You’d do well to heed my Wise and Loyal council,
A Vigilant Resident
I handed the phone back,feeling the blood drain from my limbs as my poor heart hammered against my chest. “This is more than bad. It’s super bad,” I croaked, my voice barely above a whisper. “Nuclear bad.”
“Bruh.” Ari, who had been standing nearby and apparently speed-reading over my shoulder, took the phone for a closer inspection. “That’s so wack. Total trash. Is this person for real?”
“Say it louder for the people in the back,” Mason said as he stood beside her. “It’s?—”
Ezra’s brow furrowed. “Real enough to write a letter and deliver it to the paper. It’s a total dumpster fire.”
I couldn’t decipher from the letter whether the writer harbored genuine hatred towards me or if they were simply aiming to incite public outrage. Perhaps it was both. Regardless, if this went public, my reputation, as Ari had pointed out earlier, would be shredded.
“The chief is keeping the mayor away from this for now, but if it goes public, he’ll have to do something to save his job,” Ezra added.
“I get it,” I said, feeling the weight of the situation settling in. As much as I wished Shawn could support me, he had two kids in college and hospital bills from Leila’s treatments. Losing his job now would be devastating.
I heard my phone ringing from the bedroom, and I seized the opportunity to escape the living room and the offending letter. Glancing at the caller ID, I saw it was Pippa, so I answered immediately.
“Hello, good morning,” I said, attempting to sound composed despite feeling anything but. “What’s up?”
“I hate to call because I know you have a lot on your plate, but someone broke a back window at the shop,” she said.
“How?” I asked, my mind racing.
“A good old-fashioned brick,” she replied.
My stomach burned, and I worried I was developing an ulcer. “How come the security company didn’t notify us?”
“I don’t know. Our alarm is wireless, so there was no power to cut, but it’s been smashed to pieces.”
Ezra entered the bedroom, concern etched on his face. “Did something happen?”
“Someone broke a window at the shop with a brick, and then they demolished our security system,” I explained.
“A smash and crash,” Ezra remarked grimly.
I shook my head in disbelief. “Tell me more.” I put Pippa on speaker. “I have Ezra here. He’s calling this a smash and crash.”
“That’s where thieves will break into a place and smash the alarm before it can be triggered. Usually, there’s a ten to fifteen-second delay to give owners time to turn off the alarm before the security company is alerted. A lot of security systems bank on burglars being too stupid to figure it out.”
“Son-of-a-birch tree,” Pippa grumbled.
“Did anything get stolen?” I asked, anxiety gnawing at me.
“Not that I can see, but you have a lot of stock in the back, and I can’t tell if any is missing or not. I took the money home with me yesterday. After the craziness in the street, I didn’t want to risk leaving it in the shop over the weekend.”
“Good idea,” I reassured her. “I’ll be down in a little bit to check things out.”
Ezra shook his head emphatically, his worry mirroring mine. It wasn’t going to stop me from going, though.
“I called the police,” Pippa informed us. “I figured we should make a report.”
“Sounds good. See you soon.” I ended the call and turned to Ezra. “Is this the work of our guy or some disgruntled citizen who doesn’t like having a nosy psychic in their town?”
“If it is the guy, I’m sure he left you some kind of clue,” Ezra said, wrapping his arms around me tightly. “Whatever it is, we’ll find it out together.”
ChapterThirteen
