Tymber Dalton - Pinch Me

“He left a computer-printed note on the body. I can’t tell you what it said because of the investigation. What does his email say?”

Her hand trembled as she clicked on the message.

Sorry I’ve been too busy to pay you any attention lately. Storm’s around the corner, Laura. I’m ready to finish our business pretty soon. Here’s a preview of coming attractions. ;)

Attached was a picture of a woman’s body.

The face beaten beyond recognition.

She dropped the phone to the table and ran for the bathroom, barely making the toilet in time to puke her guts up. After she could walk, she drew the gun from her holster and returned to the living room. She heard Thomas screaming into the phone, and when she picked it up to talk to him, someone started pounding on her front door.

“I’m okay. I got sick. Sorry. There’s someone at the door.”

“Don’t open it. Ask who they are.”

She went to the front door. “Who is it?”

“Sheriff’s Department. Are you okay, ma’am?”

She spoke into the phone. “He says he’s a deputy.”

“Can you see out the door?”

“Peephole.”

“Ask for ID.”

“He’s in uniform.”

“Ask, dammit!”

She called through the door. “Det. Thomas told me to ask for ID.”

She watched as the deputy held up his ID to the peephole. In the driveway, she saw his marked cruiser. “He’s got ID. And he’s in a cruiser.”

“I don’t give a damn if he’s in Santa’s sleigh. Get his damn badge number.”

“What’s your badge number?”

The deputy read it to her, and a moment later, Thomas said, “He’s legit, let him in.”

She did. The deputy stepped inside and closed the door behind him. “Ma’am, would you mind putting that away?” He pointed to the 9mm she still gripped at her side.

Still stunned, she looked at the gun as if she’d never seen it before and returned it to her holster.

“Laura, let me speak to him,” Thomas said.

She handed her phone to the deputy and tried to ignore the dangerous roll her stomach took. The deputy spoke to Thomas for a moment and turned to her. “Ma’am, where’s your computer?”

Laura pointed to the laptop. “The message is still up.” She walked into the bedroom so she couldn’t hear him read it to Thomas. A moment later the deputy knocked on her bedroom door and she emerged.

“Here’s your phone. They’ve already notified your husband. They’ve sent a car to pick him up from the firehouse.”

“What did the note on the woman’s body say?”

He shook his head. “You don’t want to know. I couldn’t tell you even if you did, because it’s evidence.”

Doogie quietly watched everything from the living room, and when she sat down on the couch he curled up next to her, his head in her lap. The deputy stood guard by the front door and twenty minutes later, another deputy brought Rob home.

He ran inside to her, hugged her. “Are you okay?”

She nodded. “Yeah. I guess.”

Thomas wasn’t far behind. “Hutchins tracked the email already. It was sent locally.”

“What do you mean, locally?” Laura asked.

He looked at her. “The guy accessed the Internet through your shop’s wireless modem. His computer ID was fudged, but he apparently wanted us to know where he connected at. You don’t have it password protected, do you?”

She numbly shook her head. “I…I don’t know. I never thought about it.”

“Whoever he is, he’s local. And he was either in your shop or parked outside, close enough to grab a signal and send the email.”

“Meaning I might have seen him today,” she numbly said.

He nodded. “Yeah. Meaning that.”

Stir-crazy didn’t begin to describe Laura’s state of mind. But when two weeks passed following the discovery of the woman’s body with still no sign of an attack, Laura let her guard down, angry that she’d let herself be scared yet again.

It didn’t help there was another tropical storm out in the Gulf headed their way.

Late Tuesday afternoon, Laura flipped the Open sign over, turned the showroom lights off, and locked the front door. She’d sent everyone else home a couple of hours earlier so they could take care of their storm preparations.

She felt tired and needed to go home, but frankly, she didn’t want to return to an empty house. Well, Doogie was there because she didn’t want to have to wrestle with keeping him from running out into the rain. She’d gone home and walked him at lunchtime before returning to the store.

Rob picked up on the third ring.

“Hi, baby girl.”

“When do you think you’ll be home, Sir?” she asked.

His tone of voice immediately changed to concerned. “Why? Is there a problem?”

“No.” She looked out the window at the sky. The tropical storm was predicted to skirt to the south of them, but she still needed to double-check the boats’ mooring lines and stow some stuff inside the cabins in case the wind picked up or the storm changed course. “I just don’t want to go home yet.”

“They have me on stand-by because of the storm. I can probably get away for a couple of hours. Do you want me to come home?”

“Could you? I’m at the shop right now. Meet me here, maybe we can grab a bite and you can follow me home?”

He paused. “What’s going on, baby girl?”

“I think it’s just the storm.” She walked to the back door and glanced at the weather station. “The barometer’s dropping a little already. I think it’s got me on edge.”

“Okay. I’ll be there in about an hour. Gotta wait for Cal to get back from the store.”

“I need to check the boats anyway.”

She hung up, feeling better. She left her cell on the counter and went out the back door. The boats were secure but she liked to double-check. She clung to a piling and carefully climbed down into the larger cruiser, feeling for her keys in her pocket and finding them. The engine hatch was secured, and when she lifted the bilge access cover, the pump float was working and everything looked dry.

Good. It meant one less worry.

She replaced the cover then checked the ports and top hatch inside the cabin. Secured. She climbed out of the cabin hatchway and spied the hose and boat brushes on the dock. Dang it.

She sighed and struggled up to the dock, grabbed the brushes and dropped them onto the deck, then unhooked the hose. She’d stow them in the cabin instead of trying to wrestle them into the already crowded dock box.

Laura thought she heard a car pull into the lot at the front of the building, but then shrugged it off. Probably someone at the real estate office across the street.

She dropped the hose into the boat and was about to climb back in when she heard a car door shut. Sure it was nothing, but realizing she had to go to the bathroom, she returned to the shop and took care of business first. When she emerged from the back room she was startled by a dark figure standing by the counter.

“Hello, Laura.” Don Kern.

“Jesus, you scared me!” Her heart pounded in her chest.

“I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“We’re closed. What do you want?” she snapped as she walked past him and back outside. She didn’t want to be rude but between the fright and the impending storm she was on her last nerve.

He followed her out to the dock and didn’t offer to help when she climbed into the boat and opened the cabin hatch.

“I just had a couple of questions.”

She turned her back to him to pick up the boat brushes from the deck and toss them into the cabin. “Sure, go ahead.”

Laura heard the sound of his feet hitting the deck and felt the boat rock under his weight. Before she could turn, he shoved her into the cabin, leaping on her and pinning her to the floor.