Back home again, Jessica quickly moved Danny inside, still asleep in his stroller, locked the doors, unpacked her few groceries hanging from the handles on Danny’s stroller, and put her son down in his bed for a nap. She wanted to lie down and rest herself, but she was still too keyed up. She just couldn’t get rid of that feeling of being watched. She stayed in her son’s room, until he drifted off to sleep again—after she had woken him when transferring him from his stroller to his bed—and then slipped across to her bedroom.
She stood at the windows at the edge of the curtains, studying the backyard. Nothing appeared to be there, and she realized just how crazy she sounded and was acting. If anybody saw her like this, they would wonder about her mental state. And what could she tell anyone? That she was afraid her ex was now all of a sudden after her and her son? That didn’t make any sense either since they had separated two years ago. From that room she went to the bathroom, then to her son’s room, checking out all angles, but she couldn’t see anything outside. She made her way downstairs and put on the teakettle. She quickly made a cup of tea when it boiled.
As she sat here by the glass window, she thought she saw something rustling in the bushes. She froze and stared out the clear window, certain she saw a tail flicking through the bush. Was it that dog? Was the dog responsible for the weird sensation that she was being followed?
She didn’t get it. Something was so bizarre about all this, and it was creepy. It was creepy to think that she thought she saw a man’s face in those bushes earlier, but it was also creepy to see the dog in the bushes too. Was the dog dangerous? She couldn’t get past the idea that maybe it was, and that wasn’t anything she wanted to deal with either. But how was she supposed to avoid it?
When she heard a ruckus outside, she raced out to the backyard and went over to the neighbor’s fence—a big wooden fence between her and him—but she thought she heard barking in his yard. When her neighbor came outside, he started yelling.
She called out to him, “What’s going on?”
“Damn dog! Looks like he got into my garbage!” he roared.
She hurried down to the back alley, where he kept his cans, and went through the gate. It was probably a foolish thing to do, but she wanted to catch sight of the dog. Up ahead, around the corner, she thought she saw something dark sweep down the alley and out the back. She groaned. “I don’t know if it’s him or not,” she muttered.
Her neighbor poked his head over the gate and glared. “How come he didn’t go after your garbage?” he snapped.
What was she supposed to say? She didn’t put food in her garbage out here. She didn’t have enough money to waste food like he did. He was the type who put out pizza boxes with half a pizza still in it, all of it into the outdoor trash bin.
With a shrug, she stepped back into her fenced yard. She shut the gate and walked back up to the house, entering through the two French doors at the rear. She’d just left her house for a minute or two, but she couldn’t help but run up to her son’s room to make sure he was still there. Thankfully he was sleeping.
She made her way back downstairs to find the front door slightly ajar. She froze on the bottom step and stared at it, hard. Surely she wouldn’t have left the door open when she came in earlier with the groceries? And wouldn’t she have noticed it if she had? She’d been downstairs making tea, but she’d been distracted.
Afraid that somehow the door had opened by someone else’s hand, she sneaked back upstairs again and stood on the top step, worried sick. Since she had already gone out to the backyard, whoever had opened the door could have sneaked inside and come upstairs too. Her heart slammed against her ribs as she raced across the hallway to her son’s room. He was still in bed, sleeping. She put her hand to her mouth, wondering what she was supposed to do.
She bent down and checked under his bed to find nothing there, then checked his closet. She went to the bathroom and found the same thing, nothing changed from the normal. With shaky hands, she pushed the door to her master bedroom wide open to make sure nobody was behind the door. She stood here listening, hoping nobody was in her house, still terrified.
When her sister called a few minutes later, Jessica hurriedly shut off the ringer, but it was too late. If somebody was in the house, they would also know she was inside. She wanted to laugh because, of course, she was inside; they would have seen and heard her already.
She forced herself to check her bedroom, the closets, and the en suite bathroom. Nothing was there. With relief washing over her enough to put tears in her eyes, she impatiently brushed them away. Sure that the upstairs was clear and free, she headed downstairs again. Quickly checking those rooms, she shut and locked her front door and phoned her sister back.
“Hey,” her sister said. “What were you doing?”
“I found the front door open,” she said, “so I was checking to make sure nobody was upstairs.”
“What?” her sister cried out. “Jesus Christ, Jessica! Call the damn police!”
“Why? Because I’m an idiot and left the door open?” She wandered around the lower floor, still making sure nobody was here.
“You already know that your ex-husband is psychotic and that he could be after you.”
“No, I don’t know that,” she said. “I don’t fully understand anything at the moment. Did you have a reason for calling, besides all my drama?”
“Of course I do,” she said. “Though it kind of qualifies as your drama,” she said with a chuckle. “It’s Mom. She’s really upset.”
