A Dozen Deadly Roses (17 page)

“Well, you know that’s one of the nice things about A.A.  Everybody is fighting the same demon, so almost immediately you have a connection.”

“So you
are
planning to come to the wedding?”  Jade hated the hopeful tone in her voice but, the fact was, she felt less vulnerable to the stalker with Mac around – at least that’s what she kept telling herself.

Mac flipped on his blinker to change lanes.  “Yes, not only because I want to, but I think we should stick together until we catch the dirtbag following you.  Going to Vegas may buy us some time with this scumbag.  It may take him a day or two to figure out you’re out of town, and maybe we can discover who he is with our surveillance cameras.  Speaking of which, where is the camera store?”

An hour and a half later Mac and Jade marched up the stairs to Jade’s apartment.  Each of them held boxes of components to construct a hidden camera system.

Jade fished her keys out of her purse.  Slipping a key into the top deadbolt lock, she involuntarily gasped as the door swung open at her touch.  Her police training kicked in and she jumped out of the doorway, getting clear of the “kill zone.”  Moving the box she held to one arm, she pulled her handgun from beneath her jacket.

When Jade bolted, Mac flattened himself on the other side of the doorway against the wall.  He quickly set down the box he was carrying and replaced it with his Glock handgun.

Jade set her box on the floor as well and looked across the doorway at Mac.  She too now had her gun drawn at a low ready.

“Did you see anyone?” he whispered.

She shook her head.  “No, but the place has been tossed.”

“How do you want to handle this?  We can call for back-up or handle it ourselves.”

“I don’t want the department involved.  Whoever broke in is probably long gone.”

“Most likely you’re right, but let’s get a plan together anyway – just in case.”

After determining Mac would go first with Jade covering, they entered the apartment in one swift motion.  They each took a position away from the door and slowly moved forward.

Anger raged through Jade as they made their way through her apartment.  Everything in the refrigerator had been pulled out and thrown to the floor.  Pasta sauce and eggs were thrown on the walls.  In the living room, the couch and recliner oozed stuffing that had been slashed from the cushions and scattered throughout the room.  Milk and orange juice had been poured on the carpet.

With practiced stealth they moved from room to room, securing closets, cupboards or any other hiding place large enough to conceal a person.  Their footsteps squished the sound of their movement toward her bedroom.

She smelled the problem before she saw it.  Although her bed was still neatly made, positioned in the center was a blob of human excrement.  Above the odorous deposit, the familiar gold box rested across the pillows. Jade saw a muscle in Mac’s jaw work in anger.  Over the container, her panties and bras were precisely positioned, each piece cut to shreds.

After they’d cleared the apartment for suspects, they holstered their firearms.

“Let’s open the flower box,” Mac said.

“Why?  I don’t have to open it to know what’s inside.  This one will have four dead roses in it.”

“Well, humor me,” Mac said, walking over to the cardboard box.  “This bastard broke into your house this time.  That’s something he’s never done before.”  Mac pulled a folding knife from his rear pocket and sliced the red ribbon encircling the box.  Using the tip of the blade, he lifted the lid and moved it aside.

“See, just what I said.  Four dead roses.”  Jade turned from the bed and went down the hall.  “I wonder why he left Donnie’s room untouched,” Jade said, peering at her son’s things.

“This guy is after you, and leaving Donnie’s room alone is sending a message to you.  Be glad he doesn’t seem interested in Donnie,” Mac muttered, looking around at the carnage in the front rooms.  “This bastard is sick.  We’d better call this in.”

“No!  I advised Lasko I was being stalked and she blew me off.  Screw her and the Department.”  Jade’s stomach gurgled with fear and tension, but she couldn’t report the stalking now.  It was too late, she’d missed her chance.  If she reported the crime now, she’d wind up looking like a fool for not pressing the issue with Lasko earlier, or going above Lasko to get some protection.

Mac’s face grew red.  “Jade, you’re in over your head.  Take a look around.  The present he left on the bed is meant to disrespect you, but have you looked at your lingerie?  He means to hurt you.”

Mac strode out to the living room.  Jade followed and surveyed the damage.  He picked up a frame that held a picture of Jade and Donnie.  Jade’s face was burned out of the picture.  The marred photo had been neatly placed back in the casing.

