You'll Always Be Mine (9 page)

              “My vase broke,” I said simply. “I don’t know how that happened. The only way it could have fallen as if someone was in the room and we were both down here.”

              “Are you saying that someone was in your room just now?”

              I sighed. “The windows were locked. Nothing was out of place and if someone was in my house, don’t you think I would know?”

              “I guess,” she shrugged, “Explain the vase then.”

              It took me a moment to realize that there was one room in the house that I had not been in for a while. “Jeremy’s room.” I said, “We need to check Jeremy’s room!” I grabbed on to my friend and pulled her up the stairs with me and into Jeremy’s room, which was across the hall from mine. Sure enough, the cold wind blew the curtains in different directions.

              We stood there in shock. We both knew that someone had been in this house and that we were in great danger but none of us spoke.

              “Call 911,” Katie finally said.

              I nodded, reaching into my back pocket and pulling out my phone. I dialed the three numbers instantly and held the phone up to my ear.

              “911, what’s your emergency?” a woman spoke in a velvety tone.

              My voice trembled, “I think that someone was in my house.”

              “What is your location?”

              “Um, 26 Crystal Gate Terrace,” I told her.

              “Now, you said someone was in your house. Do you know this person?”

              “No,” I said frantically, “My friend and I were downstairs and I heard a noise from upstairs. I went to check it out and saw that my vase was broken and I knew it was impossible for it to break unless someone accidentally tipped it over and you’d have to be in the room to do that,” I took a deep breath, “I checked my brother’s room across the hall and saw that his windows were open.”

              There was a brief silence. “We’re sending officers to your location.”

              “Thank you so much,” I said and hung up the phone. “Katie, there could be a small chance that this person is still in the house so I suggest we can get in the car and drive around the block until the police come.”

              “Great idea,” she agreed as she followed me downstairs and out into the driveway. “Are you going to tell Sean about this?”

              “No,” I said shaking my head as I got into my car, “Sean does not need to know.”

              “I think he would want to know.”

              “He’s not going to want know something that he doesn’t know happened.” I snapped, “We’re not going to tell him. He’s just going to follow me everywhere.”

              She didn’t need much to know that I wanted to stop talking about the situation. Besides, we had a bigger problem on our hands.

              After several drives around the block, we were greeted outside of my house by two police officers. One was noticeably older than the other but they seemed like good friends, partners even. “Hello officers.”

              “It’s a good thing you got out of the house,” the older one with a five o’clock shadow forming into a beard, said. “That was a smart move on your part.”

              “I watch a lot of criminal shows,” I told him as I stepped outside of the car with Katie meeting up with me on the other side.

              “I’m Terry,” the old one said, holding out his hand, “And this is my partner Lou.”

              Lou looked obviously younger with a clean cut face and shaggy brown hair that sat like a tousled mess on top of his head. Although he was young, he was professional and it seemed that he took his job very seriously.

              “Nice to meet you.” I greeted.

             
“Now what’s the problem here?” Terry questioned, flipping out a notepad. “Normally I would take this inside but because of the circumstances, outside will have to do.”

I exchanged a look with Katie before I took a deep breath and told them everything I knew. It started with my brother leaving for his business trip. I even told him about the flowers and notes I have been receiving and ended with the most current event of a possible break in.

             
The partners wrote rapidly on their notepads and turned to discuss their findings with each other. I turned to Katie and flashed her a nervous smile. “Are you okay?” I asked her.

              She smiled, “I want you to know that while you were talking, I was fantasizing about Lou.”

              I grimaced, “Katie!” I whisper-yelled, “He’s a cop.”
 

             
“So?”

              “And he’s much older.”

              “He’s not that much older.” she scoffed, “And there’s nothing wrong with fantasizing about someone.”

              “Ladies,” Terry said, interrupting our conversation. “We’re going to have to take a look at that note you were given.”
 

             
“It’s in the house.”

              “Where, exactly?”

              “On the couch as soon as you enter.”

              He patted Lou on the back. “Stay here with them. I’ll retrieve the note.” And with that, he turned and jogged towards my front door.

              Lou flashed us a smile, exposing his incredibly white teeth. “So are you two in high school?”

              “Yeah,” I said.

              “College,” Katie interrupted. “I’m in college.”
 

             
Lou nodded, impressed. “What are you majoring in?”

