Hearing her talk about this douchebag pissed me off, but I was still confused.“So then why would you think he was here?”
“I told you I blocked his number, but every time I do, he gets a new number, and then the calls start up again.Gran and your sister think I should get a restraining order against him.”
“Wait.Abey knows about this guy?”
“Yeah.I called her the last time things escalated with Cody.He showed up here and wouldn’t leave, so I locked the door and called the station, and your sister and Deputy Roxi came out.He was gone by the time they got here, and until tonight, I didn’t think he’d been around.But now I’m not so sure.”
“You have your phone on you now?”I asked.
“Yeah, of course.”
“Call my sister right now.”
“It’s so late, Dixon.I don’t wanna bother her, and Cody’s not here now.What’s the point?”
“AJ, the point is that someone else needs to know he was here.All this stuff adds up.The calls, the mess,” I said, swinging my arm out in the direction of the broken vase.“Abey will want to know he was here.And if she can prove it was him somehow, then you can get that restraining order easy.Call her, please.”
I’d been holding out on getting my own damn phone, but now I knew I needed one.If I’d had one tonight, I would’ve already called Abey.
“Fine.”AJ sighed again heavily, then lifted up on her knees to reach her cell phone in her back pocket.She tapped it a few times as she settled on the couch again, moving inches closer to me.I scooted over, too, until we were shoulder to shoulder as she waited for Abey to answer her phone.
Abey must’ve been dead asleep because she didn’t answer, so AJ left a message.“Hi, Sheriff.Um, it’s Avery Jane… from the flower shop?Anyway, your brother’s at my house and he said I should call you.That guy, you remember from last time, Cody Mahone?I think he’s been in my house.I’m totally fine.There’s just a broken vase, but Dixon said you should know so… now you do.Thanks.Okay, bye.”
“It’s not just a vase, AJ,” I said when she hung up and set her phone on the coffee table in front of us.“We should check the rest of your house.”
“Why?I think he broke in and figured out I wasn’t home and then he left.”
“Yeah,” I said, a little overly dramatic, but she didn’t seem to be getting the severity of the situation, “but he might’ve stolen somethin’, and if he didn’t, then what the hell were his intentions for breakin’ in?Have you thought aboutthat?”But then something occurred to me.“You were angry earlier outside Mrs.Ellison’s.Why?”
She waved her hand in front of her chest, like she could wave this jerk out of her life.“Oh, he called.I didn’t answer ’cause I figured it was him, but he kept callin’.I blocked that number, but then immediately, my phone rang again, and it was a different number.It could be totally random.”
“Look at me.”
She did.Her wary but beautiful hazel eyes focused on mine as she leaned her head on the back of the couch and looked up at me.She must’ve recognized the seriousness on my face because she whispered, “I know, Dixon.It was him.You’re right.It’s just that I don’t know what to do about it.I just want him to go away.”
That can be arranged.
AJ’s phone rang, and we both jumped.“Sheriff Lee” flashed on the lit screen, and for a split second, I thought my sister had heard my silent vow to kill a man I’d never even met.Okay, maybekillwas a little dramatic, but I was ready to fuck the guy up if he came back.Probably not my best idea, considering my history, but this was AJ.She was innocent.She didn’t deserve this bullshit.
She answered the phone, and I stood and looked around, hoping she didn’t notice my nosiness as the overprotectiveness that it was.Quietly, I checked inside closets.I poked my head in her kitchen, then her bedroom and the bathroom across the hall, looking for anything out of place.Her sheets were messed up, and her happy wildflower scent was palpable in her bedroom.I wanted to go in there and coat myself in it so I could carry it with me when I went back to my empty, bleak room at the boarding house.
“No, I didn’t see him,” she said to Abey, and she listened as my sister asked questions.I couldn’t hear what she was asking AJ, but I thought I could read the tone of Abey’s voice, and it was very sheriff-y and all business.“Oh, um, I went for a walk,” AJ said, “’cause my phone kept ringin’.The same number’s been callin’, three days in a row now.I couldn’t go back to sleep tonight, so I went for a walk and ran into Dixon by Mrs.Ellison’s house.We, eh, talked for a few minutes, and then I came home.But Dixon forgot to tell me somethin’ so he followed me home, and that was when he saw the mess on the floor.Whoever was here knocked my dinner table on its side.”
Abey talked for a minute, and then AJ sounded anxious when she said, “That’s really not necessary.I’m fine.”
Flipping on her bathroom light, I checked in there, looked behind the dark-green shower curtain with white daisies all over it and opened the lighted medicine cabinet over the sink.Everything looked normal, or at least what I imagined was normal for AJ.
As I closed the cabinet, it occurred to me that there were two orange bottles of medication in there, but I hadn’t read the labels.In my old life, that was the first thing I would’ve done, and if the medications were for pain or anxiety, no matter what they were or why they had been prescribed, I would’ve pocketed them.
When I walked back to the couch, AJ looked uneasy.“Your sister’s on her way.I told her she didn’t need to come, but she insisted.”
“Good.Everything else looks okay,” I said, “but you should check, too, in case I missed somethin’.And you should ask your mama and gran if they saw anything.”
AJ stood.“No.I’m not wakin’ them up.I’ll ask in the mornin’.”
“Too late for that,” a female voice said from the doorway.AJ’s gran smiled at me, and she and AJ’s mama walked into the house, their heads swiveling back and forth as they took in the mess.
AJ’s mama, Miss Belinda, rushed past me and hugged AJ close.“Are you okay, Avery Jane?Why on earth did you take off your shoes?There’s glass everywhere.”
