To Love and Protect (19 page)

"Not at first. In fact, he insisted he was away on business that night. But Marge said something like, 'No you weren't. Don't you remember how you had to go out to the store because you were craving a bag of cheese curls?'"

"He was craving something, all right," Diana observed dryly. "But it definitely wasn't cheese curls."

"Poor Marge," Shelley said, shaking her head. "She implicates her husband in a crime and doesn't even realize it."

"So when you finally found the hat, did Herb admit to everything?" Diana asked.

Matt pointed to the sofa. "Mind if I sit?" he asked, a look of concern on his face that was a foreboding sign to Shelley. He took her hand and waited for her to sit down next to him.

"Herb admitted to being the one who was watching you from the bathroom window the other night."

Shelley felt her shoulders drop with relief. "Thank God."

"But that all he admits to. He denies making any sort of threat – written or otherwise – to you. In fact, he said something about you leading him on all along with the way you'd look at him, and that's why he did what he did."
Shelley's face grew hot. “In his dreams!”

"I can't believe he's denying everything else," Diana said.

"I know," Matt admitted. "It's not the way I hoped things would go. But it gets even more convoluted."

Shelley took a deep breath and braced herself. "What do you mean?"

"While we were waiting for the search warrant, we also did a criminal background check on Herb. I really wasn't expecting to find anything, to tell you the truth. But you just never know. A lot of times a person will get into trouble in one place, then move away and leave their criminal past behind."

"Unless you go out of your way to find it on some kind of national database, right?" Diana noted.

As Shelley looked at her in surprise, she shrugged and added, "I'm a
CSI
fan.”

Matt nodded. "That's just how it works. And what we found out was that your friendly − too friendly – neighbor was found guilty of harassing a woman five years ago in New York state where the Hendersons lived before moving here."

Shelley gulped. "You're kidding. What kind of harassment? Who was the woman?"

"A neighbor that he had his eye on, according to the report. Although she didn't share his interest."

"Imagine that," Shelley said with disgust in her voice. "I wonder if the fact that he was married had anything to do with her lack of interest."

"Whatever it was, it didn't stop him from leaving notes on the woman's car and calling her at all hours, too."

"Did he do it anonymously?" Shelley asked.

"The first few notes weren't. But once the woman repeatedly rebuffed him, he started leaving notes with his handwriting disguised."

Shelley shuddered.  "Then it's him. It has to be. What are the odds that he did this to someone else, but that he's all of a sudden reformed now. Especially since we know he did sneak up in my yard to spy on me."

“And don't forget," Diana added. "He had no choice but to admit to being the peeper in question because you had undeniable evidence. He probably would've denied that, too, if you hadn't found the hat."

Shelley turned to Matt and searched his dark eyes. She saw the depth of caring that he had for her, but she also saw a quiet, unspoken concern. "I guess what I'm wondering is why you seem reluctant to believe that Herb has been responsible for the threats all along."

"He could be − in fact, everything we have points to him being the one. I guess I would just feel better if we had some more concrete evidence to tie him to the notes on your porch and on your truck."

"I understand what you're saying. But I still think it has to be him. I'm not going to spend the rest of my life hiding from a second kook who doesn't even exist."

Matt put his arm around her and squeezed her affectionately. "I don't blame you. Like I said, all the circumstantial evidence points to Herb."

"I just thought of something. Marge said something about Herb getting involved in some kind of cyber-romance thing. I bet if you check his computer files, you'd find plenty of stuff to tie him to more sleazy things."

"Sergeant Rinaldi and I kind of figured that. He's probably still over there now looking into things. But I told him I wanted to come here to let you know what was going on."

Matt called the next morning with more good news. Good for Shelley, that was, but not for Herb.

"You were right. Sergeant Rinaldi found a couple files devoted just to you on Herb's computer."

Shelley shuddered. "What exactly was in these files?"

"Mostly Herb's fantasies about you − stuff like that." He paused for a moment. "Plus a very detailed description of what you look like with nothing on but a pair of black lace panties."

Shelley tightened her grip around the phone.

"Maybe I shouldn't have said that," Matt conceded after a considerable silence had passed.

"It's not you. But you can probably imagine how it feels knowing this guy wrote stuff like that about me. Not to mention the fact that Dan was reading it."

"Believe me, if it didn't mean jeopardizing my job and getting jail time myself, I'd fix that guy real good so the only thing he'd be peeping at is my fist coming towards his face."

“You know, the truth is as much as I always felt uncomfortable around Herb, I kind of felt bad for him, too."

“Why?”

“I don’t know … he always struck me as the nerdy type and you know me and how I always feel sorry for the underdog.”

“I don’t think being a nerd made him an underdog. But unfortunately his actions made him a dog of another kind.”

