Stalker

Chapter 1-3

Kelly arrived at the office a little after three-thirty that afternoon.

“Mission accomplished,” she told Jake once she’d gotten some coffee. “I had a sit-down with her and her parents once I’d found out why she ran in the first place. She thought they were being too tough on her with curfews and not letting her date. The usual stuff a fourteen-year-old thinks she shouldn’t have to put up with. She’s a good kid, no drug or alcohol problems. She just wanted some freedom to make her own decisions and have them trust that she wasn’t going to screw up. They’re older, she’s an only, and they admitted they were afraid for her which is why they tried to keep her in a cocoon. I think her running let them see they should ease up some or they might lose her for good.”

“Where did she end up?” Jake asked.

Kelly smiled. “She’s a smart girl. As soon as she got to KC she found an emergency youth shelter and checked in. They have counselors and she talked with one. She was already planning on calling home when I found her, so it wasn’t any problem getting her to come with me once I proved to her and the people at the shelter that I’d been sent by her folks.”

She spent the next few minutes filling out a report for the girl’s parents, attached the bill, and emailed it to them. Then she asked, “What did you do to keep out of trouble while I was gone?”

Jake rolled his eyes. “Background checks.” When she laughed, he flipped her off then added, “Yesterday I did the stakeout for the insurance company. The guy was trying to pull the usual scam, claiming whiplash and a back injury from a car accident. He might have gotten away with it, if I hadn’t followed him to a bowling alley halfway across town where he met a couple of his buddies. He didn’t play, at first, but—” he grinned, “—after a few beers he must have decided it was safe and he bowled a game when one of the guys egged him on.”

“Some people are born dumb,” Kelly said. “That’s it?”

“Nope, we have a new client, or a potential one, depending on what happens next.” Jake went on to tell he about Alan Sutton and the fact someone was stalking him, or at least following him for some reason. “I found a tracker on his car and removed it, which was what he paid me to do. I pointed out to him that the chances of catching a stalker could be slim to none unless he does something blatant. If whoever put it on his car does escalate things, once he realizes it gone, Alan will let me know and we’ll go from there.”

“Does he work doing sales or deliveries?” Kelly asked. “Sometimes companies will put trackers on their employees’ vehicles to make certain they’re not goofing off on company time.”

“Nope. He owns a jewelry store and only has one person working for him.”

“Hmm. Maybe thieves who want to know where he is so they can commit a robbery while he’s gone? It would save breaking and entering after hours when the security is on.”

“I might be willing to consider that, if he hadn’t had the feeling for a while now that someone was watching him.”

“Okay, scratch thieves” Kelly replied. “It was a long shot anyway. You said he told you he and his boyfriend didn’t have any jealous exes, so that’s out, too.”

“Presuming he’s telling the truth, and he has no reason not to. Of course he was a player before he and Alex met, so who knows if one of them was more upset than Alan thought when he broke things off, especially the guy he was with right before he hooked up with Alex.”

“Did you get names?” she asked.

Jake shook his head. “As I said, once I found the tracker he left, after promising he’d be in touch if anything else happened.”

“Men,” Kelly muttered.

“What? I did what he paid for. You know finding a stalker is virtually impossible until they do something overt.”

“Yeah, I know. Still, Jake, maybe…”

“Nope. We’ve got enough to do without adding an unpaid job like checking out his last ex to our work load.”

“I guess. Okay, I’m heading home. I was up at the crack of dawn to pick up my runaway and bring her back. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Tell your hubby I said hi, and remind him you volunteered to go to KC. I don’t want him deciding you need to find a new job.”

“Yeah, right. Since you and I are partners that’s not happening and he knows it. Besides, he’s always extra loving when I’ve been gone for a while.” She winked and took off, Jake’s laughter following her out the door.

Half an hour later, it was time to close for the day. When he’d locked up and set the security, Jake walked with Carol to their cars, which were parked in the alley behind the building.

“Drive safely,” he told her.

She snickered. “You always say that, and I always do.”

He grinned. “It doesn’t hurt to emphasize it. We’d be lost without you.”

“Flattery will get you everywhere, Jake. Or it would if I were male.”

“There is that.” He waited until she was driving away before getting into his car and heading home.

* * * *

Jake walked into his empty apartment and sighed. Of course it wasn’t really empty. It had the usual complement of furniture and what have you, but it was lacking something—to wit his ex.

He and Neal had split more than six months previously, by mutual consent. They’d tried the living together thing but all it had done was prove they weren’t really that compatible. They’d remained friends until Neal had decided to accept a job down south and moved away a month and a half ago. Jake had accepted what happened with the same composure he did everything else, but he missed Neal. Or, if he was going to be honest, he missed having someone to come home to and share things with.

Soon after Neal had moved out, Jake had begun going to bars and clubs, halfheartedly looking for someone to fill the void. Eventually he realized what he was doing wasn’t fair to the men he hooked up with for a few days, or weeks—or to himself. Now, when he went out, it was to avoid the loneliness of his apartment.

“Maybe I should get a dog,” he muttered as he went into the bedroom to change into something casual. “Or not.” He’d had that thought before and always came to the same conclusion. “It wouldn’t be fair to him, with the strange hours I keep at times.”

Wearing a favorite pair of old jeans and an equally old T-shirt, he wandered barefooted into the kitchen to see what he could fix for supper.

While he made a burger, he thought about Alan and his problem. It is a problem. The tracker proves it. He’d stuck the tracker in a desk drawer at work rather than destroying it. Instinct, he figured. Never get rid of evidence. Maybe I can find out who put it there, presuming he connects to it by his phone, and the phone’s not a burner. If it is, I’m SOL, but it’s worth checking out.

He made a mental note to do so as soon as he got to work the next morning, finished cooking his burger and, after putting it on a bun along with lettuce, tomato, and ketchup, took it into the living room. He located the book he’d been reading, which for some reason had ended up between two sofa cushions, then settled down to eat and get through a few more chapters of the thriller.

“My exciting life as a single man,” he grumbled an hour later. He considered going out, but after last evening’s foray to The Copper he decided he wasn’t in the mood to be social again. He flipped through the TV channels until he found something he could tolerate, watched it and the news, and then headed to bed.