“That’s nice,” she said. “What’s that got to do with me?”
“She wants you to apologize.”
Jessica gasped in disbelief. “Me apologize to her? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?”
“She’s worried that you’ll do something stupid, like accuse your ex-husband of all this,” her sister said tiredly.
“Oh, for God’s sake,” she said. “I’m sure as hell not calling her and apologizing for something like that.”
“I know,” she said, “and I don’t want you to. But you need to know that she’s on the rampage.”
“She’s always on the rampage,” she said. “How is it that she is still so heavily involved in my damn business?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “If you had stayed with him, maybe she’d be off your case.”
“So are you telling me that I should have stayed?”
“No, but she’s wearing me down,” her sister snapped. “It’s terrible, and I’m so tired of all of it.”
“I hear you,” Jessica said, “but that’s hardly an answer for me.”
“I know,” she said, “and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do about it.”
“Well, yesterday you were all about telling Mom to pound sand. Now you’re telling me that I need to make up to her.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “That’s not what I meant.”
“I can’t talk to her right now,” she said. “I’ve got enough problems on my plate right now.”
“Anything new?”
“No,” she said, not wanting to share her fears with her sister and have her carry tales back to her mother. That would just compound the issue.
“You take care,” her sister said. “I’ll try to hold Mom off.”
“Tell her that I don’t want to talk to her,” Jessica said. “That’ll piss her off even more.”
“You want her pissed off?”
“Sure, that way she’ll leave me alone,” she said. Hanging up with her sister, she walked back into the kitchen, realizing she’d let her tea get cold. Rather than warming it up in the microwave, which would make it taste disgusting, she put the kettle back on.
She sat at the kitchen table, waiting for her son to wake up, listening to the sounds of the house creak around her as she tried to figure out what the hell she would do. She currently had another two weeks of vacation days left, and then she was supposed to go back to her job. She managed a small business in town, and it was just barely enough to make ends meet, particularly when day care was so high.
She’d hoped for a job she could do from home, while she was here with her son, but hadn’t had any luck in finding one. It seemed wrong to be taking vacation days to look for work, yet she didn’t know what else to do. Everything hinged on her finding a better solution, so she could raise her son with a little more money and more time with him. She picked up the newspaper again and circled jobs to apply for. She always did the online searches first, but this was a small town, and, if she could find something closer or part-time or could work from home, that would be more ideal.
One ad was looking for somebody to work as a personal assistant from home with the occasional meetups. She wondered if that would work. She quickly noted the contact information and put it down on her list.
By the time she’d gone through the newspaper and had completed her online search for the day, she heard Danny upstairs, just waking up. She hopped to her feet and walked upstairs. When she stepped into his room, her little boy was rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. She scooped him up into her arms and gave him a big hug, as she walked him over to the bathroom and put him on the toilet. When he was done, she showed him once again how to climb up the step stool and wash his hands. Then she scooped him up in her arms and carried him downstairs.
“Hungry,” he muttered against her shoulder.
She nodded and kissed him on the forehead. “Let’s get you a snack.”
As she walked downstairs and across the room, she glanced out to the backyard through the double glass doors and froze when she saw a man out there. Her breath caught in the back of her throat, and she raced over to the French doors. If somebody had been there, he wasn’t in sight from that angle now.
She walked quickly into the kitchen and thought she saw a head duck around along the side. She followed in the same direction until she got to the front door. Opening the door, she stepped outside in time to see a man running down the hedge. She swore gently under her breath.
“Mommy?”
She kissed Danny again and said, “Just somebody running by,” she said cheerfully.
He rubbed his eyes again and nodded, obviously not caring one way or the other. Now if only she didn’t care either.
She headed back inside, shutting her front door securely and locking it, and made him a small snack. “What would you like to do today?”
“Want to go park,” he said, while he was busy taking peanut butter and toast, mangling it up and shoving it into his mouth.
When he was done, she cleaned him up, got him dressed, and said, “Let’s go out to the park then.”
She put him into the stroller, and they headed down the block to a nice little park with lots of other adults. They were in luck, as two other women were here with kids Danny knew well. Immediately the kids cried out their greetings, and she helped Danny out of his stroller and over to the sandbox, where he climbed in and started playing. She walked over to join the other two women.
“You okay? You’re looking a little frazzled,” Mary said.
“I am,” she said. “I found my front door open earlier today. When I went to pick up Danny from his nap,” she said, “a stranger was in the backyard again.”
The other woman gasped, leaned closer, and said, “Do you know who it was?”
Jessica shook her head. “No. No clue,” she said. “But it’s been enough to unnerve me.”
“And, of course, with your ex not being around,” she said, “it’s even worse, isn’t it?”
“Well, it’s definitely more of a vulnerable feeling,” she said, not wanting to get into the irony of that statement. “But I certainly don’t want a man around just for protection.”
