The Vampire and the Virgin

“Let me show you the bride.” Olivia clicked on Lara’s photo.

“All right.” J.L. leaned his elbows on the partition. “I’m ready for lunch now.”

“Wow, she’s beautiful,” Yasmine whispered.

“I know,” Olivia said. “Can you believe she was a New York cop?”

“Hello?” J.L. waved at them. “Lunch?”

Yasmine ignored him. “I didn’t know you went to a wedding. Are you friends with the bride?”

“I didn’t go,” Olivia replied. “I’m just friends with the best man.”

“Just friends?” J.L. scoffed. “He’s all you ever talk about anymore. I can’t eat my lunch without getting the latest ‘Robby’ update.”

Olivia made a face at him. He’d laughed at the stories, too.

“Who’s Robby?” Yasmine asked.

“He was the best man. Here, I’ll show you.” Olivia clicked on a group photo.

Yasmine snorted. “Who’s the big guy in the skirt? And what’s that? A purse?”

Olivia stiffened. “That’s Robby.”

“He’s wearing a skirt? I’ve got to see this.” J.L. peered over Yasmine’s head at the monitor, then snickered.

Olivia glared at him. “Robby’s Scottish. That’s why he’s wearing a kilt and a sporran.”

“Where on earth did you meet a Scotsman?” Yasmine asked.

“Look, guys,” J.L. interrupted them. “I’m starving. If you want to keep drooling on those photos, I’ll bring lunch back here.”

Olivia’s glare switched to a smile. “That would be great. I’ll take a turkey sandwich.”

“Me, too,” Yasmine said.

J.L. walked away, muttering about the female fascination with weddings where poor saps got shackled for life.

“Well?” Yasmine asked. “Where did you meet the handsome Scotsman?”

“On Patmos last November.”

“A Scotsman on a Greek island?” Yasmine laughed, then abruptly turned serious. “Oh my gosh, Liv, he’s not the one who made you cry, is he?”

Olivia’s cheeks warmed with embarrassment. “That was just a misunderstanding. We’re okay now.”

“You’re dating him?”

“Sorta. We talk and e-mail every day. I wish I could go see him, but I’m out of vacation days.”

Yasmine shook her head slowly. “I had no idea you were involved with someone. How serious is it?”

Olivia bit her lip. Yasmine could be annoying sometimes with her constant curiosity about everyone’s personal affairs, but Olivia was dying to tell someone her news. “Last night Robby told me he was taking some vacation time in June so he could come for a visit. He said he had something really important to discuss with me and he needed to do it in person.”

Yasmine gasped. “Do you think he’s going to propose?”

Olivia grinned. She was so excited, she’d hardly slept at all last night. “It sounds that way, don’t you think? I mean, he wouldn’t come all this way to break up with me, would he?”

An aura of anxiety swirled around Yasmine. “Are you seriously considering this? You can’t really know him that well.”

“We’ve had lots of long talks. I can tell him anything, and he understands. He makes me laugh. I make him laugh.”

“Girl, he made you cry last December. You were hurting really bad. Maybe you should rethink this. Or at least slow down.”

Olivia shrugged. The last thing she wanted to hear was something bad about Robby. He was the sweetest, most gentle man she’d ever met.

“Here, I’ll show you the rest of the photos.” She clicked through them, and her eyes were invariably drawn to Robby whenever he appeared in a photo.

Was he really planning to propose to her? She couldn’t imagine anything else of importance that he would need to tell her.

There was, however, something important she needed to tell him. She’d meant to tell him before, but the appropriate time had never come up.

How was yer day? he would ask on the webcam.

Great. We arrested a kidnapper, and by the way, I’m a virgin. That would have been too strange.

But surely it didn’t matter if Robby was unaware of her secret. Why would any man object to it?

Two weeks later, on a Saturday afternoon, Olivia returned to her apartment after running errands. She dropped her handbag and keys on the console by the front door, then carried her bag of groceries to the kitchen.

As she passed the breakfast nook, she noticed something on the dinette table. A brown cardboard box. The logo on top was unmistakable.

Apples.

Her heart lurched up her throat. The box was in her house. Not on the front porch, left by a delivery man. In her house.

She set her tote bag of groceries on the floor and moved quietly to her bedroom. All her senses tingled high on alert. She might not be alone in the apartment. She was good at martial arts, but she’d feel a lot safer with her gun in her hand. She reached her bedside table and removed her sidearm from the top drawer.

With a quick glance, she verified that the pistol was loaded. She flipped the safety off, then quickly checked the bathroom and closet. She did a more thorough check of her bedroom, looking underneath the bed and behind the curtains. Then she checked the living room and kitchen. Empty. The box on the table wasn’t clicking like a bomb, but she wasn’t taking any chances opening it.

She examined the front door. No sign of forced entry. She called the apartment manager and asked if they’d let anyone into her apartment. No.

