23. Calista
C alista~
Unlike a lot of people who thrived on drama, I wasn’t one of those people.
So, even though it did make sense to involve the police, this was not how I’d wanted to spend my Monday evening.
However, true to his word, the second that I had pulled into my driveway, Myer had been making his way over, phone in his hand, and now we were standing outside my house, waiting on the police.
“This is so stupid,” I muttered.
“Stupid, but very necessary,” Myer replied. “If it’s any consolation, I’m not looking forward to having this conversation, either.”
Just then, a black and white squad car appeared around the corner, slowly making its way to my house, and I felt more stupid the closer that it got.
I mean, yeah, Louise had no business on my property, but we were really about to report her for placing hexes on us, and if that wasn’t going to give them a good laugh back at the police station, then I didn’t know what would.
Neither Myer nor I said anything as the car pulled up to the curb, the officers getting out as sweetly as you please. Granted, this wasn’t an emergency, but still. If they were being called, then they should at least consider the matter somewhat important.
When both officers finally approached us, it was hard not to compare them.
One was a short fella that might be suffering from short-man syndrome with the way that he had his chest puffed out, and the other was a nice-looking tall glass of water.
Now, while he wasn’t as tall as Myer, he was tall enough, and his dark brown hair and matching eyes gave him a comfortable aura about him.
The little guy had light brown hair and blue eyes, but the combination did nothing for him.
“Ms. Glenn?” the tall officer asked, and I nodded my head. “I’m Officer Nolan, and this is Officer Hatcher.”
“Hello,” I muttered, still feeling unsure about all this.
Officer Nolan looked over at Myer. “And you are?”
“Myer Justus,” he answered. “I live next door to Calista.”
“Is that the only relationship between the two of you?” Officer Hatcher asked, and I immediately didn’t like him.
“Why does that matter?” I asked, and I had to give Officer Nolan credit for being able to read the room.
“Ms. Glenn, why don’t we start with why you called us, yes?”
“Our neighbor across the street, Louise Mackrell, keeps trespassing on our properties,” I told him.
“And why do you consider it trespassing?” he asked, his little notebook out and ready.
“Well, because she’s coming over to put hexes on us,” I said, finally putting it all out there.
“I’m sorry...hexes?” he echoed. “Like...like a curse?”
I nodded. “Yep.”
“You know, we don’t have time for this,” Officer Hatcher announced. “While you guys might think that this is funny, I assure you that we don’t.”
“This isn’t a joke,” I fired back. “I have the pictures and security feed to prove it.”
“Also, don’t insult us,” Myer added. “You don’t know us to accuse us of toying with the police, and if you don’t want to take this complaint seriously, then you can leave, and we’ll call someone else to handle the situation for us.”
“Okay, let’s all calm down a bit,” Officer Nolan said, giving us all pointed looks. “How about you start at the beginning, Ms. Glenn. It’ll help give us a better picture of what is happening here.”
“Louise has weekly prayer group meetings every Saturday, and we were invited to attend one last week or whenever,” I started to explain. “Once we got there, we realized that it wasn’t quite the prayer group that we’d been expecting, and so we politely explained how the meetings weren’t for us.”
“What’s different about the meetings?” Officer Hatcher asked.
“It was one man with four blonde women, and with the exception of Louise, the others weren’t allowed to speak, and their teachings didn’t seem to come from The Bible that we’d been raised to believe in,” Myer answered.
“Are you suggesting that it’s a cult of some kind?” Officer Hatcher asked, his brows furrowing as he scribbled on his little notepad.
“What I’m suggesting is that the group wasn’t for us,” Myer repeated, trying not to sound crazy. “However, it appears as if they took offense to our refusal to join any future meetings.”
“Okay,” Officer Nolan said carefully. “So, where does the trespassing come into play?”
“The guy in charge...or whatever, he came by my house the other day, and we exchanged some words,” I replied. “He was being...being aggressive with his views, so I got aggressive back, telling him what I thought about his prayer group.”
“Then I noticed him in Calista’s driveway, so I went over to inform him that he wasn’t welcomed, and then we exchanged a few words ourselves,” Myer chimed in.
“And his name?” Officer Nolan asked.
“Jury Patton.”
“Okay, then what?” Officer Hatcher asked.
“I guess Jury told Louise what happened, because she came over yesterday, banging on my door, and when I opened it, she threw salt at me, then started reciting some crazy words, and admitted that she was putting a hex on me,” I told them.
“Then she said that Myer was going to get a special curse of his own because Jury felt that he was the bigger threat.”
“Threat to what?” Officer Hatcher asked, no longer being a douche.
“He’s partial to blondes, so he thinks that I’m what’s standing in his way of getting Calista to join their little group,” Myer answered.
“Anyway, I was willing to forget all her nonsense, but then she came over again yesterday afternoon to draw a pentagram on my doorstep, placing another curse on me,” I said, pulling up the picture on my phone to show them.
“Now, do I believe that she’s gifted enough to place a curse on me?
No. Nonetheless, I’d like her to leave me alone. ”
“Calista isn’t the only one,” Myer told them. “Louise left a photo of a voodoo doll in my mailbox, too.”
“Can you tell us anything about this Jury Patton fellow?” Officer Nolan asked.
We both shook our heads as Myer answered, “I did some internet stalking, but everything that I found centered on his religious beliefs.”
“Well, while we agree with you that she’s probably not a real threat to you, we’ll still go and speak with her,” Officer Nolan said. “We can make it clear that you have security cameras, and if she’s caught on your property again, then we will arrest her.”
Myer grabbed my hand, then linked his fingers in between mine. “Thank you, Officers.”
“Can you also speak with Jury Patton?” I asked them. “I mean, while he hasn’t done anything as wild as Louise, I just...I get the sense that Louise might be recruiting women for him, and that feels too much like trafficking to me to ignore.”
“And what makes you think that?” Officer Nolan asked.
“Because before we finally went to one of her prayer meetings, Louise had been spending months trying to get me to go, almost to the point of harassment,” I explained. “And once I finally got a look at what they were about...well, it just felt wrong.”
“We can speak with him as well,” Officer Hatcher said, and it surprised me a bit that he was actually taking us seriously.
“Is there anything else that we need to know?” Officer Nolan asked.
“Just that she might place a curse on you guys next,” Myer retorted.
“If she does, we’ll handle it,” Officer Nolan chuckled, and he really was nice to look at.
“Thank you,” Myer said graciously. “We really appreciate your help on this.”
“While I’m certain that she’ll back off once we speak to her, if you have video evidence of the pentagram thing, you can always file a restraining order against her,” Officer Hatcher remarked. “Just something to consider if you’re still feeling uneasy about the situation later.”
“Thank you,” I replied. “I’ll think about it.”
Looking over his shoulder, Officer Nolan asked, “Is the mailbox with the cross her house?”
“Yes, it is,” Myer answered.
“Okay, well...we’ll go speak with her, and I recommend that you both go inside while we do,” Officer Nolan replied. “The houses in this neighborhood are too close to one another to be antagonizing your neighbors when you don’t need to be.”
I opened my mouth, but Myer quickly put his hand over it. “Of course, Officer.”
Yeah, we were going to have to talk about this later.
“Well, then we’ll go introduce ourselves to Ms. Mackrell,” Officer Hatcher said, and I wished them luck.