Josie held the manila envelope away, staring at it as if it might be a bomb. Her fingerprints were all over it. But she’d found some gloves in the nursery and now she could feel her palms sweating against the sticky latex.
But the words made her go cold.
And my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with my sword. Exodus 22:24
The verse had been taken out of context, but Josie got the meaning loud and clear. One note was questionable. Two made it real.
“Miss Josie, are you okay?” her assistant, Heather, asked from the office door, her hazel eyes bright with questions.
Josie dropped the envelope and the offending note made with cutout letters. “I’m going through the mail. Did you happen to notice when the mailman came?”
Heather shook her head, her brown ponytail bouncing. “No, ma’am. We’ve had people in and out all day. Did you find the envelope with your name on it?”
“Yes,” Josie said, trying to stay calm. “I saw it with the mail. Did someone drop it off?”
“I found it wedged inside the door when I opened this morning,” Heather replied. “I thought one of the parents left it.”
Josie took a breath. “Thank you. Did you need something?”
Heather stood inside the doorway. “I wanted to check on you. You look tired.”
Josie forced a smile. “I am tired. I didn’t sleep very much last night but...it’s nothing.”
“Well, I’m about to take my lunch break, unless you need to go first.”
“No, you go ahead,” Josie said. She saw the police cruiser pulling up. “There’s one of our parents now. I have a conference with Dalton West.”
Heather grinned and glanced out the window. “He’s a tall drink of water, as my mama likes to say.”
Josie managed a tight smile. “Yes, he sure is. You go on and enjoy your lunch. I’ll take the late shift.”
Heather nodded and greeted Dalton as he appeared in the doorway to Josie’s office, then glanced down at Luna. “Hey, there, Luna. Are you fighting crime today?”
Luna glanced at Dalton and then back at Heather, her nose in the air.
“We’re on the job,” Dalton said, his cheerful tone belying the panic Josie couldn’t stop.
Dalton hurried into the office and shut the door. “Show me the note.”
She handed him the manila envelope with her name scrolled on it in scraggly bold black. Then she pointed to the folded piece of paper lying beside it.
Dalton pulled a pair of gloves from his equipment belt and opened the envelope. After reading the words pasted there, he looked at her with a stoic stare. “This is serious.”
“I’m not sure how to handle it.”
“You have to be careful,” Dalton replied, his gaze on the note. “Was this sealed?”
“No. Pressed together with the metal fastener. I opened it without gloves. It was with the mail, and I didn’t even bother looking at the front.”
“The mailman wouldn’t have let this get through without a complete address,” Dalton said.
“Heather found it by the front door early this morning and put it with the mail. What should I do? I can’t allow the children to be in danger, and if I tell the parents, they’ll take their children out of my care.”
“We’ll take it a step at a time. Right now, you’re the target, but if it escalates we’ll have to warn everyone. How did your aunt take it?”
“She had a doctor’s appointment today, so I haven’t told her.” She sank back in her chair and rubbed her forehead. “I’m concerned about the children.”
Dalton placed the note back into the envelope. “Stay calm for now. I’ll check the yard again, and I’ll dust this the same as I did the last one. But I’m pretty sure we won’t find anything. Do you have surveillance cameras?”
“We can’t afford those. We have locks on the windows and doors and the playground gates. But they got inside the playground.” She glanced out the window, thoughts of someone creeping around causing her to shiver. “My maintenance man is trying to remove that rock embedded by the fence.”
“Well, there’s no sign of break-ins. We can put a cruiser on the street to watch for anyone suspicious. Have them circle the block every few minutes after hours.”
Josie had the certain sinking sensation that this person would find a way around a patrol car. “Okay. Then what?”
“I think we might want to go ahead and talk to the staff, Josie,” he finally said. “I’d planned on questioning them about the first note, but I didn’t want to alarm them. If we get them all together, maybe I can scope the room, get a feel for things. Luna can help there, too.”
“You think someone on my staff could be doing this?”
“Can’t rule anyone out,” he replied. “Can you get them all together for a few minutes after closing?”
“I’ll try,” she said. “Besides my aunt, one other person has the day off.”
That got his attention. “Who?”
“Tricia Munson. She works with the babies.”
“Why did she take the day off?”
“To attend a funeral,” Josie said, ruling out Tricia immediately. But Dalton didn’t look so sure. The man must have been a great detective because he had a bulldog’s tenacity.
“Who died?”
“Her uncle.”
“Did he live here?”
“Yes,” Josie said. “His obituary was in the paper this morning. Jeffery Munson. He’s a highly respected local businessman.”
Dalton must have sensed her disbelief. “I don’t mean to sound insensitive,” he said. “We have to start somewhere, and any employee acting out of the ordinary is fair game.”
“I understand.”
“Okay.” He stood and held Luna’s leash. “Get that meeting together for tonight.”
“I’ll tell Aunt Marilyn as soon as she gets back from her appointment.”
“And I’ll get that cruiser over here,” Dalton said, his eyes a stormy gray. “Whoever this is, he’s a coward. He comes after hours and in the dark of early morning. If I have to, I’ll spend the night here. Luna will be glad to do that job.”
The sleek dog glanced up at the sound of her name. She did look ready and willing. They both made Josie feel safe.
“Thank you,” she said after she’d walked Dalton around the building. Luna didn’t alert, so that was a relief. But she could tell the staff was beginning to wonder what was going on.