“Men have a lot of uses,” Heather said, waggling her eyebrows.
“Maybe so,” Jessica said with half a smile. “But I wouldn’t want to jump back into another relationship just because of that.”
“No,” both women nodded. Mary continued, “That’s not smart.”
“You should probably make a police report,” Heather said. “What if somebody is stalking you?”
“The problem is, I don’t know what the police can do about it,” Jessica said slowly. “At least not until something worse happens.”
“And that’s what we don’t want to have happen,” Mary said. “It’s just too terrible to contemplate. But the police really don’t have much of a way to stop a stalker.”
“I know,” Jessica said. “Not until he crosses the line.”
The name was there on the mailbox, just as Greyson had been told. Joe Hinds. He walked up to the front door and knocked. After a few minutes, he could hear footsteps from the inside.
Finally the door opened, and a man in his midsixties stood there, glaring at him. “I’m not buying anything,” he said.
“Good,” Greyson said with a smile. “I’m not selling anything. I wanted to ask you about the fender bender you saw a few weeks ago.”
Joe snorted. “I don’t want anything to do with insurance either,” he said.
“That’s not what I’m asking about,” he said. “I’m looking for a War Dog that was at the rescue center near the accident site. The dog went missing around the same time, and I wondered if you’d seen it.”
“What’s this about a War Dog?” His eyebrows shot up and then pulled together, giving him a thick unibrow. “I don’t know anything about a War Dog.”
“I understand,” Greyson said. “During the aftermath of the accident, while everybody was stuck in traffic, did you see a dark shepherd-looking dog loose around the scene?”
He looked at him in astonishment. “How did you know a dog was there?”
Greyson took a slow, deep breath. This was the first hint that he was on track and that the dog had been near the accident. “Where was she when you saw her?”
“Barking at the man who hit the young woman.”
“So that was the accident. A man drove into the car of a young woman?”
Joe nodded slowly.
“Okay, did you recognize either of them?”
“I think I’ve seen the woman around,” he said. “It was worse because her little boy was in the back seat.”
At that, Greyson’s heart slammed. “Was the baby crying?”
He nodded. “Yes, and the woman looked pretty shocked by it all because the other guy was damn rude about it.”
“But he hit her, you said? Or were you talking about his vehicle hit her vehicle?”
“Yeah, he kind of—I think he was pretty threatening to her, but I’m not too sure how that all went down,” he said. “The dog started barking at him and chased the man back into his truck.”
“Then what did the dog do?”
“I don’t really know.” He paused. “The guy got back in his truck, and the woman got in her car, and everybody disappeared again. I could finally get home. It was only a few houses away, for heaven’s sake,” he said, with a wave of his hand toward the road.
“So, you didn’t catch sight of where the dog went after that?”
“Took off into the bushes, as far as I know.”
“But the dog appeared to be more protective of the woman and the child?”
“Either that or he didn’t like the yelling,” Joe said. “I had a dog like that once. Anytime anybody raised their voice, he got upset.”
“Did it sound like the dog was upset?”
Joe looked at him and frowned. “It sounded more like the dog was upset at the man doing the yelling. But I can’t say much more than that.”
“Well, that’s good to know. Thank you.” Taking a look around, Greyson asked, “Have you seen the dog around since the accident?”
“No, I don’t think so,” he said, “though I didn’t really get a good look. He was some kind of a shepherd-looking thing. Other than that, it was just a dog.”
“Okay. Thank you for your time. You’ve been very helpful.” Then he stopped and said, “You mentioned the woman was from around here. Any idea where?”
“I’ve seen her drive up and down the road, so she must live around here somewhere. There probably aren’t more than thirty houses along here, so you might spot her car in the driveway.”
“Good enough,” he said. “Any details on the car?”
“Small silver car, Pontiac, I think.” He stepped back to close the door.
“Thanks again,” Greyson said, and the door closed with a sharp click.
Not exactly friendly but at least he’d shared some information that was useful. He had confirmed that the dog had been there at the fender bender.
As Greyson walked up the street, he was looking for the small silver Pontiac, wondering where the woman lived. And what the dog had to do with any of this. He checked on one side of the road, then came down the other side. When he was at the very top of the block, he came across a small silver Pontiac parked in a driveway. A big driveway. The same one he had traced Kona to.
He walked up, checked the vehicle, and found a ding to the fender and some paint transfer. He walked up to the front door and knocked. When a woman answered the door, he smiled, loving the sight of the happy toddler in her arms.
“Sorry to bother you, but I’m here looking for a dog that’s gone missing.”
Immediately he could see her walls go up, and she stepped back slightly.
