Tara turned onto Tenth Street as she balanced a coffee tray in one hand and clutched a bag of bagels and John’s favorite breakfast sandwich in the other. She had woken up early. John was still asleep, and she had decided it was about time she did something nice for him.
She looked down at her hand gripping the brown paper bag––at her ring sparkling in the morning sun––and a warm feeling spread throughout her body. They had only been engaged less than twenty-four hours and Tara was still in awe. All this time, she had worried that John was feeling too distant from her, but in reality, he was just trying to find a time to propose. Tara knew now she had not made it easy for him—the trips to New York, her mind always on the case or her father.
She wanted to enjoy this moment, to soak it up for all it was worth. John was right. She deserved to live in the moment––to take a break from all that her mind constantly worked to solve. She not only owed it to herself, but also to her relationship with John. She had just finished a case. For now, she had a slight break from work. And finding out who Mackenzie James was could wait. She wanted to enjoy this little bit of time with John as much as she could.
Tara pushed the large turnstile door of her apartment building and walked over to the mailboxes, placing her coffee and paper bag onto the floor. John was usually the one to grab the mail, but since they were both home late last night, neither of them had. She unlocked the box with her apartment number and pulled out a few pieces of mail. She looked through them quickly. They were mainly junk, and one electricity bill, but she stopped on one last envelope. It had no return address, but it was handwritten and addressed to her. She wasn’t expecting anything, and Tara rarely received a letter in the mail unless it were a bill or something of that sort. She ripped it open. Inside sat a piece of folded paper. One edge was ragged, as if had been ripped out of notebook. She unfolded it, and for a second Tara lost her breath as she stared down at two words scribbled across the page. STOP DIGGING.
Tara looked around her. It seemed like a sick joke, but she knew no one could’ve put it in her mailbox. It had Tara’s address on it. It was clearly mailed, and Tara’s blood went cold. It wasn’t her father’s handwriting, and she only knew of one other person that could’ve sent it: Mackenzie.
Tara folded the piece of paper and placed it back into the envelope as her mind raced. She knew it could only have been sent for one reason: desperation. Mackenzie James was hiding something, something terrible, that she wanted to lie dead forever.