22. Chapter Twenty-One
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
MARGERY
M argery had shoved all the stuffed zebras in a bag and put it in the corner. It was getting to her. She was on edge.
The numbers on the last two stuffed zebras were really messing with her. What did they mean? Why was there a 1 and 2 on them? Was he counting down to something? She knew the message before was ‘Daddy’s coming for you,’ but he didn’t really mean he was coming for her, right?
She looked at her phone. She really needed to call the police and let them know she had gotten two more. Maybe once they saw the complete message, they would be more inclined to help her.
With that in mind, she grabbed her phone and dialed nine-one-one.
“Officer Matthias.”
Her eyebrows pinched together. How was she getting him every single time? Was he always on duty? It couldn’t be his personal number since she typed in nine-one-one and not a long number.
“Are you always on duty?” she blurted out before she could stop herself.
“No ma’am,” he replied. “You just always seem to catch me when I’m either getting off my shift or starting it.”
Now she felt bad for catching him when his shift was ending. How many times had she done that?
“What do you need?” he inquired.
Should she tell him? He had always insisted it was a secret admirer, but she knew it wasn’t.
“Ma’am? Are you still there?” Officer Matthias asked.
“Yes, sorry. I was calling because I got two more stuffed zebras last night. But these were a little different.”
He sighed. “How were they different?”
“Instead of words, they had numbers. Two and one. The other ones spelled out a sentence.”
She knew how crazy it sounded, but she was for real. She wouldn’t lie about something so serious. There was no reason for her to.
“And what did the phrase say?”
“Daddy’s coming for you. Two. One.”
“That sounds like a secret admirer from the first word.”
“It’s not. I promise it’s not a secret admirer. Some appeared in my house when I was asleep, and I had locked up. Not normal and not okay.”
“I’m pretty sure it’s just a secret admirer. Someone you went on a date with and might have said no to, or a person from high school who you never interacted with.”
Margery took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. “I promise you, it’s not. I’ve felt his eyes on me. I’ve seen him. I’m not lying.”
“Well, I can file a police report. Someone will follow up in a couple of days. Is that all right? It’s a lot of paperwork. You might have to come in and talk about everything.”
“Yes, that’s all right. I have no problem coming in and giving a statement or whatever. I can even bring the stuffed zebras with the note I received. What else do I need to bring?”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself. They may not call you in. I’m just going to file the paperwork, so the case starts. But the officer who’s going to look into it might not see a need to investigate.”
“Why can’t you do it? You have been over and know everything that has gone on.”
She didn’t want to have to explain everything to a new officer. What if they were worse than Officer Matthias and didn’t acknowledge what was happening?
“I wish I could, but I can’t,” he replied.
She held in a snort. He did not sound like he wanted to even file the paperwork. Maybe he was pushing this onto some new person and telling them not to investigate. Margery didn’t know, but she didn’t have a good feeling about it.
“I’ve got some long overdue vacation time. Today is my last day for a couple of weeks.”
And now she felt bad for assuming he didn’t want to look into it.
“But you would have investigated if you weren’t going on vacation, right?” Her voice was filled with hope.
“Can I be truthful?” he asked.
“Please.” She didn’t want to be lied to.
“If I were still going to be in town, I still wouldn’t investigate. I think you’re overreacting a little. It looks to be a secret admirer from my point of view. If it were me, I would probably file the paperwork to ease your concerns but never actually follow through with anything.”
Her mouth hung open as he continued to speak. This was a police officer. Someone who was supposed to protect and serve. He wasn’t doing his job, though.
“Can I speak to a person who is higher up? Your boss?” she asked.
It was still unlike Margery to ask this, but he wasn’t being a very good police officer.
“You said I could be honest, ma’am. I think you don’t want to hear the truth. You want to be in your own world and have somebody bad chasing you. All women fantasize about it at some point. For all I know, you could be the one buying and giving yourself the gifts. To gain attention and sympathy from others.”
She blinked several times, not believing what he had just said.
“I’ve had several girls call saying close to the same thing, and it was just them needing attention. Some attention is good, but I have given you attention on this, and now it’s time for you to put your big girl panties on and stop . Well, for you, big girl diapers.”
“What did you just say?” She was in complete shock. How did he know? Was it just a coincidence he brought up diapers, or had he seen something when he was in her house?
Officer Matthias had walked around her house to make sure everything was locked. Maybe then he had seen the diapers she had. There weren’t a lot, and she didn’t wear them often. She didn’t prefer them, but she put them on when she was in Littlespace and didn’t want to have to worry about going to the bathroom.
“You heard me, ma’am. I’m not going to repeat myself.”
“I could be recording this conversation.”
“But you aren’t. You know I’m just speaking the truth. So, we’re going to end this call and you’re not going to call again. I’ve got better things to do than deal to an attention-seeker.”
Margery opened her mouth, ready to say something, but before she could, Officer Matthias hung up. Was he being for real? She wished she could go to his station and report him, but there were so many, and she didn’t want to go to all of them. Not when she could make herself look even more insane.
Margery had no doubt they all communicated with one another. What if she went to one, and they called the other stations before she could get to them? Basically, blacklisting her before she even arrived. Maybe she could call instead, but would they keep her on hold? She would definitely lose her nerve if she had to.
She sighed and placed her phone down. There was no use in fighting it. Not when he could have told people not to believe her.
Pushing herself off the ground, she made her way toward her bedroom. She was exhausted after that encounter. Trying to reason with somebody who didn’t want to believe was hard. Mentally hard .
“What am I going to do?” she whispered to herself. “How am I going to fix this?”
There was no way she would be able to leave and move to a different state. If Ethan found her when she went to the cabin, he could find her anywhere. Part of her wanted to try, but deep down, she knew she wouldn’t succeed.
Margery pulled back her covers and lay on her bed. Her gaze roamed the room. What if he was here now, and she didn’t know? If he heard the conversation and was going to make her pay for it?
Ethan had never mentioned anything about her calling the police. Maybe it was common knowledge to people who were stalked regularly, but not for Margery. Part of her wouldn’t feel bad if Ethan went after Officer Matthias and killed him. He was a jerk and should be punished for what he had said to her.
Margery closed her eyes and relaxed into her bed. She didn’t know what was different from that night she woke up and had been sleeping with the stuffed animal he’d left. Was it because of the stuffed animal? Or had Ethan given her something to relax?
She longed to be able to sleep like that again. To feel safe and not have to worry about anything. Would she ever have that again? Or would the restless sleep, or no sleep at all, be it for the rest of her life?
Everything in her hoped it wouldn’t last much longer. She didn’t know how much more she could do this. Margery knew people lived like this on a daily basis, but she wasn’t one of them. She tried to be good about getting enough sleep for her body, and these past couple of months had been torturous.
“Please be a good night,” she mumbled to herself as she slowly fell asleep.
Click .
The door closed, but Margery didn’t think anything of it. She had it almost closed, and the air conditioning had just turned on. Maybe that had caused the noise. Margery was on the cusp of falling asleep.
Suddenly, a piece of cloth was put over her nose and mouth. A strange smell entered her lungs, but she couldn’t react.
“Daddy’s going to take good care of you now,” someone whispered.