Page 58 of The Weight Of Falling
“What are you doing?”
“I’m calling the police,” he says.
“Do you think that’s necessary?” I ask, my voice trembling a little. “It might just be a stupid prank. I don’t want to waste Owen’s time.”
“Someone vandalized your car,” he says, his voice hard. “That’s not a prank.”
Within minutes, Owen Davis pulls up in his cruiser and steps out, wearing his sheriff’s department windbreaker and a frown. His ginger hair is threaded with gray, and deep lines are carved into his kind face.
He takes one look at the windshield and blows out a slow breath. “That’s a hard thing to walk up to. You doing okay, Kenzie?”
“I’m okay,” I assure him. “Sorry for the bother.”
Joel shoots me a look, his expression saying clearly,Why are you apologizing?
“You didn’t bother me,” Owen says firmly. “This is vandalism. I’m glad Joel called.”
I nod, wrapping my arms around myself.
Owen pulls a notepad from his pocket and flips it open. “Mind walking me through what happened? When did you park here?”
I nod and give him a brief rundown of my grocery shop with Reagan and her son. “I loaded my bags into the trunk, and there was nothing on the windshield.” I glance at the red letters again, my throat tight. “After that, I popped into Beth’s to grab a coffee. Then I ran into Joel on Main Street, and we walked back to the car together.” I swallow. “That’s when we saw...this.”
“Did you see anyone near your vehicle?”
“No.”
Owen walks a slow circle around my car, snapping photos with his phone. “Any idea if someone might have a reason to target you?”
“No.” I wrap my arms around my stomach. The air feels colder now. “Not as far as I know.”
Joel stiffens beside me. He’s already angled himself to stand in front of the windshield, his body forming a barrier between me and what’s written there.
“This doesn’t look random,” he points out. “That word isn’t something you spray for fun.”
Owen sighs. “No, it’s not.”
“Has anything like this happened before?” Joel asks. “Not just tagging, but targeted language like this?”
Owen hesitates. “We’ve had some tagging. Symbols, phrases. Mostly on walls and buildings. Nothing this personal.”
“Any security cameras in this lot?”
Owen shakes his head. “Closest cameras are on Main, and they don’t reach this far back. We’ve never had a reason to put surveillance here before.”
Joel exhales, visibly working to keep his anger in check. He keeps glancing over at me, checking to see if I’m okay, as though he genuinely cares.
“What about dashcam footage?” he asks. “Any chance a parked car picked something up?”
“It’s worth asking. I’ll canvass the nearby businesses and see if anyone had a view.” He glances back at the windshield. “I’ll get a report filed. If it’s okay with you, Kenzie, I’ll need you to fill out a written statement at the station sometime in the next day or two.”
I nod. “Of course.”
Owen gives me a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “It might just be a few teenagers letting off steam and they happened upon your vehicle. You know how it is with some of them.”
Honestly, I have no idea what teenagers are like nowadays. Is spray-painting someone else’s property a rite of passage now? It’s not something I ever did. Simply attending a house party felt daring enough. Tagging a car? I would have died.
“Teenagers?” Joel asks, his jaw tight.
