Page 69 of Deprived No More

“I know. But there’s more.”

Fuck. What now?I brace myself for what’s to come, trying to remain calm for her sake.

“I was flustered and sent a text back. I told him I was a happily married woman. It seemed innocent enough. Just trying to let them know I was in no way interested in whatever they were insinuating they thought they saw in my eyes,” she says with an unmistakable shiver of disgust. But he sent a voice message back. Nick, it gives me the creeps.”

Pulling her into my arms, I place a kiss on her head. “Kat, let me have your phone.” She nods against me before she stands and walks over to her bedside table where her phone is charging. She swiftly returns, holding the device out for me.

Opening the messaging app, I locate the unknown number text and let the visual sink in.This is bullshit. Who does this kind of crap? Some sick fucker, that’s who. And when I get my hands on him, I’m going to-

“It’s hard to hear,” Kat says.

Trying to refocus on the task at hand, I hit play on the audio recording.

“Marriage is an obstacle, but we can get by it. There’s no sense fighting this any-” The entire message is garbled and difficult to understand, and the end of the recording is cut off by a sound I can’t identify.

I play it repeatedly, trying to understand the muffled words and as well as attempting to recognize the person’s voice to no avail. After listening to it the tenth time, Kat covers the hand holding the phone to my ear and gives me a pleading look. I’m torturing her with this. “I’m going to send a copy of this to my phone,” I tell her, knowing I’ll need to spend more time examining it. My own sick way of trying to solve this puzzle. But I’m sure the investigators will want to keep her phone once we go to them for help. So I’ll need to have this mental brainteaser on hand to examine when I’m able to focus.

“I’m ready to go to the police station whenever you can come with me. Should I block this number? I didn’t want to do anything else without telling you what was happening.”

“Don’t do anything until we speak with the authorities, Kat. We don’t want to do anything that will hinder their investigation. We’re going to the police first thing in the morning.”

“But you have to work.”

I look at her dumbfounded. “This is important, Kat. You, our family, that’s the priority here. Work will have to wait.” I stand and begin to pace, the enormity of the situation weighing on me. I’m proud that I haven’t lost it, but I know my limits. If we don’t get the police involved, I’m libel to snap and turn vigilante. “You know they’ll ask you some tough questions once we’re there. Is there anyone at all you can think of who could be doing this beyond the obvious?”

“Who, Mark?”

“Who else?”

“I don’t think it’s him. This seems different than what he was doing. And the voice definitely wasn’t his. But then again, he doesn’t look or sound like the Mark I knew anymore.” She goes quiet for a bit as she stands to walk to her side of the bed, suddenly seeming more nervous than when I was replaying the voice recording. “But I have no idea who else could be doing this unless it’s some sort of copycat. Maybe someone who was aware of what he did and when they saw him come to the ER…”

She’s a shit liar. There’s something more she’s keeping from me. I can feel it.

“Why would anyone do that, Kat?”

“I don’t know.” She starts to cry. “How could this possibly happen to someone twice?”

Pulling her to me, I have to focus on her right now. I’ll worry about the fly in the ointment later. And mark my words, there’s something here that doesn’t add up. “Let’s get some sleep, babe. We’re going to have a busy day tomorrow.”

“Nick?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you. For listening without losing it. I couldn’t handle that right now.”

We settle into bed, and I try to shut off all of the possibilities whirling through my brain. She’s with me. We live in a gated community. We’re safe. Focus on the priorities, Nick.

* * *

“You ready?” I ask Kat as we stand in front of the imposing doors to the Hanover Police Department.

“Is anyone ever ready for this?” she says nervously.

“Well, we’ve done nothing wrong. We’re trying to come forward and get their help to get to the bottom of this and keep you and our family safe,” I tell her, our hands entwined. Bringing them to my lips, I place a kiss on the inside of her wrist and try to reassure her we’re in this together.

As we enter, there’s a flurry of activity around as we approach the desk. We advise the clerk we need to speak with someone about receiving potentially threatening texts and take a seat as we await an officer to come and take our statement.

As Officer Mills approaches, I notice familiarity on his and Kat’s faces. She’s had a long history of knowing officers, firefighters, and EMS providers from her volunteer paramedic days and her work in the ER. I don’t even question it anymore.

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