When they stopped in the front parking lot, Dalton did a scan of the entire yard. “You have a good open area, so nowhere for someone to hide. I’ll be here on time to pick up Maisy this afternoon, and I’ll do another sweep then.”
“Okay,” she said. She didn’t want to depend on Dalton, but the man made her feel protected.
“I enjoyed last night,” he said. “In spite of what brought us together.”
“Pizza brought us together,” she retorted, not wanting him to read anything into their dinner. “And your daughter’s demands,” she added with a smile.
He looked sheepish. “Yeah, sorry about that.” Then he turned serious. “You spend a lot of time with Maisy. How is she doing, really?”
Josie chose her words carefully. “She misses her mom. Do you two ever talk about what happened?”
His expression hardened. “No. It’s too hard to explain. We both went to counseling...after her mother died. I thought Maisy was doing better, but I know she has nightmares. So do I, for that matter.”
Josie’s heart went out to him. “It’s tough. I still have nightmares about my husband’s death.”
Dalton latched on to that. “How did he die?”
She hadn’t meant to say anything, but she trusted Dalton. “He worked at an oil refinery back in Texas. An accident that caused a chemical spill.”
An accident that his family blamed on Josie because they considered her a bad wife. But they didn’t know where she was now. She almost said something to Dalton, but the possibility of Douglas’s mother or brother finding her was slim. His mother was sickly, and his brother had married and moved to Louisiana.
“That’s tough,” Dalton said. “Any coworkers who might have a grudge against him or you?”
She thought about that. “I didn’t know the people he worked with, but...he’d come home with stories. Mostly gossip or news about their wives and children.”
“Could you remember any of them?”
“We didn’t socialize with them a lot.” She grabbed a notepad from her purse. “Douglas mentioned George—George Cleveland—a lot. And Perry Wilcox. Perry was always mad about something and hated his job. Douglas used to go fishing with Rafael Gonzalez. He was a good man from what I remember.” She handed him the list. “Douglas got into heated arguments with Perry. He told me Perry Wilcox was a hothead.”
“We have to consider anyone who might have a grudge.”
She’d blocked out that part of her life, and she didn’t want to delve into it again. But she was willing to cooperate. “I hope it’s not one of them.”
He took another look around. “I have to go. But I’ll be back for Maisy, and I’ll send that patrol. Meantime, we have an incident file going, so document everything. The letters or anything else you might receive, the time of day, how and where. Keep your phone with you and... Josie, don’t go anywhere alone. Call me if you need anything.”
“Thanks again,” Josie said, trying to absorb his instructions. She watched as he got in the squad car and sped away. Before, she’d always loved the front drive to the day care where she and her aunt had planted shrubs and palm trees and made pretty rock gardens filled with succulents. They’d worked hard to make the arched entryway to the heavy wooden front door welcoming and like a fun castle.
Now, she shivered in the cool breeze and searched the nearby businesses. The rambling day care building looked ominous and dark in spite of the wreath on the door.
When she came back inside, Heather was standing in the hallway. “What was that all about, Miss Josie?”
“We’re going to have a meeting tonight after work, and I’ll explain,” Josie said, paranoia new to her. “Meantime, it’s work as usual.”
“I don’t mind a meeting,” Heather retorted. “I was asking what’s going on with you and that handsome lawman. He sure likes to look at you.”
Josie scoffed at the notion, and then she shook her head. But she couldn’t deny she’d been very much aware of Dalton taking up space in her office. “He was giving me some security tips.”
“Right,” Heather said with a grin. “We’ll go with that.”
Josie didn’t want to have this conversation. “Back to work,” she said on a gentle note. “I’ll tell the others about our meeting.”
She dreaded telling them anything, but she couldn’t keep this from her employees. She only prayed she didn’t have to shut this place down because of some lunatic.
Dalton drove around the neighborhood and searched for any signs that might give him a hint of what was going on. These older homes along the main thoroughfare aptly called Desert Valley Road had mostly all been turned into commercial businesses, such as the Desert Valley Medical Clinic where Officer Whitney Godwin Evans’s husband, David, used to work.
Dalton was only in Desert Valley because of the K-9 training program he’d completed and his offer to work for the DVPD until after the holidays. But Desert Valley wasn’t such a bad place to be. There were good people here.
He thought of Josie Callahan and stifled the surge that shot through his heart. Again, he had that feeling of awareness that he’d gotten the first time he’d met her. She’d been holding a tiny infant while she reassured the baby’s frantic mother that she’d take good care of her baby boy.
He’d been smitten with her from the beginning, but he’d tried to squelch those erratic feelings. Maisy needed him, and he wasn’t always home to help her. That’s why he’d been so glad to find a day care that allowed older children to attend the after-school and late-shift programs. He didn’t want anything to jeopardize that arrangement.
And he sure didn’t want any harm to come to the children or Josie and her staff. So he cruised the neighborhood around the day care, located near the town center. The streets were quiet, the modest homes clean and settled.
Then he glanced at a rutted dirt lane that led to a run-down house sitting like a squatter in a rocky, isolated corner lot.
A dark, older-model car was parked at an angle by the house.
It looked like the car he’d noticed driving away from Josie’s house last night.
“Let’s go investigate,” Dalton said to Luna. She woofed her agreement from the backseat.
Dalton wondered if Josie’s tormentor could be hiding in plain sight.