Officer Next Door (7 page)

Their chains rattled as they fled, sprinting through knee-high grass like they hadn’t run in a year – which they hadn’t.

“We’ll meet at the blind,” Randy said, panting already, face shining with sweat.

“The blind,” Troy agreed, his speech slurred by the key in his mouth. “Fuck yeah, we will.”

They took off in opposite directions without another word. They’d be harder to follow that way, harder to catch. They’d been operating this way for years, knew fear was what kept people together when splitting up made more sense. Going their separate ways had saved them many a beating throughout their lives; their old man had always had to choose one to chase down.

The sun beat down on Troy as he ran alone, lungs on fire already. His muscles ached and sweat stung his eyes, but it was the sting of freedom, and he’d never felt anything better.

* * * * *

Despite a day spent fielding calls from a bride so egotistical she deserved her own reality TV show, Alicia was feeling optimistic. So optimistic, in fact, that she threw all her work clothes in a pile, stripping down to her birthday suit. It was Wednesday – the day she and Liam had agreed upon for their trip to Wilmington. The occasion warranted not just a change of clothing, but a change of lingerie.

She’d gotten home ten minutes ago and had banned herself from the kitchen, refusing to allow herself to spy on Liam’s after-work shower. The last thing she needed was to get herself so hot and bothered that he mistook her body-blush for a sunburn again.

“Holden, stop that!” she said, twisting and nearly tripping as she stepped into a pair of lacy panties. She winced as she eyed the dresser she would’ve toppled face-first into –
that
would’ve been more embarrassing to explain than a faux-sunburn – and yanked her underwear up. “Give those here!”

The little brown and white dog she’d brought home from work had the cotton panties she’d just peeled off in his mouth. He wagged his tail, then leapt out of reach as she tried to take them back. She scrambled after him and managed to grab ahold of his brand new collar just as he raced for the stairs.

“Bad boy,” she said, wrinkling her nose at her slobbered-on panties. “These are definitely off limits. Why don’t you play with one of the new toys I bought you instead?”

Her new companion just wagged his tail, eyeing the assaulted underwear with a look of longing.

She sighed. “Okay, Holden, so you’re an unrepentant panty thief. Duly noted.” She tossed the underwear into the hamper, where he wouldn’t be able to reach them.

Sasha had named the dog. Or rather, she’d suggested the name Holden after meeting the little mutt and feeding him kitchen scraps. “You know, like Holden Caulfield,” she’d said. “The kid in
The Catcher in the Rye
? My favorite book.”

At first, Sasha’s declaration had surprised Alicia. But then, as she thought back to reading the book years ago as a high school English class assignment, it sort of made sense. Sasha, like Holden, had probably been one hell of a rebellious teenager.

Anyway, Holden had stuck.

Alicia slipped into a matching bra and black jersey dress that was more flattering than just about anything else in her closet. After a little deliberation, she decided to wear a pair of wedge-heeled sandals with narrow golden straps. Just a couple inches high and nice and solid thanks to the wedge shape, the shoes seemed like a safe choice for strolling Wilmington’s riverwalk without embarrassing herself in front of Liam.

At least, she hoped so. Lately, her track record wasn’t very good.

“Watch out, Holden.” She gave the dog, who’d paused in front of her on the stairs, a nudge with her toe. She’d only had him for a couple days, but it was already apparent that it was a habit of his. If she wasn’t careful, she’d trip right over him and break her neck.

Holden hopped down the stairs and she followed him into the kitchen.

Her gaze was irresistibly drawn to the window, despite the promise she’d made to herself. When she saw that Liam’s driveway was empty, she was half relieved and half disappointed. Turning to the sink, she poured herself a glass of water.

No sooner had she taken a sip than Holden raced to the door and scratched with his paw. Luckily, whoever his last owner had been had obviously house trained him.

Alicia was prepared to return him if a rightful owner showed up, but hoped one wouldn’t – she was already getting attached to him, even if he was a panty thief. Plus, it was just plain nice not to be alone in a quiet house so often.

Fetching his leash from a peg beside the door, she walked him outside and into the front yard. While he took his sweet time finding the perfect blade of grass to pee on, she couldn’t help but stare at Liam’s house. They were supposed to leave in half an hour – he should be home at any minute.

Except he wasn’t. After taking Holden back inside, she waited at the kitchen table, her stomach tingling with the effects of butterflies as minute after minute ticked by. The later it got, the more nervous she became. Had he forgotten about their date?

The thought punched a hole in the optimism that’d prompted her to put on something sexy beneath her dress, but she knew better than to jump to conclusions. “Come on Holden – let’s see what’s on TV.”

She’d finally had a satellite installed, and even though she didn’t particularly feel like watching anything, it seemed like a better option than sitting at the kitchen table and staring out the window, waiting for Liam to get home.

As she’d suspected, there was nothing good on. With Holden curled beside her on the couch, she flipped through the channels, eventually settling on the news. Her boredom quickly turned to shock, and then fear, as she caught the newscaster’s words.

