Page 44 of Endeavor

“I’ll call Calvin and have him line up that Bryce guy’s firm immediately,” Rhett states. I hear him typing away and I know he’s sending a message to our manager.

“Grady. You need to call that cop we were talking to: Sergeant Kramer.”

“I know,” I sigh as I run a hand through my hair.

“Do it now and don’t touch anything else.”

“Yeah, will do, and be careful, guys. We all need to be watching our surroundings until we get security.”

They both agree, and I disconnect and call the officer.

“Sergeant Kramer,” he answers.

“Hey, this Grady Daniels.”

“Oh, hey, Grady. I’m sorry to say that I don’t have any more information to share with you on your case.”

“I’m not calling about that. I…had a delivery tonight.” I explain for the third time in fifteen minutes what happened.

“I’ll stop by and collect the photograph and call the flower shop. Did you get the name of it?” he asks.

I nod and give him the name of the flower shop.

“I’ll be there in thirty.” We hang up and I stare at the photo. How could I be so happy an hour ago and now I’m scared, not just for me, but for Emma?

I pace my kitchen as I wait. I have to tell her. I don’t know if she could be in danger. Fuck my life! The doorbell rings and I see on my video doorbell app that it’s the officer.

He has another man standing with him.

“Hi, Grady. This is Detective Benson,” Sergeant Kramer says when I answer the door.

I shake his hand and invite them inside.

“The photo’s on the island,” I motion to it, and they both step forward to examine it. “And there’s something else.”

Both men turn to me. “The quote…it matches other Shakespeare quotes that were sticky notes on my car back when I raced. Nothing ever happened, but my parents did beef up security. After my dad died, the notes stopped. The officers just figured it was a fan obsessed with our family and that they lost interest after Dad died and I stopped racing.”

“Do you have the police contact information for that case?” Detective Benson asks me.

I shrug. “I was a kid. My mom might.” I give him her number and curse. I’m going to have to call her to explain.

Kramer puts the photo in a plastic bag. “We’ll look into this and get back to you. Anything else strange happen?”

I shake my head. “Just the thing the other day at Rhett’s and now this.”

“It’s probably an unstable-fan situation. Do you have security beyond that video doorbell?” he asks.

“We’re getting some.”

“Good. You can never be too safe. Here’s my card. Call me if you think of anything else.”

I nod and show them out and then call my mom to explain. She justifiably freaks out and it takes me thirty more minutes to calm her down. I promise her that we are getting around-the-clock security and she finally relents and lets me stay at home after swearing she was sending a car to come get me.

As soon as I hang up, I pause contemplating what I’m about to do next. I have to call the one person that I’ve been dreading calling since I opened that damn envelope.

“Hey, you.” Emma’s cheerful voice nearly slays me.

“Hey,” I say slowly, searching for words.

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