He held up his hands in a nonthreatening manner. “I’m here on behalf of the War Dogs program. A dog was at the shelter down the road. On the day that you were involved in a fender bender, the dog went missing.”
Her face cleared a little bit, as she looked from him to her car and then back to him again. “A shepherd-looking thing?”
“Yes, a Malinois-shepherd cross,” he said. “Have you seen it?”
She nodded slowly. “I saw it today.”
His eyebrows shot up, and eagerly he asked, “Where?”
“I think it got into my neighbor’s garbage,” she said.
He frowned at that because it wasn’t typical behavior for one of these dogs, but, if she was starving, then maybe. “And that was today?”
“A few hours ago, yes,” she said, and she pointed down the road. “He went in that direction.”
“Did you see it the day of the accident?”
She wrinkled her face and nodded. “I guess you can call it an accident,” she said. “It was more of a threat though.”
“What do you mean?”
She winced and said, “Never mind. It doesn’t matter.” Then she stepped back as if to close the door.
He stepped forward and immediately saw fear cross her face. “I’m not here to hurt you,” he said in a soft voice, “but I would like to know what you meant. Anything that involves the dog is something I need to know about. I’m trying to recapture the dog. She served a lot of good years in the military, and I’d like to see to it that she has a decent retirement life.”
“I hear you,” she said, “but I don’t know what I’m supposed to do about it. I thought I saw it leave the alleyway a few hours ago.”
“That’s fine,” he said, “and I’ll certainly check it out. I’ll stake out the alleyway and see if that’s where she’s getting food from. What I really need to know is what you saw at the accident.”
“All of a sudden, he was there,” she said with a shrug. Her son made an odd sound and reached up, patting her cheek. She smiled, kissed him on the tip of his nose. “It was a particularly disturbing scenario,” she said, turning her attention back to Greyson. “The other guy hit me with his truck and then came out and started yelling at me. I was really worried for my son. He was crying, and, the next thing I know, the dog was there.”
“Did you recognize this man?”
She shook her head. “No.” Then she opened her mouth and added suddenly, “He said it was a message from my ex.”
He stared at her in shock. “What?”
She nodded. “At first I wondered if I’d misheard him,” she said. “The dog got between us and was barking threateningly at the man. He was getting really ugly about the dog, but it seemed like the dog was more of a danger than he was. He got back into his truck and sped off. And, because we’d already stopped all the traffic, I jumped into my car and headed straight home. The dog bolted off to the side somewhere. Obviously I was pretty upset, and so was my son, so we took the rest of the afternoon and just stayed in the house together.”
“That sounds like a perfect answer to a very rough day,” he said, as he reached out a gentle finger and stroked the little boy’s cheek. “Something is so very innocent and sweet about this age, isn’t there?”
“There is,” she said. “Anyway, I don’t know what else I can help you with.”
“Thank you. You’ve helped a lot,” he said with a smile. “Have you seen the driver again?”
He watched as she hesitated.
“Okay, so how much of an ex is your ex?”
She winced. “I didn’t think there was a problem. I was pregnant at the time we split, and he didn’t want anything to do with our baby. I’ve never had anything to do with him since. Then, all of a sudden, that accident happened, and since then, it just feels like I’m being watched all the time.”
He didn’t like the sound of that at all. “Has the dog been hanging around?”
“You know what? I think it has. I was worried about it because it looked really dangerous. But it’s never attacked me or even come anywhere close to me.”
He took a step back, trying to give her a bit of space. “Do you mind if I check your backyard? I’ll go up and down the alley anyway, but I would like to see if maybe the dog could have been in the backyard space as well.”
She hesitated.
He nodded and said, “You’re right to be alarmed,” he said. “I know I’m not a threat, but you don’t know me at all.”
“If we’re in the house, and the doors are locked,” she said, “I’d be okay if you checked out the backyard. I actually wouldn’t mind if you did check it out,” she admitted, “because I keep getting this feeling of being watched, you know? I don’t know. Maybe it’s the dog.”
“That’s possible too.” He looked up and down the block. “What’s the fastest way to the alley?”
She hesitated.
He said, “Look. I’m not asking to get into your backyard right now,” he said. “I don’t want you to feel threatened and especially not with this guy giving you trouble,” he said. “There’s enough craziness in the world, and I don’t want you to think that I’ll add to it.”
She just smiled at him, but he could see the relief on her face. “I think if you went down that way, there’s a break between the houses with a pathway. The alley turns and goes off into the block behind us.”
He immediately started walking that way, then turned back and said, “I’ll go down that way and come back up your alleyway. So if you see somebody looking in your backyard, you’ll know it’s just me.”
She nodded and smiled.
He headed down the block, and, as he got down a couple houses, he turned to look back and saw she was still standing there, watching him. He lifted a hand, then turned and left.