Page 56 of Forgotten Dreams
“Here we go,” he mumbles, putting down the piece of plywood he’s carrying, and coming to my side in case he has to contain me.
“You did not tell me you were threatened, Sierra.” I say her name with my teeth clenched, and when I look over at her, she closes her eyes and then opens them. “This is the second time this has happened.” I look at Deputy Burke, trying to literally rein in the rage that is going through my blood. “Yesterday, she got a white paper that said stop looking, and now this.”
“I’m sorry,” Deputy Burke replies. “Can I get a little context?” He looks at me, then at Sierra.
“Yes,” she answers softly. “Twenty-five years ago I was left in a cardboard box at the local fire station. I came to town to look for my birth parents.” She tells the deputy the whole story. I put my arm around her shoulders. “I don’t know who did this or if they are the ones who even sent the note. I’ve spoken to a couple of people about it. I spoke with Sheriff Hadley about the case, but there was no case. But today, I called the county to have all of the birth records for my birth date.”
“Do you have the note?” Deputy Burke asks, and she shakes her head.
“No, I tore it up and put it in the garbage. I didn’t think anything of it.” She exhales deeply, and I bring her even closer to me.
“I’m guessing you have no cameras,” Deputy Phillips states, looking around.
“She’ll have them up tomorrow,” I inform him. “She has an alarm, but that doesn’t mean shit.”
“I’m going to have to take the rock.” Deputy Burke looks at her. “Tomorrow, we’ll have someone coming by to ask your neighbors if they heard or saw anything.”
“Tomorrow? Why not now?” I ask, and he looks over at me. “Didn’t it just happen? Shouldn’t you, I don’t know, process something?”
He smirks as he looks over at Phillips. “Why don’t you do a sweep of the property and see if there is anyone or anything out of the ordinary?” he tells the kid who just nods his head and walks toward the front door. “It’s the middle of the night. Chances are no one saw anything and the suspects are long gone. But tomorrow morning when someone shows up to ask questions, they are going to be able to talk to them and see if anyone heard anything. Hopefully someone has cameras, but until then we won’t know.” He looks at me. “I know you’re pissed, but if we go knocking on the doors, chances are they are going to be pissed and not want to help with anything. We are going to call it in and patrol will be circling the area tonight and tomorrow.” He gives me a tight smile. “This is a quiet neighborhood. If someone heard anything, I can almost bet that they would have called it in already. We’ll call you if we hear anything.”
“So you aren’t doing anything?” My arm falls from around her shoulders. “They could do this nightly if they want.”
He’s about to say something when Deputy Phillips comes back in. “Nothing,” he says, “no footprints in the back, none in the garden.” He points to the window. “They either came to the porch to throw it or just stopped their car and threw it in from the grass.”
“We’re chasing a ghost.” He looks at me. “She didn’t see anyone or anything. Not a make or model of a car.” He looks at Sierra. “I wish I could help more.”
“Thank you,” she says softly as he turns and walks out of the house.
“Well, that went better than I expected,” Theo observes, going over to the other side of the house, grabbing the broom. “Thought his head was going to explode when he told you someone would be by to ask your neighbors.”
“Not now.” I put my hands on my hips, then look at Sierra. “Someone threw a rock through your fucking window.” I point over at the window. “Someone didn’t throw it. They did it.” I wait for it to register on her face before I continue. “Your birth parents did this, or whoever the hell they are.”
“We don’t know that,” she says softly.
“Sierra, listen to yourself.” I try to keep my voice calm. “It wasn’t just someone. They left you a message. Actually, they left you two messages. One was a calm one, but this”—I point to the busted window—“this was crossing the fucking line. And let’s just say for whatever reason it was a stranger, they would just throw the rock, not leave a fucking note on it?—”
“Caleb,” Theo interrupts, “this isn’t helping anyone.”
“It’s helping me,” I snap at him. “It’s one thing for them to send you a letter, but this”—I shake my head—“this is a bit extreme.”
“I agree,” she admits. “I don’t know what else to tell you.” She shrugs her shoulders. “I’m in shock, and to be honest, I was scared, but now I’m at the point where I’m getting really fucking pissed off.”
“Oh, good,” Theo snips, “there are two of them.” He sweeps up the glass before he gathers it in the dustpan and then goes for a cardboard box.
Once he is away from us, I look at her. “How are you doing?”
“I’m not talking to you right now,” she returns, and my eyebrows shoot together.
“What? Why not?”
“Because you’re an ogre, and instead of making me feel better about all of this”—she points at the window—“you are making me feel bad about it.”
“Yup, that sounds about right,” Theo interjects, coming back into the room. “Now, if you two excuse me, I’m going to need you to help me put up that piece of wood on the window so I can go home and sleep.”
“This isn’t finished,” I warn her, and she looks past me like I didn’t just tell her something.
“Thank you so much for coming out and helping, Theo,” she says softly. “It was very nice of you.” She then turns to me before she stomps up the steps. “You can see yourself out.”
