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“DID YOU PUT ON THE perimeter beams?” Alex asked with a frown when Jamie opened the front door.
She nodded. “I didn’t know what to do. I feel so unsafe since they threw a brick through the window.”
“Hey, it’s okay,” Alex said. “I was just checking.” He wrapped his arms around Jamie. The kids all ran to their rooms to put away their school bags. Jamie shuddered against Alex, relishing the warmth and safety that came with his embrace.
When Alex wanted to step away, Jamie clutched on to him a little longer. She didn’t want to let go. She was suddenly very emotional.
Alex stroked her back. “It’s going to be okay, babe. We’ll figure this out. The police are here, they came in with me.”
Jamie nodded and finally let go of Alex, stepping away a little. “I saw.”
“You saw?”
Jamie nodded. “I was watching the CCTV footage and saw you all come in.”
Alex raised his eyebrows. He was impressed with Jamie’s thought pattern.
“Did the CCTV footage show you anything?” he asked.
Jamie shook her head. “No, nothing. I mean, he’s there – the person who did it. But I think he knew where the cameras were or something. He keeps turning so that his face is hidden.”
“We’ll show the police,” Alex said. “Maybe they can figure something out.”
Jamie nodded. “That was what I was thinking, too.”
Alex invited the police officers inside – two men in uniform with guns strapped to their sides and silver badges on their chests. The kids thronged around them, excited to see two men in uniform when they hadn’t learned about them in school.
“Is that a real gun?” Benton asked.
“You bet,” the officer said. “But I’m not allowed to take it out of the holster unless there is a good reason.”
“You are a police officer, you can do whatever you want,” Lily said.
The officer shook his head, the other one chuckling. “It doesn’t work like that. We are here to make sure everyone follows the rules, not to break them ourselves.”
The officers were both really good with kids and Jamie was glad that they were keeping things so light and friendly. She knew that the kids didn’t really know what was going on and she preferred it that way. She didn’t want them to worry.
“What’s this?” Markie asked, pointing to the cord leading into the officer’s ear.
The two officers stood a couple of feet apart and radioed each other, and the kids were excited about what they were seeing.
“Okay, kids, Mommy and Daddy need to talk to the police officers,” Alex said. “Why don’t you guys go to the playroom and I’ll bring you some snacks in a bit?”
“Do we have to do?” they whined. They obviously wanted to spend more time with the policemen.
“Tell you what,” the officer said, kneeling in front of the kids. “If you guys go keep yourself busy while the grown-ups talk, we will show you the cruiser afterwards and we will switch on the lights and everything.”
“And the sirens?” Benton asked, excited.
The officers both laughed. “Yeah, just for a moment. Why not?”
The kids cheered and Jamie was relieved that the officers were so kind. Neither she nor Alex had the capacity to entertain the children as if it was a normal day.
The three of them headed to the playroom and Jamie scooped Rosie up from the carrier where she had put her down when Alex had come in. They walked to the dining room and Jamie showed them the damage that had been done.
Alex balled his fists, looking at the brick on the floor. “This is an outrage,” he said through clenched teeth. “I can’t believe someone came onto our private property to do this.”
Jamie nodded mutely. She couldn’t believe it, either. It made her feel extremely unsafe.
The police officers both took notes, then suggested that they go to another room to talk.
“We can go to the kitchen,” Alex suggested.
Jamie shook her head. “It’s a bit of a mess in there. Let’s sit in the living room.”
Alex nodded and they moved to the living room, where they both sat down, but the officers remained standing. Jamie was very aware of the levels, the fact that they weren’t equals. She wasn’t sure if them sitting down meant they were in charge, or the other way around. She didn’t have time or the capacity to figure it out.
“Tell me exactly what happened,” one officer said. The other had his notebook ready and as Jamie started talking, he took note of everything she said.
“But this isn’t an isolated incident,” Jamie added.
Both officers frowned at her.
“Jamie,” Alex said, but she put her hand on his leg and shook her head.
“They should know that it might all be connected,” Jamie said. She looked at the officers. “Last year, we had something terrible happen to our family, too.”
She started telling them about what had happened last year with her mother taking Markie and getting a prison sentence for it. She mentioned that her mother was out on parole, she mentioned the restraining order, and she said that she wondered if they were all connected.
“We don’t know that,” Alex said. But he looked worried, as if he was considering it, too.
“It’s good for us to know,” the officer said. “If there is already an open case, it might give us a lead.”
Jamie suddenly felt like crying again. When she had gotten that letter from her mother on the Fourth of July, she had hoped that it was all over, that it was the end of it. But the case had still been open. And maybe this wasn’t isolated; it could be all related.
