“Was that…? Do you know…?” He stumbled on the question.
“Was that the only time he fucked around on me?” Bree finished.
“Yeah.”
Bree took a deep breath and let it out. “Honestly, I had my suspicions. Especially about Jaelynn. She’d always come over asking if Chad could help her with something around the house when her husband was out of town. Or, she’d invite us over for lunch or drinks when I had something going on, and Chad would go by himself. I asked him about it a couple times and he always brushed it off. Said she and her husband were having problems and she just needed a sympathetic ear. It seemed kind of sudden when they moved away.”
“Have you heard from your ex lately?” Tim asked.
“He’s been texting me several times a day, but I’ve just been deleting them.”
“Do you have your phone handy? Can you see if he’s tried to contact you in the last few hours?”
Bree shrugged. “Sure, it’s upstairs. I’ll go get it.” She placed her hand on Jase’s arm as she moved out of his hold. Polly followed her, keeping close to Bree’s side as she made her way around the corner.
“How serious is this?” Jase asked in a low voice.
“We aren’t sure,” Tim said.
“What do you mean, you aren’t sure?” Jase’s voice rose.
Tim glanced toward the hall leading to the stairs. “The note was found beside the body. She had been stabbed several times. She had rope marks on her wrists and, best we can tell, she had been tied to a rocking chair in her living room.”
“What’s the threat to Bree?” Jase asked, cutting to the chase.
“Man, I wish I could tell you she wasn’t in danger, but we really don’t know. We don’t know who did this or why. We’re pretty sure it’s not the ex, but we also don’t know why the letter was addressed to Bree. We’ve got the department shrink looking at it to get his take on it.”
Jase wanted to ask more questions but stopped when he heard Polly’s claws clicking on the wood as she followed Bree down the stairs. Thank fuck, she had put on some shorts.
Her phone pinged incessantly in her hand.
“I had it turned off, so all the text messages are coming in all at once,” she explained.
“How many do you have so far?” Jase asked.
“Far as I can tell, I have three from Denise, two from a couple of out-of-town friends, and eighteen so far from Chad.” She pursed her lips in annoyance as she waited for her phone to stop pinging.
“What do they say?” Jase crossed his arms and leaned his hips back against the counter.
“Same thing they’ve said for the last week. ‘I miss you.’ ‘I messed up.’ ‘Give us another chance.’ Blah, blah, blah.” Her phone stopped pinging.
“You haven’t responded back at all?” Tim asked.
“No. You’d think he’d have gotten the hint by now. I really don’t want to have to change my number. I’ve had it for almost ten years.”
“When was the last time he texted you or tried to call?” Tim asked.
Bree scrolled through the display. “Um, this morning around—”ping“—right now.” She glanced up from her phone at Tim. “Do you want me to call him?”
“Yeah, if you don’t mind. See where he is.”
Bree hit the button on her phone to call Chad and switched to speaker phone so Tim and Jase could hear. It rang once before Chad answered. “Bree, sweetie, I’m so sorry.”
Bree cut him off. “What do you want, Chad?”
“I just want to see you. If I can just explain, I know we can work this out.”
Bree rolled her eyes and hit the mute button on her phone. “Do you want me to agree to meet him?” she asked Tim.