Liam was PERT’s team member number one. That meant that he planned the team’s actions – made calls for all six of them. Today, that meant leading them into the field that stretched behind the Riley Correctional Center. It wasn’t every day their responsibilities took them outside of prison walls. It wasn’t every day that convicts escaped custody at Riley, either.

Today was that day, as unlikely as it seemed. The prison bus had broken down a quarter of a mile outside the gates and two inmates had escaped directly off of it, strangling one officer to death with their chains and escaping the other, fleeing into the surrounding fields.

Beyond that, Liam didn’t know yet exactly how it’d happened – obviously, they’d gotten their hands on a cuff key – but all that mattered at the moment was that it had, and that it was his responsibility to stop it. So he ran, heart pumping and pulse pounding as they followed the Levinson brothers’ trail.

It figured that the escapees had to be that pair of freaks. As he covered the dry grass in long strides, Liam couldn’t help but think of the Green Swamp, of murky waters bubbling up to swallow the bodies the Levinsons hadn’t succeeded in hiding.

If the two felons would kill two police officers in an act of pre-meditated, cold-blooded murder, they wouldn’t flinch over killing a correctional officer if given half the chance. Probably not innocent civilians, either, which was exactly why every fiber of Liam’s being burnt with the urge to catch the pair of shitbags.

During every second that passed by without the Levinson brothers being apprehended, people were at risk. Not just his best friends Henry and Grey and the other officers they worked with, but people like Liam’s family, just miles away in Wilmington. And his neighbor Alicia, much closer to home.

He was missing their date as he sweated beneath his bullet-proof vest. He couldn’t stop to think about that, though. Focusing on the task at hand was priority number one.

That priority paid off when a silhouette appeared on the horizon, the shape of a man against the Carolina wilderness.

He was only visible for a second before he disappeared against the semi-distant tree line.

Liam gripped his rifle like it mattered more than anything else in the world. If it came down to it, that would actually be the case. He knew that, just like he knew he wouldn’t hesitate to do what he’d dedicated so many days off his regular shift to training for.

As he kept moving, a prickle of unease crept down the back of his neck, tempered by the heart-pounding boost of adrenaline. Where was the second escapee?

Overgrown grass rustled, parting at knee-height as he and the team raced through it. Boots that had been made for tactical emergencies like this crushed the vegetation like it was nothing, and a wild hare fled, narrowly escaping being crushed underfoot. Liam’s senses were so heightened that the burst of movement jarred them, sending his heart rate even higher, so that every time his boots hit the ground, the percussion was outpaced by a dozen heartbeats.

His efforts weren’t wasted. The silhouette on the horizon reappeared, and this time it was close enough for Liam to make out the man’s prison jumpsuit. He was still fleeing. In less than a minute, he’d reach the shelter of the forest.

Liam made the call.

The sound of rifle fire cracked through the air, shattering the near-silence of the chase.

* * * * *

Alicia had barely slept. The story of the Levinson brothers’ escape had dominated all the local news stations the night before, and she’d stayed up late watching and listening to the details of the convicts’ crimes. Both of the brothers had long criminal histories predating their murder of two police officers. A string of offences like assault, larceny and even arson had started in their teens.

The news had exposed the dark side of living on her own in the woods, and she’d feared for Liam, too. Her heart had practically leapt into her throat when she’d heard the news anchor report that Riley Correctional Center’s PERT officers had responded immediately to the incident, giving chase after the brothers had strangled a correctional officer to death, assaulted another and escaped the bus just outside the prison.

It hurt to imagine the sweet guy who’d fixed her window putting his perfect body between a pair of violent psychopaths and the general population. Every time she thought about it, her stomach ached. Even so, thoughts of Liam and the Levinson brothers hadn’t been all that’d kept her awake the night before.

“Hey, Holden.” She scratched her new best friend between the ears as she gulped down her coffee, trying to substitute caffeine for a night of lost sleep. As she sat at the kitchen table, she couldn’t help staring in the direction of the hallway.

A shiver raced down her spine, full-fledged and cold as death. Holden licked her hand, and the warmth felt alien against her clammy skin. Last night, after she’d watched all the news she could handle, she’d dragged herself off the couch and slumped toward the hall, ready for bed. Holden had raced ahead of her, happy and wagging his tail … until he’d reached the entrance to the hallway.

He’d frozen in his tracks, his body going stiff and the fur between his shoulder blades bristling in a crest. For well over a minute, he’d stayed that way, barking his little head off like a born and bred watch dog instead of the tiny terrier he was. The entire time, his gaze had remained focused on a fixed point in the hallway – a point that’d be about where a person’s head would’ve been, if there’d been anyone standing there.

But the hall had been empty.

Still, it’d been obvious that Holden had been trying to protect her. He’d behaved like a dog placing itself between its owner and a stranger – a threat. By the time he’d finally stopped barking and turned to trot back to her, looking satisfied with himself, she’d been breathing hard.