Alex reached out and put his hand over hers, seeing how emotional she was getting.
“I think we have everything we need,” the first officer said. He closed his notebook. “We’ll figure this out. In the meantime, I would recommend staying home as much as possible. We’ll have a cruiser parked outside at all times to keep watch. And here.” They both handed them business card with their numbers. “Call us if anything comes up.”
Jamie took the business cards and nodded. She was going to be able to start a collection of police business cards if things kept going this way. She smiled bitterly at the thought.
“I would also suggest that you keep the kids home from school for the moment,” the second officer said. “I know it’s hard and disruptive, but until it’s all sorted out, it’s better to be safe than sorry.”
Jamie and Alex both nodded, completely agreeing. Jamie had already decided that they would keep the kids home since the moment they had run in through the door, all of them safe and sound.
Once business was discussed, the police brought the children out to the car. They showed them the sirens and the lights and the twins were mesmerized. Markie was a little nervous of the loud sounds the police car made and stood clutching Jamie’s leg. Alex had one arm wrapped around her shoulders and Rosie was in the other.
Jamie watched the police as they explained things to the kids in simple terms, handling them very well. She wished she felt safer now that the police were involved.
She just didn’t.
What made things worse was that she was sure it wasn’t just a coincidence. On one hand, it made her feel like it would give them a lead – the police could follow through and maybe find out what was going on faster than if they were starting from scratch. On the other hand, it terrified her.
There was no way this wasn’t related to what had happened the last time round. Jamie just couldn’t shake the feeling of unease in her gut. But that meant that her mother was involved again. Even after the letter she had sent, Jamie hadn’t been ready to forgive her completely, but she had thought that it meant it was the end of the difficult time they had been through.
Now it looked like it had just been a pause, nothing more.
Alex looked at Jamie and squeezed his arm around her.
“We won’t let them out of our sight until this person is caught,” he promised. “At least, this time we are prepared.”
They both watched the kids and the officers again, and Jamie nodded.
“I’m just so sick of people screwing with our family,” Jamie said. “What did we do to deserve this? Nothing.”
Alex rubbed her shoulder and sighed. “I know. I’m sick of it, too. We don’t deserve this.”
Jamie turned her head to the gate. It wasn’t a solid gate; she could see people and cars in the street through it. She scanned the streets, trying to see the people out there. The property was surrounded by dense hedges, which they had planted when Markie had been taken. The idea was to give them a lot of privacy.
Well, when someone was able to crawl onto the property and throw bricks through the window, their privacy was just an illusion, wasn’t it?
Jamie’s gaze lingered on the cars and she followed a pedestrian with her eyes until they were out of her line of sight.
“Jamie, it’s going to be okay,” Alex said.
Jamie nodded. It was going to be okay. She had to believe it, or terror and panic was going to consume her. But until they were out of trouble, until the culprit was caught, she was going to assume that everyone was out to get her family.
When Markie had been taken, she had been hurt by the fact that it had been her mother – a woman that was close to her, someone that was in the family. The betrayal had come from their midst, not from a stranger out there who had chosen some random people to target.
Somehow, it only made everything feel so much worse. The people Jamie was supposed to be able to trust were the very ones that had hurt her.
Person, she corrected herself. It had just been her mother. She could still trust Erica, Christine, Paul, and Mark.
But that wasn’t a part of the question here. Who was it? Who was out to get them? And why?
And if they were so serious, why only a year and a half down the line?
Unless it was her mother again. The woman who had recently been released on parole. While she had been in prison, it hadn’t been possible to torture them, to hound them, to make their life hell. But what if it was her now?
If it turned out to be her who had thrown a brick through the window, they could enforce the restraining order. She could go back to prison.
Jamie just didn’t know if they could tell who the person in the footage was. The police had looked at it when she had told them about it, but they had said that there was very little they could do with the imagery. After all, the grainy footage was only there to show that someone had trespassed, not to accurately recognize faces.
“Do we need to up our security system again?” Alex asked.
At first, Jamie wanted to say yes. She wanted to do everything possible to keep her children safe. But instead, she shook her head.
“No. We have a good system as it is. I think we need to trust that the police will figure this out and nip it in the bud before it goes any further. Otherwise, we’re just going to lock ourselves up and isolate ourselves from the world. And living in constant fear won’t do. It’s not alive.”
Alex kissed Jamie on the head. “I’m proud of you,” he said.
“Why?” Jamie asked.
“Because despite how terrifying this is, you have an open mind. And that means something. It will get us through. You and me and the kids, together.”
