“No problem,” Dec said.
“So what are you up to? What’s going on with that case Trevor Ross gave you?”
“Which one? Eden Ross or Dr. Devine?”
“Both,” Ian said.
“Eden Ross finally contacted her father and she’s all right. And my job with Dr. Devine is done. She had a stalker problem, but the Providence P.D. arrested the guy earlier this week. He confessed.”
Ian stretched his legs out in front of himself and clasped his hands behind his head. “Sounds like you haven’t had any problems staying celibate.”
“Have you?” Dec asked.
Ian shook his head. “No problems. I mean, I have to tell you, it’s tough. The more you try to keep from thinking about women, the more it seems to happen. But, when I’m feeling it, I just-relieve the pressure.”
“That’s important,” Dec said. “In fact, I just heard that it’s really medically necessary for a guy to do it every week or so. Did you know that?”
Ian gave him an odd look. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Masturbation,” Dec said.
“Well, don’t talk about that! I don’t wanna hear it. You’re supposed to be thinking pure thoughts if you have any hope in hell of making it through this.”
“Jaysus, Ian, sometimes you can be such a wanker.”
Ian stood. “Come on. I’ve got an hour to kill. I know a great pub just a few blocks from here. McSorley’s. I’ll buy you a pint. You know, we were supposed to get together every week and discuss this whole experience. I haven’t heard one word from either you or Marky. Seems we’re all pretty busy.”
Dec nodded. “Maybe we should make plans,” he offered, hoping that the idea would go nowhere.
“Yeah,” Ian said. “I’ll get back to you on that.”
They walked out of the office together, but when they got to the receptionist desk, Celine called out to Dec. “Declan, I have Rachel Merrill on line two. She says it’s important. Very important. She sounds a bit upset.”
“Who is Rachel Merrill?” Ian asked.
“A client. Let me just go back and get this call. I’ll meet you at McSorley’s in a few minutes.” Dec hurried back down the hall to his office and picked up the phone, punching in the button for line two.
“Rachel? Hi, it’s Dec. What’s up?”
“You have to help me.” Her voice was barely above a whisper.
“What’s wrong? Where are you?”
“I’m at home. Yesterday, someone keyed my car at the university. And then, today, I got home from lunch with Daniel Ellsworth to find my car covered in red paint.” She drew a shaky breath. “The car was in my garage at my house. They just walked into the garage and threw paint everywhere.” He heard a sob over the phone. “I’m scared, Dec. Should I call the police?”
“Are you in the house right now?”
“Yes.”
“Can you turn on the security system?”
“It’s not finished,” she said. “They’re waiting for some part that was missing.”
Dec cursed, then raked his hand through his hair. “All right. It’ll take me a few minutes to get there. Hang up and I’m going to call you back on my cell phone. I want you to stay on the line until I get to you.” He grabbed his phone out of his pocket, then noticed the two missed messages from Rachel. He’d turned the phone off in a meeting earlier that afternoon and had forgotten to turn it back on. How long had she been locked inside her house, terrified?
“All right. Hang up now. I’ll call you back just as soon as I get to my car,” he said.
Dec headed back out to the lobby. He stopped at Celine’s desk and asked her to call McSorley’s and make his apologies to Ian. Then he shoved the glass doors open and headed to the elevator. As he was driving out of the parking ramp, he punched in the number for Rachel’s home phone, then hit “send” the moment he got out on to the street.
She picked up the phone after the first ring. “Hi,” she said.
“Tell me exactly what happened,” he demanded.
“I told you. I just came home, opened the garage and saw my car. It was covered in clear red paint. It-it looks like blood. And there are words written on the back window.” She took a ragged breath. “Die Bitch. Did they let him out of jail? Why would Jerry do this? They must be watching him, aren’t they?”
“Rachel, Jerry is still in jail. He didn’t have enough money to post bail.”
“What does this mean?” she asked.
“I don’t think Jerry Abler is the guy.”
The other end of the line went silent. “Please hurry.”
“I’ll be there in just a few minutes,” Dec said. “I want you to go upstairs and pack a bag. Keep talking to me, all right?”
Fifteen minutes later, Dec pulled into the driveway of Rachel’s house and hopped out of the car. She met him at the back door, throwing her arms around his neck and holding on for dear life. “Come on, come on,” he murmured, running his fingers through her hair. “It’ll be all right. I’m here now. You’re safe.”
“I thought this was over,” she said, trembling. “You said it was over.”
“I thought it was. But we’ll figure this out, I promise.” He glanced around her kitchen. “Where’s your bag?”
She pointed to her suitcase, sitting in the hallway to the foyer. “He must be watching me,” she said. “He knows I’m back home. He’s been at the university and at the station. He’s everywhere now. He knows everything about me.”
Dec crossed the kitchen and grabbed the bag, then took her hand. “Baby, he probably has known for a while. He’s just getting bolder. You were out of town, he couldn’t see you and he got mad. He wants you to know that you can’t get away from him.” Dec kissed her forehead. There was no way to reassure her, at least not until he got her out of this house and someplace where she’d feel safe. “Come on, let’s go.”
“Are we going back to Maine?”
“No, we’re going to my place.”
She nodded, pasting a tight smile on her face. “Your place. I’ll be safe there.”
Dec stepped outside and checked to make sure there was no one around, then led Rachel to his car. He tossed her bag into the backseat, then ran around to the driver’s side and hopped in. As they pulled out of the driveway, he stared in the rearview mirror, watching for any traffic behind them. Then he grabbed up his phone and called the office. Celine picked up.
“Hey, it’s Dec. I want you to get a hold of Davis and tell him I want that security system at the Merrill residence up and running by sunset tonight. I don’t care if he has to charter a damn jet to go pick up the part, I want it done. Or his ass will be providing security for charity events in Antarctica.”
He flipped the phone shut and shoved it back into his pants’ pocket then glanced over at Rachel. She looked so vulnerable, her hands clutched in front of her, her face pale. He cursed himself for his part in all this. He should have suspected the arrest had come all to easily. Even Rachel hadn’t believed they arrested the right guy.
“When we get back to my place, I’ll make you some dinner and then you can curl up on the sofa and watch a movie.” He forced a smile. “I have a big-screen television.”
A tiny smile curved the corners of her mouth. “What is it with guys and their televisions?”
“I don’t know. You tell me,” Dec said, trying to draw her into a conversation. “I’m sure it’s something sexual. Maybe instead of whipping out our dicks and measuring them, we just buy a big-screen TV instead. By the way, mine is fifty inches.” He paused. “It’s a plasma screen.”
Rachel giggled at the joke and Dec reached across the back of her seat and furrowed his fingers into the hair at her nape, gently turning her toward him. “I’m going to like having you around again.”
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you put that paint on my car, just so you could break the four-day rule.” She drew a shaky breath. “But I know better.”
“Yeah, you do.”
“Yesterday, I came out to the parking lot at the university to find that my car had been keyed. Scratched up one side and down the other. A really deep gouge.”