Someone has a key. Her heart thundered in her ears.

She called J.L. “The box was in my apartment. The bastard’s been inside my house!”

“Calm down,” he told her. “I’ll be right there.”

She hung up. Calm down? Someone could enter her apartment at will. She wasn’t safe in her own home.

Damn that Otis. How long was she supposed to put up with his stupid game? Her supervisor, Barker, had told her to leave him alone and stay away from Leavenworth. Once Otis realized she wouldn’t play his game, he’d leave her alone. But it wasn’t working. Otis was not giving up.

She was tempted to go tell him once and for all to buzz off. Of course, that was what he wanted. He wanted her to visit. He wanted to keep a connection between them.

She groaned with frustration. There had to be a way to stop this. She was ready to rip her hair out. Instead, she called Robby. Since he worked nights, his phone would be turned off during the day while he slept, but she could still leave a message.

“Robby, another box of apples came. I went out to run some errands, and when I came back, they were in my apartment! Sitting on the kitchen table. The accomplice wants me to know he can enter my house whenever he damn well pleases. And you know what? I’m not running away this time. I’ve had it! I’m staying here, and if that bastard dares to come back, I’ll—”

Beep. The allotted time for the message ran out.

She snapped the phone shut. Just stating her thoughts out loud had left her feeling stronger and more empowered. She wasn’t going to take it anymore.

A knock sounded on her door, and she immediately grabbed her gun. Get a grip. The bad guy didn’t need to knock. He either had a key or knew how to pick a lock.

“Olivia!” J.L. yelled through the door. “Are you there?”

“Yes.” She opened the door.

He slipped inside and looked quickly about. “Are you planning to shoot me?”

“No.” She set the gun down on the console. “Sorry about that.”

“Don’t apologize. I’m packing, too.”

She locked the door, then groaned. “Why do I even bother? The bastard can come in whenever he likes.”

“We’ll get a new lock put in today.” J.L. walked toward the kitchen table. “So this is it. The infamous apple box. No postage or delivery markings. You checked the rest of the apartment?”

“Yes, everything else is normal.”

“Look inside your closet or chest of drawers. He may have taken a souvenir.”

Olivia shuddered at the thought. “Okay.” Everything appeared normal in her closet. She rifled through her drawers and noted one thing missing—a pair of red lace panties. Damn, now she really felt violated.

“The scumbag swiped a pair of—” She froze at the bedroom door. J.L. was standing an arm’s length away from the cardboard box while he used a spatula from her kitchen to open it.

“Stay back,” he warned her.

So he’d purposely managed to make her leave the room while he opened the box. It was heroic of him, but not the smartest move if he actually suspected the box would explode if opened.

“There’s never been anything dangerous about the apples,” she reassured him. Still she held her breath when he flipped the box open. Nothing.

He scooped an apple out, and it bounced onto the table, then rolled off the edge to land on the floor. “Have you ever had the apples tested for drugs?”

“The first time, yes. They were normal.” She watched a second and third apple plummet to the floor. “They’re just meant to be a threat to my peace of mind. It’s a psychological game.”

“Yeah.” J.L. flipped the rest of the apples out of the box with his spatula. “But criminal behavior can escalate over time, when the creeps need a bigger thrill.”

“So far he hasn’t shown a desire to hurt me.” Olivia approached the kitchen table. “He just wants to manipulate me and keep a connection between us.”

“Because you two are destined to be together forever,” J.L. repeated what Otis had told his mother. “If he ever realizes you’re not agreeable to that plan, he’ll turn on you in a second.”

“I know.”

With the spatula, J.L. dug around in the green plastic grass that had cushioned the apples. “It seems all right, but we should still take this to Forensics and see if they can lift any prints off it. The creep obviously wanted to scare you by putting it inside your apartment, but it may have been a big mistake for him to deliver it himself.”

“I think he must be watching the apartment. He knew when I had left.”

“Good point.” J.L. tapped the spatula on the tabletop while he considered. “Let’s see if he’ll come back.”

Olivia and J.L. made a show of leaving the apartment, locking the front door, and driving off in his car. Then, a few blocks away, Olivia exited the car and J.L. proceeded to a nearby hardware store to buy a new lock.

She jogged back and hid behind a Dumpster to watch the apartment. No one approached. She sighed. It could be that the accomplice’s job was done and he’d left.

J.L. returned and installed the new lock while she finally put away the groceries she’d bought earlier. Wearing latex gloves, she returned the apples to the box and wrapped it up in a trash bag. They took it to the forensics department, then picked up a pizza on the way back. Even with the new lock, J.L. refused to leave Olivia on her own.

They sat on the love seat, eating pizza and discussing options. As the sun went down, Olivia finally decided on a course of action, but J.L. didn’t approve because it required a trip to Leavenworth to see Otis. He finally relented when she agreed to let him accompany her.