Jane laughed. “Sure, you can take surveillance photos of walls and sidewalks. We’ll put those evil bastards behind bars where they belong.”
“I knew they were out to get me!” Addison said, laughing. “They trip me all the time and jump out and run into me. It’s practically assault when you think about it.”
“Assault with a deadly sidewalk. Hmm, I really think you have a case,” Jane agreed.
“Speaking of cases…” Addison leaned forward, eager to discuss any leads Jane might’ve come up with on her stalker.
“Yes,” Jane shuffled some papers on her desk. “Alright, I’ve compiled a list of suspects from your list of acquaintances in the order of most likely to least likely given opportunity and pathology. I’ve already crossed a few of them off the list after a little investigation, but we’ll go over them so we can set your mind at ease.”
“Thank you, that sounds good to me,” Addison said with a smile, leaning closer to Jane’s desk.
“Don’t thank me yet. Victims get notoriously upset once an investigator starts pointing fingers at their friends and family,” Jane said matter-of-factly.
Addison bit her lip and nodded. “I understand. I’ll try to be professional as possible.”
“First, your parents,” Jane said bluntly.
“But I said…” Addison immediately tried to argue, sitting up straight.
“I know what you said, Addison,” Jane cut her off, “but you paid me to be thorough, which means looking into absolutely everyone. You have abuse and trauma in your past. I would be negligent if I overlooked your parents in my search for your stalker. As it turns out, you were correct, it can’t be them or anyone else in your family. I’ve eliminated all of them as suspects.”
“You have?” Addison said quietly.
“Your parents were both on a cruise the day you were attacked in that alley. All of the calls you’ve received have come from a burner cell, which can be used by anyone, but the calls all originated within this city. I confirmed that your parents were 300 miles away during the majority of the calls. I’m comfortable in saying that neither of them can be your stalker.”
Addison nodded. She’d been positive neither June or Richard Sterling was stalking her, but somehow the confirmation brought up some feelings she didn’t really know how to sort out. She sensed Jane wanted to tell her something else, but was hesitating. “What is it?” she asked.
“It doesn’t really pertain to the case. Just some information I stumbled across while investigating your parents. It’s up to you if you want to hear.”
Addison thought about it for a moment. She hadn’t spent much time thinking about her parents. She cut ties with them in her early twenties, after realizing that nothing she could do was ever going to be good enough for them. She nodded. “Go ahead.”
“I’m not sure if you know, or have given it any real thought, but as their only child you are still in their will. They never changed it to disinherit you, despite your current estrangement. And your parents are quite wealthy,” Jane said quietly.
Honestly, Addison hadn’t really thought about it. As a young woman she hadn’t cared about much beyond wanting her freedom. She thought about it for a moment. Nope, she still didn't care. She shrugged and asked, “Anything else?”
“Yes, this part less savoury,” Jane said, her voice hardening. “They have you investigated periodically. An investigator looks into your bank and credit accounts, your living situation, your romantic situation, your job, basically everything in your life.”
Addison gasped and frowned. “How often?”
“Once a year,” she answered.
Anger flooded Addison, then fear as a thought occurred to her. “Could this investigator be stalking me?”
“No,” Jane said definitively. “Once I uncovered him, I had a conversation with him. He’s actually not a bad guy. A retired cop. Apparently he got pretty attached to you over the years and enjoyed watching you succeed despite your asshole parents. Took some pleasure in watching you go from nothing to First Chair in one of America’s leading orchestras. He has every one of your performance recordings in his office. Which I admit, at first, made me look at him real hard as your stalker, but after our chat I realized he was more along the lines of a proud papa. Trust me, he has your best interests at heart, he gives your parents only the bare bones of what they need to know and keeps everything else to himself.”
Addison didn’t know how to feel. Her parents refused to acknowledge her existence, other than to have a total stranger check up on her once a year to make sure she wasn’t tarnishing the Sterling name. Yet that total stranger listened to her music fondly and watched over her. Like a guardian angel or something. She really didn't know how to take that.
“Maybe… I should meet him some day,” Addison said.
“Maybe,” Jane agreed. “He’d probably like that. Okay, moving along. Graham Weston.”
“Ouch,” Addison said with a laugh. “Messy break up. You think he could be my stalker?”
“He was near the top of my list. You stomped the shit out of that dude’s heart fourteen months ago,” Jane said, flipping through a file. “Wow, he was hot. How do you manage to find guys that fine when you can’t even see? Totally not fair.”
Addison shrugged and grinned wickedly. “I have friend’s that can see. Yeah, he was pretty clingy and though he might’ve been pretty for others to look at, he did nothing for me. He was pretty mediocre in bed and he kept insisting on singing to me.”
Jane made a very unprofessional gagging sound.