              “English,” she lied, “I’m an aspiring writer.”

              “Ah,” he nodded, “Maybe if you get published, I’ll buy a copy of one of your books.”

I rolled my eyes at how a cop could not tell that Katie was lying. She was honestly one of the worst liars in the world.

             
“How about you?” I asked, “You look pretty young.”

              “I graduated from U of A about three years ago,” he explained. “I was always interested in justice and crime.” He shot Katie a quick look, one that said ‘I’m totally interested in you’.

              “I think detectives are super hot,” Katie said.

              I slapped my forehead with my palm and shook my head in disbelief. Katie was actually flirting with a cop while we were in a major situation here.

              Terry came back with the small piece of paper in his hand as well as something else. He held it by his fingers and jiggled it in front of my face. “Recognize this?”

              “Yeah, that’s the spare key.”

              “That’s your problem,” he said, “This spare key was underneath the welcome mat, which is a much too common place to put a spare key. Whoever was in the house probably used this key to get in the house.”

              “I was in the house the whole day and that key only unlocks the front door. I would have known if somebody came in.”

              Terry shrugged, “The suspect might have been in your house for days or they could have snuck in when you weren’t paying attention. Most likely, it is a house robber. We’re going to need you to go back inside to check if any of your belongings are missing.”

              “I don’t have anything of value,” I explained, “There’s nothing in our house worth stealing.”

              “You’ll be surprised.”

              “Well, what about the note?” I questioned, pointing down to the piece of paper in his hand.

              He glanced down at the note, “Yes the thought of a stalker has occurred to me, however, it’s not enough evidence to know for sure. This could be a person who has a crush on you or something. Someone who sends you love notes and flowers will not try to break into your house.”

              “I don’t think they were trying to break into my house,” I said, “You read the letter, right? The person knows everything about me and well the vase that broke was in my room so it could have been possible that the same person was in my room trying to get more information about me.”

              Terry grew silent. He exchanged worried looks with Lou.

              “What?” I asked, “What’s going on? Why are you guys looking at each other like that?”

              “Liza,” Lou spoke, “Are you familiar with the case of Ellen McHannon? She was murdered in her home and her parents were drowned?”

              “Yeah,” I said, eyeing them both uneasily, “What about it?”

              “This might be the same guy,” he continued, “The parents, before they died, told us that she had received several notes and flowers before she was kidnapped.”

              “No,” I shook my head, laughing. “No, I’m not being stalked by that murderer!”

              Katie clutched onto my arm, forcing me to stop laughing. “Liz, you need to take this seriously. There’s a chance that--”

              “No!” I yelled, yanking my arm away from her grip. “I am not being stalked by a murderer and I’m not going to be kidnapped and I’m not going to end up like Ellen McHannon!”

              “You won’t.” Terry reassured me, “We’ve caught it early so we can send other officers to watch over your house and follow you to school.”

              “Are you crazy?” I asked, raising my voice. “You’ve got it all wrong!”

              “Liza,”

              I could feel the tears forming in my eyes. I knew that this could very well be the case, but I didn’t want to believe it. Before I knew it, tears were streaming down my cheeks. I wrapped my arms around Katie and buried my face on her shoulder.

              “It’s okay, Liz,” she comforted me, “We’re going to make it through this together. Nothing is going to happen to you. We’re not going to let that happen, right?”

              “Right,” Lou stepped in, rubbing the small of my back. “Like we said, we’ll get some people to protect you at all times until we’re able to get a trace on this guy. Right now, we need to go back to the station and put this on file.”

              “No!” I yelled, “You can’t leave me.”

              “Liza,” Terry said calmly, “You’re going to be safe. We’re going to catch this guy and he’s not going to hurt anyone anymore.” He fished in his pocket for a small business card and handed it to me. “This is my number. If you feel anything suspicious, call me.”

              I nodded reluctantly.

              “And if you get anymore flowers or letters, call me. We can try to get a fingerprint sample to try and ID this guy.” he informed me, “We’re not going to let you get hurt. It’s now our job to protect you with our life.”

              “Okay,” I whimpered.

              Terry walked over to his car but stopped midway, turning around to face us. “Lou, are you coming?”

              “Yeah,” he called out. He turned to me and smiled. “I suggest you call your brother and tell him everything that’s happened so he can come back immediately. We’re going to protect you but it’ll be better to know that someone will be in the house with you.”

