Page 28 of Risk Assessment
His gut rolled. Dealing with people that had some kind of mental illness always made him nervous. Residual post-traumatic stress from dealing with his mom. She’d been bipolar and her behavior had scared him on more than one occasion as a child. As an adult he understood logically that what she had needed was support and understanding but the scars ran deep, and it was hard to forget the trauma. He tried to fight off the tension that was crawling up his back to sit on his shoulders.
He walked back into the bedroom and went over to the patio doors. Had the guy come in through these doors? He unlocked and opened the door. Then he squatted down to study the lock on the outside. There was no sign of forced entry. None at the front either. He’d checked. Did he have a key? If so, how would he have gotten one?
Dylan stood up and walked out onto the deck. The sound of crickets was louder than he remembered. It was nice to be out of the city. He filled his lungs with the late summer air as he looked up at the stars. He needed to do more of this. Maybe a camping trip after Raleigh’s stalker was caught. Maybe she’d like to come with him.
Best not to think about that. He turned and went back in the room, closing and locking the door after him.
Raleigh had said the guy never showed up on her security cameras. Maybe he was tech savvy. A hacker of some sort. If that was the case, then he wouldn’t necessarily need a key—he could build his own. It wasn’t as hard as it sounded.
He moved out of the bathroom and called down the hallway, “Raleigh, is it ok if I get one of Gabe’s guys to log into your security system at your home? I want to see if they can get anything from your cameras.”
“What? Oh, the security system? Yeah, sure. Whatever,” she yelled back.
He smiled. She sounded like she was engrossed. Work was good for her. He walked over to the bed and bent down to pick up the scarf. Had the stalker taken it with the express purpose of leaving it here? Sort of fit his style. He liked to make his victims doubt themselves. On the other hand, he hadn’t taken anything from Raleigh’s home before. Or at least she hadn’t mentioned it.
An escalation?
As he ran it through his fingers, the image of Raleigh in her green dress popped into his brain. She’d looked stunning this evening, so much so he’d forgotten why he was here.
He walked out of the room and down the hallway to Raleigh. It was all conjecture, but it was a start. He was getting a feel for the stalker. Maybe it would help him ID the guy. He glanced at Raleigh as he entered the room. Exhaustion was written all over her face. Her eyelids were drooping, and her fingers were moving at half the speed they had been earlier.
“How’d it go?” he asked.
She looked up. “Ah, good. I finished the write up and sent it to my partner, Pete. He’s giving it the once over to make sure it looks good and makes sense. He’s great at fine-tuning these types of things. I decided Max was right, and he’s my boss so I also sent it on to Donna and Lydia as a courtesy saying it was a rough draft, but I’m not making any changes. At least not the ones she requested. They read like a bad fairy tale.”
She grabbed some paper off the table and began reading. “The bride looked stunning in her Dior dress and Louboutin shoes. Her mother, who also wore Dior, looked equally as stunning. Mrs. Annabel Carter and Mrs. Cheryl-Lynn Wright were divinely dressed in Chanel and Versace respectively. ‘Everyone is so excited for the wedding. It’s like a fairy tale come true!’ said Mrs. Van Horn.”
Raleigh snorted. “It’s goes on from there. It highlights Lydia and all her cronies with only a few sentences about the bride.She’s given herself top billing! Who does that at their own daughter’s wedding? It’s sad really.” Raleigh shook her head. “Oh, I did get the guest list from Donna. I sent it to the email you gave me.”
He grabbed his phone out of his pocket and checked his email. “Got it.” A couple of clicks later, he said, “I sent it to Gabe. If your stalker is on this list, we’ll find him.” He gave her a slight smile, but she just nodded.
“I’m about ready to crash for the night,” he said. “What about you?” She yawned in response, and he couldn’t help but grin.
“So, I know you don’t want to sleep in your room…” As he said it, her eyes got big. “Why don’t you sleep in my bed? I’ll sleep out here on the couch. I would sleep in the master but it’s tucked away a bit. I want to be sure I hear if… That is, I just want to be on the safe side.”
She was shaking her head. “That’s not going to work.” She stood up.
“Really, I don’t mind. The couch is fine. I’ve slept on a lot worse.”
“First of all, I don’t think you would actually fit on it. It’s more of a love seat, and you’re about a foot taller than it is long.”
“It’s a pullout,” he said quietly.
“Doesn’t matter. The, uh, real problem is, uh, I don’t want to sleep by myself.” Her cheeks were cherry-red.
He looked at her for a long moment. He understood her need for company, but he couldn’t stop himself from looking at her in her curve-hugging dress. This would mean one hell of a long night for him. He sighed. “So…which side of the bed do you want?”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Um…” Raleigh swallowed hard.Shoot.How to answer his question? While she’d wanted to sleep in the same room, the same bed was a different story. Well, where else would he sleep? She hadn’t really thought it through before opening her mouth. Not the first time that’s happened.
Dylan raised an eyebrow at her.
“I’ll take the left. It’s farthest away from the door,” she said in a rush.
“Okay then.” He raised his arm, indicating she should lead the way.
She nodded once and started down the hallway to the second bedroom. Her heart started to pound. “You can do this,” she mumbled under her breath. Just before the doorway, her feet stopped moving. She looked down.Feet move. Nothing. Sweat broke out on her back and her mouth went dry at the thought of entering the room. He was winning. Her stalker was controlling her.Damn him.She fisted her hands at her sides as the tears slipped down her cheeks.
