Page 31 of Scorched

“I’ll take you.”

“No, I need my car. I like to have my own transportation. You can’t be playing chauffeur for me. You have a job.”

“You need protection.”

“Yeah, that and a bucket of money.” She touched his arm. “Please. I need to do things on my own. I’ll be careful.”

Paul didn’t like letting her out of his sight, but she was right. He had work to do and so did she. As long as he provided protection at night, she ought to be okay. The two women who’d disappeared had done so after dark, as far as he could ascertain.

“Okay. I’ll meet you at your place this evening. Don’t open your door for anyone and keep a close eye on the boys.”

“I won’t and I will.” She grinned. “Later?” She turned to go back to her classroom, stopped and came back to the office. “Will you do me a big favor?”

When she looked up at him with those big blue eyes, he would have walked off a cliff for her. “Anything.”

“This may sound stupid, but I forgot to check my mailbox in the office.” Elise remembered how the Dakota Strangler left messages every time he killed another woman. Maybe subconsciously, she’d avoided her mailbox because she didn’t want to find another note. Another note meant another death.

“You want me to check it?” Paul’s voice penetrated her musings.

Elise shook off the morbid worries and straightened her shoulders. “No, no. I’ll do it, but will you wait until I do...just in case?”

“I’ll be right here.”

Elise walked backinto the administrative office, her footsteps dragging. If another note showed up in her box from whoever was tormenting her, she didn’t know what she’d do.

Without looking at her box, she turned to the secretary. “Becky, did you see who put the note in my box the day before yesterday, by chance?”

The slightly plump and perky secretary tipped her head to the side. “No, I don’t recall seeing who left it. I think it might have been there before I came in that morning. Why?”

“No reason.”

“Wasn’t there a name on it?” Becky asked.

“No.”

The secretary’s eyes widened, and a smile blossomed on her face. “A secret admirer?” She clapped her hands together. “How sweet.”

Elise almost burst out laughing, but she was afraid her laughter would turn to tears all too easily. “Uh, no. Not a secret admirer.”

Becky’s smile slipped. “Oh.”

To avoid further questions, Elise braced herself and turned toward her box. An envelope lay tilted to the left.

Her hand shook as she reached for it. On the front, written in blue ink, were the wordsMs. Johnson’s insurance forms.

All the air left Elise’s lungs in a rush and she dragged in more, a nervous giggle rising to the top of her throat. All that worry for nothing. Elise took another steadying breath and turned a smile toward Becky. “See you tomorrow.”

“Those insurance forms are due back in the office by Friday,” Becky called out.

Outside, Paul’s gaze questioned her without a word being spoken.

She smiled. “Just insurance papers.” Tucking the envelope inside her purse, she headed for the door, glad Paul had met her at school. Her day hadn’t been the best, but with a hunky agent spending the night at her house, things were looking up.

Paul inspected her car inside and out before he opened the door for her. Elise didn’t question him, but a chill slithered down her back. What if someone had tampered with it while it sat in the school parking lot overnight? She really should have brought it home yesterday. Elise shrugged. Anyone could just as easily tamper with it outside her home.

She’d had the car for two years, but getting inside it now gave her no comfort.

“I’ll see you home, then I need to head to the office for a couple hours to check in.”

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