“He doesn’t believe me. He thinks I faked the tape somehow. He wouldn’t give a damn about his pension if he thought I was telling the truth.”
“It ain’t the easiest story to swallow.”
“I know.” Sarah looked down at her feet, then over her shoulder at the sliding-glass door with the security bar on it.
“I’ll need somewhere to camp out here while we wait for him to make his move.”
“You can sleep on the couch. How long do you think this will take?”
“I’d love it if he made his move tonight but I’d be surprised. He’ll probably try to wait a few days to see if things calm down but eventually he’ll do it again. He’s obsessed. He can’t help himself. Unless he starts fixating on someone else.”
Sarah looked at Detective Harry Malcovich without responding. There was something about the man that made him appear wise and worldly in a tragic sort of way. He was like a vagabond uncle who had been backpacking around the world since the sixties and only dropped in once in a while in between trips to Egypt or Tibet. Everything he said seemed to hold some deeper meaning that he was keeping to himself but hoping she would figure out on her own. Sarah didn’t know what to say about Dale going after some other woman. She knew she would feel guilty. She would blame herself for not stopping him but she’d also be relieved that her own personal ordeal was over. But Sarah doubted that she’d ever be able to relax knowing he was still out there somewhere and the idea of him getting away with raping her angered her. She wanted him to pay. She wanted to kill him for it.
“So then how many days are you thinking, Detective?”
“Three days. A week at the most.”
Sarah thought about living with a relative stranger for a week and sincerely hoped that it would not take that long. She didn’t like the idea of having a strange man wandering around the house, even if he was a cop. She could see the same uncertainty on Josh’s face but knew he wouldn’t say anything. Josh hated verbal confrontations. If it wasn’t a disagreement he could settle with his fists he tended to ignore it.
“I’m going to go move my car a few blocks away. I’ll come back through the back door so your neighbor doesn’t know I’m here. Just don’t shoot me when you see me hopping your fence.”
Sarah nodded. Josh smirked.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “We’ll hold our fire.”
Sarah and Josh walked the detective to the front door and saw him out, locking the door behind him.
“So, what do you think of our new houseguest? He just sort of invited himself, didn’t he?” Sarah said.
“Well. I guess it’s a better plan than taking NoDoz.”
“Well, it’s almost four in the morning now. He’ll be leaving soon anyway. Then I can finally rest and then get that run in that I’ve been wanting to do since we left for the hotel. So much for my thirty miles a week. Maybe I’ll get so fat that fucker across the street will lose interest.”
“You’d still be gorgeous even with thirty or forty extra pounds on you. It would give you some breakneck curves. Just more to love.”
“What about sixty pounds?”
“Now, don’t push it. I don’t even keep that much meat in the freezer.”
“You’re a big, strong guy. You shouldn’t mind lifting a little weight. Might save you a trip to the gym.”
Sarah was trying her best to lighten the mood the way she normally did but today it felt strained and false. She wasn’t in any mood to laugh and hearing the sound of her own forced laughter only made her feel more miserable. She fell silent and just stared ahead at the empty wall, waiting for the detective to return.
“You think we should call Detective Lassiter? You know, just to check this guy out. Make sure he is who he says he is and isn’t some sort of rogue cop?”
“Couldn’t hurt. I’ve still got her on speed dial. Hand me my phone before he comes back. I’ll call her.”
Sarah took her phone from Josh and dialed eleven. The phone rang three times and then Detective Trina Lassiter answered, sounding groggy and mildly annoyed.
“Hullo?”
“Detective? I’m so sorry to wake you.”
“That’s okay.”
“I just wanted to ask you a few questions about Detective Malcovich. Is he okay? I mean, is he…”
“Harry? He’s harmless. I know he’s a bit unconventional with that whole Columbo act of his and he can be a bit of a know-it-all and that will get on your damn nerves, but that’s it.”
“It just seems a bit weird that he shows up at our doorstep in the middle of the night and practically moves in.”
“Yeah, he has a tendency to get a bit obsessed with a case. He has one of the best closure rates in the department though. He may not always get his man but he gets more than most.”
“Okay.”
“Look. My shift begins at eight. I’ll stop by your house and check on you. Harry wants to talk to me some more about your case anyway.”
“Yeah, he said that my situation reminds him of another case he had a few years ago. He thinks they might be related.”
“Really? He didn’t mention it to me.”
“Oh, shit!”
“What?”
Sarah heard a noise in the backyard and she and Josh both rushed into the kitchen to retrieve their weapons. Sarah reached her Sig Sauer first and already had it cocked when Harry knocked on the sliding door.
“What happened? What’s going on? Are you okay? Sarah?” Detective Lassiter asked.
“It’s just Harry. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Okay. Good night. Everything will be fine.”
Sarah hung up the phone and put it in her pocket; then she uncocked her weapon and opened the door for the detective.
“Sorry about the noise. Your back fence was a little higher than I thought. I fell on my ass trying to climb it. I think I might have smashed one of your sage bushes.”
“That’s okay. Come on in.”
Harry dusted himself off and stepped into the kitchen.
“So, I guess we’d better all get some sleep. There’s no way he’s going to come in with all these lights on.”
“I wish it was that simple. He doesn’t seem to care if the lights are on or not. He doesn’t care if it’s day or night. The only thing that seems to matter to him is that we’re sleeping. He won’t attack while we’re awake.”
“But how does he know you’re sleeping if all the lights are on?”
“That’s what we’ve been trying to figure out. We think he might be sneaking into the house when we’re not at home and waiting until we fall asleep. Either that or he’s got some kind of monitoring device set up in here somewhere.”
“You mean like a camera or a listening device?”
“I don’t know. But he always seems to know when we’re sleeping.”
“We checked the whole house tonight to see if he was hiding in here somewhere,” Josh said.
“That would be pretty ballsy of him,” Detective Malcovich said.
“He’s doing it somehow.”
“Maybe he’s psychic? We are saying that he can bring people back from the dead, right? Precognition wouldn’t be too much of a stretch from that,” Sarah said.
“Or maybe he’s got some kind of a connection with you both now? Maybe he’s psychically linked to you somehow now that he’s resurrected you both?”
“I’m sure there’s probably something a little less supernatural at work than that,” Josh said.
“I don’t think we can rule anything out right now. What we’re dealing with here is something completely extraordinary.”
“Maybe. I’m too tired to think about it right now. I’m going to bed. Good night, Detective.”
“Just call me Harry.”
“Okay, Harry. Good night.” Sarah turned and walked upstairs. She heard Josh downstairs saying good night to
