Chapter 38
The note, the fire. Someone may not have been targeting Stella directly, but they were attacking everything she had worked toward, and I wouldn’t stand for it.
“Fuck, she didn’t tell me about a note,” Patrick said.
“That’s because she thought it was from me,” I admitted shamefully to my best friend.
I couldn’t even blame her either. I had been horrible to her.
“Hey, don’t hold it against yourself, man. We’ll figure this out.” Even in the moments where my belief in myself had run dry, Patrick stayed relentless in his pursuit to make things right. I guess that’s what made him the best police chief our little town has seen in decades.
“Thanks, man, I appreciate you.”
He was moving forward with the investigation, but because there wasn’t any more that could be recovered within the rail house, he gave us the go-ahead to resume work.
Stella was thrilled. Even though her plans had literally been torched, she found ways to pivot and adapt to it all.
I couldn’t even say I was surprised to see the whole town follow suit, too. Her relentlessness had worn off on everyone. Stella found and hired a local construction company to help alongside some of my crew members while we got the lumber ready for her to rebuild.
Crew members who had returned. Frank, Carsen, and Oscar all came back with their tails tucked between their legs saying that the job in Utah was indeed too good to be true and it all fell through as soon as they had arrived.
Something having to do with not as much funding as they had expected, but I didn’t question much as I honestly didn’t care.
I was happy to have my guys back, instead of having to train new employees.
It was no secret that Stella was putting us to work, so it was all-hands-on-deck. She also had no understanding of how things worked as she laid out her specifics, but I wouldn’t be the one to tell her no. I’d find a way to make whatever she asked for.
The only member of my crew who hadn’t been back to work was Carter.
Mom said he hadn’t taken the news of being let go of very well, and none of us had been able to get a hold of him to tell him the situation had changed.
I wasn’t even sure if he had family in the area, but we were doing just fine without him, and I was keeping too busy to even stop and think about it.
Besides, we still had so much help. Mel and Olivia showed up every day after work to help clean up debris.
Gloria and Grandma Trixie came with lunch and a thermos of hot coffee for everyone.
Garrett helped out as much as he could, and even Patrick tried, although his focus was more so on the investigation.
Simon was regularly bringing new supplies from the hardware store up to the rail house, and when Stella offered to pay him some sort of delivery fee, he looked offended.
Seeing everyone’s smiling faces as they helped one another out reminded me of Grandma Trixie’s words. It felt good to not only show up for others, but to also have those people show up for you.
It warmed my heart to see our little community coming together for this woman I loved so dearly, and to have the freedom to tell her that every single day was something I would never take for granted.
“Will I see you this evening for supper?” I asked Patrick. Our family suppers had a few more people at our table lately with so many working long hours to get the rail house up and running.
“Wouldn’t miss it,” Patrick replied.
I left the police station to head to The Tool Box. I needed a new rotary blade for one of my saws so I could continue with all the special cuts Stella had requested. Even though our timeline took a hit, the quality of what she expected didn’t.
As I passed by Vintage Vows, I noticed it was dark inside. I hadn’t seen Valerie since the day I explicitly asked her to leave me and my family alone. There was a slight pang of remorse at how publicly I made that declaration, but I couldn’t bring myself to fully regret it either.
Just as I was about to enter the hardware store, the satellite phone I always carry with me started ringing.
Strange, we rarely ever used these unless it was hunting season, or we knew someone was going out hiking.
I carried mine with me always for emergencies, and I hoped and prayed that wasn’t the case as I looked at the number displayed on the phone.
“Melody?”
“Calvin.” My sister’s usually strong and assertive voice sounded small and broken. “It’s Stella. She’s gone.”
“Okay, one more time, Mel. I need you to tell me what happened, and slowly.” Patrick’s voice was the only calm within the storm.
Melody took in a shaky breath while Patrick’s demeanour was nothing but encouraging.
I was grateful for my best friend’s ability to work under pressure, because right now, I was breaking.
I couldn’t stop pacing the small space inside Cupid’s Cup and if it weren’t for it being my sister’s pride and joy, I might have snapped and tossed something.
“Stella was supposed to meet me here almost an hour ago now,” she said as she looked at the clock.
“When she didn’t show, I called Grandma to see if she was still kicking around the bed and breakfast. Grandma figured Stella probably just lost track of time working at the rail house, so she took a quad over the check.
Grandma called me back in a panic ten minutes ago and said Stella wasn’t there, but bear spray had been set off in the building. ”
I couldn’t take in a full breath. Stella had to be in serious danger to set off the bear spray, and it was unlikely it was for an actual bear, seeing as we were in the middle of winter. Today was Sunday so the crew was off, and no one would have been around to have seen anything happen to her.
“The cameras, we have to go check the cameras,” I said, running out of Cupid’s Cup toward my truck. “The feeds are set up at my house.”
“Get in my SUV,” Patrick demanded, knowing I was in no state to drive and he could use the advantage of his lights to move us faster.
As I burst through my front door and ran toward my office, my hands started shaking too much to even press a computer key as the adrenaline and fear coursed through my veins.
Mel pushed me to the side and took over, pulling up the video footage finding far too many of them blacked out.
“They shouldn’t be like that.” The fear only intensified.
Mel rewound the footage back at a speed I could barely comprehend.
“There,” she said, pointing at the screen just as a can of spray paint came into the corner of the frame, and an instant later the screen went black.
“FUCK!” I yelled, turning around and slamming my hand against a shelf, toppling it over, sending everything flying.
“Calvin, stop!” Melody yelled, and was suddenly so close to my face I watched her pupils narrow at me.
She gritted her teeth so hard I thought they’d break.
“Pull yourself the fuck together. You know as damn well as I do that this version of you is not what Stella needs when we find her—and we are going to find her.”
I may be a stupid man, but I knew better than to argue with my sister.
My eyes filled with tears, and she slammed herself into me, pulling me into a hard hug that I didn’t realize how badly I needed until that very moment.
“Let’s go get your girl.” Patrick’s voice interrupted us.
“We don’t even know where to look.” I felt defeated.
“We do.” He was determined, pulling my and Melody’s attention back to the computer screen.
Slowing it down frame-by-frame, we were able to see the hand of the person who was holding the can of spray paint.
That’s a hand I would recognize anywhere.
One I had taken note of time and time again. “We at least know who to ask.”