Mac marched over to Jade and held up the wooden frame.

“Look at this!” he said, pushing the snapshot toward her face.  “This guy is playing for keeps.”  He moved to the phone.

“Wait!  Mac, listen to me.  He’s bound to come back when I don’t show up here and he can’t find me.  We’ve just bought surveillance cameras.  Instead of having Metro or some other plain-clothes detail sitting on their butts looking for an unknown suspect, we’ll let the camera do the work for us.  No one will be in any danger because Donnie and I are staying with you and we’re all leaving for Las Vegas tomorrow.  When we get back, we’ll know who we’re looking for.”  She took a deep breath.

Mac rubbed his hand across his mouth, apparently considering her logic.  “I don’t like it.  What happens if we wind up confronting the guy and blowing him away?  The Department will have our fannies on a silver platter because we didn’t advise them of this mess.”

“I told you.  I already advised Lasko.  She’ll be the one to fry, not us.  Besides, there’s nothing in the Department Manual that says I have to report being a victim of a crime.  And we’re not going to wind up shooting this guy unless it’s justified.”  She returned to the hall where they’d left the surveillance camera equipment.  “Let’s get this stuff set up so we can get going.  The apartment reeks.  Hopefully, the damage this jerk did won’t interfere with our putting the cameras up.”

“You better call a locksmith to get the locks changed,” Mac said as he opened several windows.

A couple of hours later, Jade and Mac were satisfied the cameras they’d placed in the light outside her front door and in a flower arrangement in her living room were well concealed.  The lens they put in the bedroom was the most hidden, disguised in a mock bottle of hairspray.

“I think we’re a day late and a dollar short with all this equipment,” he grumbled.  “This guy is probably watching us put this stuff up and is laughing his ass off.”

“I doubt he’d stick around after destroying my apartment.  Maybe, we’ll get lucky and snag some video of him before we go to Vegas.”

While Mac put the camera boxes in his truck to be disposed of at his house, Jade called her apartment manager and advised her someone had broken into the apartment and she was having a cleaning service come the next day.  “You don’t have to do anything other than let in the cleaning people.”

Next, she called a cleaning service and made the arrangements.  She advised them to see the manager to gain access to her home.

Coming back into the apartment, Mac heard the last part of her telephone conversation.

“You don’t think your property manager could be involved with all of this do you?” he asked.

Jade shook her head.  “Bertie is about seventy years old and is hooked on some computer game.  She doesn’t have a mean bone in her body, unless you attack her cyber-college sorority house.”

Once the locksmith arrived, he made quick work of replacing the door locks.  “Looks to me like this guy had some kind of master key, or he’s a professional burglar.  There was very little damage to your locks.”  He assured Jade he’d replaced her hardware with the best materials available.

After the locksmith left, they verified the cameras were operating properly and then they secured the apartment.  On the drive to pick up Donnie, neither of them spoke.  An involuntary shiver shook Jade’s body although Mac had the truck heater blasting.

Now, with time to think, the devastation in her apartment horrified her.  The attack was violent and blatantly personal.  Her personal space had been violated, and she’d never feel safe there again.

“I’m going to have to think about getting a new apartment.”

Mac nodded.  “I don’t blame you.  Do you think you should tell your Dad about this?  After all, this nut already knows where Angus lives and he probably knows you and Donnie often visit.”

A new sense of dread filled Jade’s heart.  “I haven’t wanted to worry my Dad.  What on earth would I tell him?”

“How about the truth?” Mac suggested.

“Absolutely not.  The last thing I need is for him to fall off the wagon.”  She chewed on her lip while she thought.  “What if I just tell him some kook I arrested made some threats against me and Dad just needs to be more aware of strangers around the house and that kind of thing?”

Mac shrugged.  “I guess.  I’m a firm believer you can’t go wrong with the truth.”

“I just don’t want to alarm him unnecessarily.  The chances of this dirtbag showing up at my Dad’s are slim.  I think the story I made up will work.”

She could tell by the slight shake of Mac’s head he didn’t agree, but she didn’t care.  Her father would have no rest at all if he thought Jade and Donnie were in any kind of danger.  They rode in uncomfortable silence until they reached Angus’s house.

