No response again.
“Hello?”
Click.
Weird. Was there something wrong with her phone?
A figure appeared in her doorway. “Sorry about that. I’m ready.”
She looked up to see Lucas standing there. “Okay. Hey, can you call my number? I’m getting silent calls, and I just want to see if there’s something wrong on my end.”
“Sure. What’s your number?”
She rattled it off to him, and he called the number. It came through just fine.
“Huh.”
“Is it the same number that’s calling you every time?”
“No. They’re local, but they look like internet calls. You know, just a digit or two off each time. This was the second one today. Could be spam calls.” She bit her lip and stared at the phone.
“You think somebody’s prank-calling you?”
“Maybe. I know Ryker Sealy’s still pissed off at us. The only other person who would be bothering me is my ex, but neithershould have access to my number because it’s unlisted and unpublished.”
“Your ex is a cop. Could he have someone find it by hacking into the phone company or something?”
“It’s possible, I suppose. It’s a pretty juvenile tactic for the most part. Doesn’t really seem like his style. He’d be more likely to call and leave annoying messages rather than hang up.”
Or send veiled threats by email, like the ones she kept getting regarding her “deviant behavior.” She still wasn’t sure if she should ignore them or get out in front of it. She would feel better talking to Lucas about it than to Superintendent Sealy, but she was still a little hesitant, wondering how he’d react.
“But?” His question interrupted her musings.
She looked up from her phone. The look on his face was that intense scrutiny again, where it felt like he was in tune with her emotions and her thoughts, or at least the direction of them. “This morning, when I left my house, someone had pulled up all the plants in my yard. I was just wondering if either of them would be that spiteful.”
“Seems rather childish for a grown man. That’s more in line with a teen’s style. I used to think Ryker was far too mature for shit like this, but he’s changed over the last year. He might think it was a good way to piss you off, and it wouldn’t take much to find out where you lived. Has anything else been going on?”
“I got a leak in my new house that had to be repaired, and my air-conditioning went out, but both of those happened weeks ago. I barely even knew who Ryker was back then, and he would have had no reason to be pissed off at me.”
He scowled. “I don’t like the sound of that. You just bought that place, and those are two pretty big items an inspector should have found.”
“Yeah, Quint said the same thing.”
“Do you have a security system?”
“Yes, but nothing tripped last night, and I called the alarm company this morning to double-check.”
“Sounds like too many coincidences at once. You need to keep an eye on that.”
Reluctantly, she agreed. “I’m sure all of it is unrelated, but I’ll be extra vigilant. It would be stupid to ignore it.” She shut down her computer and stood. “Ready to hit papier-mâché hell?”
“Can’t wait.”
They started with the freshmen, spending an hour with a riot of students dressed in pink in a barn on the edge of town. Watching him interact with the students made the twinges of attraction to him strengthen. His smile was infectious, even among the crabbiest of kids. What really endeared her to him was that he wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty. At some point, he dumped his jacket, rolled up his sleeves, and was covered in paint and papier-mâché. He clearly didn’t care that his shirt and jeans were covered, and she thought there might even be some in his hair.
After that, they spent an hour with the juniors, and then it was time for dinner.
The Vaughn household was clearly a space created by two men as a well-loved, well-lived-in space. Two leather couches sat at right angles in front of a big-screen television. The wall space was a heaven of electronics—several video game systems and more stereo equipment than any human being should need. Watching movies here would rival going to a movie theater. Better than going to a concert, as well, since she was getting the full effect of the sound system as an indie rock playlist was pulsing through the surround sound. A quick glance through the pass-through window into the kitchen from the open-plan living and dining space showed a freshly showered Ezra, newly arrived from football practice, getting things ready for the grill.