              “Thanks,”

              “No problem,” he dismissed before turning on his heel and meeting his partner at the car. Katie and I watched as they drove away until their car was no longer visible, and stared at each other in shock. “What do we do now?”

              “Want to come over to my house?”

              “I’d love that,”

CHAPTER TWELVE - LIZA 

              The daylight hours seemed to be taking a toll on me. All things considered, I don’t miss the hustle and mania taking place outside but inside the confines of my room I was making an effort to maintain an air of calmness. Even though, I was anything but calm.

              It had been a week since I was on lockdown inside my house. Since then, I had not received any strange notes, flowers, or anything out of the ordinary. The cops have my street pretty much surrounded and they even have two guards who stand in front of my front door.

              These men were very serious about their job but I couldn’t help but feel sorry that they had to stand outside of my house all day and night because of something that I think is going to happen.

              I stepped outside with a plate full of pancakes in hand. I hadn’t expected them to comply to my generous offer but it was the thought that counts, right? “Um, I made you guys some breakfast. I wasn’t sure if you were hungry or not.”

              The man on my left turned his head slightly and stared down at the pancakes in disgust. He barely laughed before he returned to his original position. “Don’t worry about us, honey. We’ve got it covered.”

              “Oh okay,” I said not knowing what else to say at that point, not having had thought any further than speaking on a whim. “Hey, do you think I can talk to one of the detectives down there?”

              The guard on the right exchanged glances with his companion and nodded slowly.

              “Thanks,” I said before I pushed past them and walked down the steps of my porch to the police car that was parked in my driveway.

              As I approached the driver’s seat, Lou rolled down his window and flashed a toothy grin. “What can I help you with, darling?”

              “Pancake?” I asked, raising the plate of pancakes up so that he could see them. “It took me quite a while, I’ll be very disappointed if you don’t eat them.” I put on my best puppy dog face.

              Lou laughed, “Give ‘em here.” He reached his hands outside of the window and carefully took the plate of pancakes from me. “Thanks.”

              “No problem,” I smiled. “I actually came here to ask you something.”

              Lou smiled, “What is it?”

              “Well,” I glanced at the two guards in front of my door then returned my attention back to Lou. “It’s been a week and we haven’t heard anything from this ‘stalker’, so maybe, I can go back to school, now? My friends are probably worried sick.”
 

             
Lou seemed taken aback, “Okay.” He stared down at the file folder that was sitting in his lap. “If you go back to school, you do know that we’ll have limited protection for you.”

              “I’m aware,” I said, “But I’ll be in a public place it’s unlikely that anything will happen there. I’ll still come home and be guarded by Thing 1 and Thing 2 over there,”

              Lou laughed, “A sense of humor. I like it.”

              “I try,” I said, flicking strands of stray hair off my shoulder, “So what do you say?”

              “I say why not?” he asked, a smile slowly etching on his face. He turned his key in the ignition and looked up at me. “Get in, I’ll take you there.”

              “Thanks so much!” I squealed, running over to the passenger side of the car and getting in. “You’re a life saver.”

              The car ride on the way to school was quiet for the most part. There was nothing much to talk about, other than my stalker, which wouldn’t put anyone in a good mood. In a way, the silence was better.

              When we pulled up the front of the school, Lou looked over to me with a warm smile. “We’re here,”
 

             
I smiled back at him. “Thanks for letting me have some freedom, I appreciate it.”

              “No problem,” he replied, “I don’t know who this guy is or if he poses a threat or not, but I will find him and you will no longer be harassed by him. I’ll do anything in my power to make sure nothing happens to you.”
 

             
“Thanks,”
 

             
“Now go learn,” he laughed, gesturing towards the front of the school. “And come straight home when school is over.”

              “Okay, dad,” I joked as I closed the door behind of me and walked up the steps to the place that I’m surprised I missed the most.

▪▪▪▪▪

              “You’re kidding, right?”

              I shook my head as I took a sip of my Diet Cola. “I’m not kidding, I have the FBI in my back pocket.”

              “And Lou?”

              “Yes,” I smiled eerily at Katie, “Lou is there too,”

              Katie sighed, “That guy is way too dreamy for his own good. You should set me up with him, you know, since he’s with you 24/7 now.”