“Why would someone hate me so much they’d destroy my house?”  An involuntary image entered her thoughts of Captain Kincaid dressed as a woman, throwing orange juice on her carpeting.

Mac didn’t say anything.

She shifted in her seat to face him.

His mouth, set in hard line, was the epicenter of features filled with rage.

Finally he spoke.  “Who would do something like that to your home?” he repeated.  “Someone who has no fear of dying,” he said with finality.

# # #

At her father’s house, Jade kept her visit short, quickly gathering Donnie’s belongings and getting him bundled up for the ride home.  Pretending her speech about threats at work was an afterthought, she downplayed the jeopardy she was facing.  As she knew he would, her Dad immediately wanted more details, but Jade kept her answers vague.

“Ah, lass, someday your Irish pride is gonna get you into trouble.”  Angus looked at Mac pointedly.  “Maybe you can talk some sense into her.”

Mac lifted his hands in a gesture of surrender.  “Angus, I’m no match for your daughter’s stubborn streak.”  But then Mac smiled.  “But I’ll see what I can do,” he said as they, along with Donnie, made their way out the door.

Once all three of them were belted into Mac’s truck they headed to his house.  Jade saw Mac constantly looking in his mirrors for someone following them.  She was watching too, and didn’t see anything to cause alarm.

After the stress of their unsettling discovery at her apartment, Jade was more than happy to spend a quiet evening at Mac’s.  They watched some television, played a couple of games of checkers, and ate an early dinner.  After Donnie was in bed, Mac and Jade discussed what time they’d leave for Nevada.

“Okay, I’ll see you in the morning,” he said as they climbed the stairs.  “After what happened today will you sleep all right?”

“I hope so.  That whole episode kind of knocked me off kilter.  I’m sure a good night’s sleep is just what I need.”

“Well if you need me, you know where I am,” he said in a calm tone.

Although his voice was even, Jade couldn’t help but notice the flicker of desire in his eyes.  Her heart started to warm at the realization he wanted her, but then she remembered his statement from the night before of how he could never love again.  You’ve got enough problems, she told herself.  Don’t throw a broken heart on top of the heap.

“I’m sure I’ll be fine,” she said, squaring her shoulders and opening the guest room door.  She’d forced herself to sound confident, although she was sure every time she closed her eyes, images of her ruined apartment would fill her mind.

# # #

The next morning, Mac checked the tire pressure, oil level, and radiator fluid in Jade’s SUV.  While Mac inspected the car, Jade and Donnie used Mac’s truck to trek over to Angus’s house.

“Donnie, I don’t know why you insist on taking your fireman’s helmet to Las Vegas,” Jade said irritably. 

“Cause Mr. Stryker told me I should always be prepared.  What if a fire happens?”

Jade swung Mac’s truck into the driveway of her father’s house as Angus and Mona came out the front door, each pulling a suitcase on wheels.

“Ay, lass, what are you doing here?”

“Donnie left his fire helmet here yesterday.  He’s insisting on taking it to Vegas.”

“I hung the hat on the coat rack in the laundry room,” Mona said.  “It’s surprisingly heavy.”

“It’s not heavy, Mona.  It’s just ‘cause you’re a girl,” Donnie said.

“Well, let’s go get the darn thing,” Jade said.  “What time does your airport shuttle get here, Dad?”

The elderly man looked at his watch.  “Supposed to be here in a half hour.”

“Well, you’re certainly out here early.”

“I don’t want to keep the man awaitin’.”

Jade nodded, knowing her father didn’t travel much and feared missing his plane. “I don’t know why you don’t come with Mac and me.”

Angus put his arm around his fiancée.  “Because I promised this little lady a classy wedding trip, and if we fly we can be there in an hour compared to five hours it would take to get there in your truck.”

“All right, all right,” Jade said, shaking her head.  “Listen, I need to run to the drug store real quick.  It’ll only take me about ten minutes.  Can Donnie stay here?”

“No, Mama.  I want to go too,” Donnie cried.

“Not this time Donnie.  Mommy needs to get stuff just for girls.”

Mona nodded her head immediately.  “Donnie you can stay here and help us watch for the shuttle van.”

“Oh aw right.”

“I’ll be right back,” Jade said.