Shelley nodded silently. “Still … the truth is if peeping was the extent of his crimes, I would be okay if he skipped any kind of harsh punishment and instead had to undergo counseling or something. But the anonymous threats take it to a whole new level of danger, and I wouldn’t want him to do this to someone else.”

"Well, you’re more forgiving than I am, that’s for sure. So what are your plans now? Are you moving back into your house?"
Shelley let out a whoop as though she had just finished first in a round of barrel-racing. "You betchya!"

Matt laughed. "Don't sound so disappointed. Do you need help with anything?"

"You could come by sometime tonight with my three buddies."

"Be happy to. How's eight sound? I don't expect to be finished work much before then."

"I'll be waiting − with a bag of rawhide bones."

"And what about me? Don't I get anything?"

"You can have a rawhide bone, too, if you want."

"I was thinking something softer. And sweeter." Shelley smiled and twirled a long strand of hair around her finger like a teenager in the throes of puppy love. "Oh? And what might that be?"

"Your lips."

"Mmmm . That means I get to kiss your lips, too."

There was a considerable pause. "You sure you don't want me to come over right now?"

Shelley laughed. "Believe me, it's not that I don't want you to. But I have to go into the clinic for at least a few hours this afternoon. But I'll be waiting for you tonight."

"Here's to Shelley getting her life back!" Dave announced at the clinic early that afternoon as she shared the news with her colleagues. To seal the occasion, he reached into a glass jar on the reception counter and plopped a beef-flavored doggie treat into his mouth.

"Ugh!" Shelley, Geri and Joan derided in unison. In fact, they really shouldn't have reacted at all, since Dave had a habit of taste-testing the various crunchy pet treats that came through the clinic.

"It's no different than buying beef jerky at the store," he explained, shrugging his shoulders.

Shelley couldn't argue his point.

"Have you moved back to your place yet?" Geri asked. Her coworkers were among the few people who knew Shelley had moved in with Diana, but she had nothing to hide with them. If anything, their support had helped her get through the last few weeks.

"I am tonight after work. Luckily I don't have all that much stuff at Diana's."

"You must be so relieved," Joan said. "I can't even imagine what it's like to have some weirdo leaving threatening messages for you. Sometimes I wonder what the world's coming to."

"Ah, the world's always been filled with weirdoes," Dave observed.

"That's why you fit in so well," Geri quipped.

"Have a treat," he replied, tossing a doggie nugget at her. Geri caught with a swipe of her hand and tossed it her mouth.

"Geri!" Shelley exclaimed. "That's disgusting!"

Geri waited for Dave to briefly turn his head away before showing Shelley and Joan that the treat was hidden securely in her sleeve. Shelley laughed. It felt good to just kick back and have a little fun without the weight of doomsday bearing down on her shoulders. And best of all she would soon be back home with her three dogs, two cats and a one rabbit. Not to mention one very special visitor....

"So where's this Herb guy now?" Geri asked.

"He's in jail, awaiting a bail hearing."

"That was fast," Dave said.

Shelley sighed. "Well, there’s no doubt that he was the Peeping Tom, but it’s going to be harder to tie him directly to threats that were made. There’s a lot of circumstantial evidence, but nothing one-hundred percent conclusive – at least not yet.”

"Well, at least while he's in jail, you can be sure he's not sneaking up in your backyard at night," Geri said.

"This is true – and I can’t deny that I finally feel relieved.”

It was just short of seven by the time Shelley neared her house, with Toodles and Melba in their cat carriers in the passenger seat. "We're almost there," she told them as they alternately cried and scratched on the carriers. Taking her cats for a ride was certainly not the same pleasurable experience as taking her dogs in the truck. Slowing down to pull into the driveway, Shelley caught a glimpse of light flickering on her porch.
What the...
  Her heart responded immediately to the unexpected disturbance, thumping against her chest and flooding her ears with swooshes. Perhaps she was just imagining things, Shelley thought as she strained to see down the long stretch of driveway from the side of the road where she had stopped. Still, just to be safe and not call attention to herself, she quickly switched off the truck lights. There's nothing there, she told herself after several more seconds had passed. But just as she reached over to turn the headlights back on, she saw a swatch of light cut through the darkened porch once again. This time, her heart had moved up to her throat, where it continued to pound away at full throttle. Fumbling, she reached over to the dashboard and grabbed her cell phone.

"Hello?"

"Matt!" Shelley whispered loudly, as though the porch prowler might possibly hear her from two hundred yards away.

"Hi. I can hardly hear you−"

"Matt, I'm right outside my driveway, and someone's on my porch."

"I'll be right there," he declared before the word "porch" was fully out of her mouth. "Are you in your truck?"

"Yes, but I turned the lights off. I'm on the side of the road."

"Okay, then stay there, but whatever you do, DON’T get out of the truck and go near the house."