It’d taken her a few moments to work up the courage to enter the hall after that, and when she’d finally done so, she’d hurried down it and up the stairs. Holden had jumped into bed with her, and she hadn’t kicked him out even though he had a brand new doggy bed on her bedroom floor. After a night spent lying awake and pulling the covers up to her chin, she’d stumbled out of bed in a fog as soon as the sun had risen, grateful for daylight.

Truth was, she was still pretty creeped out. It didn’t help that Liam
still
wasn’t home – from her seat at the kitchen table, she stared at his empty driveway, missing her usual morning peep show.

Eventually, she forced herself to abandon her post at the table and get dressed. Work awaited, no matter how badly she wanted to simply sit and watch for Liam to appear. As a consolation, she flipped on the TV and watched the news for a couple minutes before leaving. Surely, if something had happened to Liam or any of the PERT members, the local news would be all over it.

To her disappointment, she found the anchor reporting on a record-breaking shark someone had caught off of a local pier.

Well, no news was good news, right? Any major developments in the chase would be sure to get more screen time than an oversized fish.

Sighing, she called for Holden and left with him, her heart a little heavier than usual as she headed for Wisteria.

* * * * *

 “Just because you didn’t see anyone doesn’t mean there wasn’t anyone there.” Sasha stroked Holden between the ears as she and Alicia relaxed on a bench behind Wisteria’s restaurant, halfway through their lunch breaks.

Unable to resist telling someone, Alicia had related her creepy experience from the night before. Sasha loved to talk, but she was also an enthusiastic listener.

Holden sniffed at Sasha’s plate, begging for a bite of flounder. Faye had suggested that Alicia bring him to work so that he wouldn’t have to stay home alone all day.

“Actually,” Alicia said, “I think that’s exactly what it means.” She spoke without real conviction. Though she’d seen nothing, it had
felt
like someone was there. That unsettling feeling was still with her, manifested in little shivers that struck her every time she had to turn a corner or walk a hallway alone.

Sasha took pity on Holden and sacrificed a bite of her lunch. “Before I came to work at Wisteria, I wasn’t sure what I thought about the paranormal, or whatever you want to call it. I figured there was
something
beyond this life, but ghosts?”

Sasha shrugged. “Now, though… This place has changed my mind.”

“How, exactly?” Another one of those shivers hit Alicia as she glanced to her left, toward the main house. She hadn’t forgotten the strange woman she’d seen on the lawn. “Have you seen anything?”

Sasha had certainly played up Wisteria’s ghosts during drinks and brownies with Liam and his friends, but Alicia had figured it was all part of her flirting. Now, the chef seemed more relaxed, more serious. There was no one to impress with exaggerations or third-hand stories, and Alicia found herself intensely curious about Sasha’s true beliefs.

“Seen anything?” Sasha shook her head. “No… But I’ve
felt
things. Heard things, too.”

“Like what?”

“I’ve felt chills while standing in sunlight and sweating in the August heat, out on the main house’s lawn. I’ve heard voices in the house too – voices that came from empty rooms.”

That piqued Alicia’s interest. “What were they saying?”

“I never could tell. They were always
just
too far away or too quiet for me to quite make out what was being said. But they were real – I’m sure of it. I’ve heard people moving through the hallways, too – footsteps and fabric just sort of
swishing
. Stuff like that.”

Surprise arrowed through Alicia, cold as ice water. Swishing? She knew exactly what Sasha meant, though she wished she didn’t.

“Plus…” Sasha tossed another bite of fish to Holden, who was begging shamelessly, his head lolling in her lap as he stared up at her with big puppy dog eyes. “There are so many people who come here and claim to experience something – even people who didn’t realize the place is supposed to be haunted – that I can’t just ignore that. Not on top of my own experiences, anyway.”

Alicia nodded. “Right.” The woman she’d seen on the lawn kept haunting her memory. Should she tell Sasha? She hadn’t confessed that particular incident to anyone yet.

Not even Holden.

“What do you know about the history of your house?” Sasha asked.

Alicia shrugged. “Only that it was built in the 1950’s by the same guy who built Liam’s place.”

“Well, maybe you’re sharing the space with a former resident. Not trying to creep you out, just saying… It sounds like
something’s
going on.”

“Yeah.” Alicia nodded. “I’m not sure if I wish I knew exactly what or not.”

“You want my advice? Try not to worry about it. It’s not the dead we should be looking over our shoulders for. I mean, look at that pair of creeps that escaped from Riley.”

Sasha and Alicia exchanged a sober look. They’d already discussed the escape and what it might mean for the PERT officers, and neither of them was happy about the danger facing the guys, not to mention the community as a whole.

“When you put it that way, you have a point,” Alicia conceded. “The thing is though, sometimes hearing and seeing all this stuff is enough to make me wonder whether I’m going a little crazy.”

“Seeing?” Sasha raised an eyebrow, her gaze suddenly sharp and crystal clear.

Alicia let out a breath she hadn’t even realized she’d been holding. “There’s one thing I haven’t mentioned to anybody…”

For better or for worse, she let the cat out of the bag, relating what she’d seen on the main house’s lawn.