonight. There’s a letter inside too. Maybe now you’ll believe me when I say I had nothing to do with this.”
Before he opened the box, he slipped on a pair of blue latex gloves. He pulled out the shirt, examined it for a moment, then reached inside for the letter. It took him some time to read it. Not because he couldn’t read or anything. Willow’s guess was he wanted to make sure she wasn”t trying to pull a fast one on him.
“You say you found this at your door tonight?” he asked.
“Yeah. Someone knows where I am and something needs to be done about this.”
He took another long look at the letter before placing it back inside the box. After that, he removed his gloves, dumped them into the trash and leaned back in his chair. His eyes were planted on her the entire time, giving her this cold look. A look Willow couldn”t read for the life of her. He didn’t look happy to see her there with evidence.
“I’ll look into it,” he said. “For now, if you feel unsafe, you should stay with a friend.”
“What?” She scoffed. “That’s it? If I feel unsafe, stay with a friend? That’s all the help you have to offer after someone just threatened me and sent a bloody shirt?”
She wanted to scream.
But she knew it would only make matters worse and get her nowhere. There was no return address, and neither of them knew who had sent the package. So, both of their hands were tied.
“There’s nothing I can do about this right now,” he said. “I can send this over to the lab and have them dust for fingerprints so we can see where it came from, but until that’s all worked out, what do you expect me to do? Go out and arrest the whole town? You are still a suspect here, Willow. How do I know this isn’t just a scheme to clear your name?”
Scheme to clear my name? My name shouldn’t be dirty in the first place. This isn’t any of my doing. This is all Charlie’s doing. I’m completely innocent and you’re talking about clearing my name? This town and its deputies are pathetic!
She wanted to say all those things to him, but she saw it was a complete waste of her time. So, instead she took a deep breath, “You know what, you’re absolutely right, Tommy. There is nothing you can do. But I want you to know that if something happens to me, it’s on you.”
Without waiting for his reply, she got up and left his office. In that split second, she decided she would no longer wait around for anyone’s help finding Charlie. Not Brandi’s, not the detectives, and certainly not Sheriff Tommy.
The detectives from Tallahassee were parked outside again when she got back to the cottage. She figured unless they fell asleep, or truly didn’t care about what happened to her, they’d be good lookouts in case whoever left the package returned again. It was better than waiting for Sheriff Tommy to jump to action.
Before she went inside, she checked every inch to make sure no one would come out and attack her. When she saw that the coast was clear, she got out of her car and nearly sprinted for the front door.
Oh my God, hurry up Willow. Hurry. Hurry. Hurry!
It seemed like it took forever for her to get the key into the lock and open the door. She was so frantic that she didn”t even realize Brandi was already inside waiting for her to get back. She nearly gave Willow a heart attack when she turned to see her standing there.
“Geez!” She dropped her keys and purse and grabbed her chest. “Brandi, what are you doing here?”
“I got off early tonight and came over to see if you wanted to have a drink? What’s going on?” She looked confused and frightened at the same time.
“Yeah.” Willow was still trying to catch her breath from the heart attack Brandi almost gave her. “I mean. No. I came home tonight and found this strange package at the door. When I opened it, Charlie’s bloody shirt was inside. There was a threatening letter, and I took it to the Sheriff to see if I could get some help. Of course, he was no help.”
“Bloody shirt! What? Where’s the package and where did it come from?”
Brandi had all kinds of questions for her, but Willow had no answers. She was just as confused and frightened as Brandi was. Willow told her everything she remembered about the last night she saw Charlie so they could try and figure out who might have done anything to him, but nothing stood out. He was gone when she got home from the bar.
“I don’t think you should stay here alone tonight,” Brandi said. “Apparently, whoever sent that package wants you to keep quiet and they already know where you are, so.”
“Yeah,” Willow said. “Tell me about it. But who could it be? A lot of people know I’m here. I left Charlie a note, as well as a hundred calls and texts. Mark knows. And my neighbor. Along with most people in town.”
Brandi and Willow went back to the main house and poured themselves glasses of wine for the evening. They sat out back near her pool to dive deeper into things, and to talk crap about Sheriff Tommy and his seemingly unwillingness to help with the investigation.
It made Willow even more angry. Almost as angry as she was with Charlie. She couldn’t deny Tommy’s handsomeness, however. The way he ignored her and her rage somehow sparked her interest in him. She was sure he would protect her if things got down to it. But the way he was so standoffish about it drew her to him, for whatever reason.
“Do you think Sheriff Tommy will really arrest me?” Willow asked.
“There’s no telling with him. He’s always been one to do the unpredictable.”
She thought about what it would be like to be arrested by him; how he would treat her. She thought it was the wine that made her wonder because she”d never had the fantasy of being arrested before she met him.
“Are you having some kind of freaky fantasy over there?” Brandi leaned closer to look into her eyes. She knew when Willow’s thoughts got the best of her and she always teased her for it. “Oh my God, you are! Willow!?”
They both laughed so hard until their stomachs started to hurt. It was the first real laugh Willow had had in weeks. It felt good to be able to laugh and have fun for a change. And Brandi was right. Willow’s thoughts were off in their own world.