Emma's Home (The Fairfield Series) (20 page)

“Emma girl, you and I have a date with your bed!” he answered. And with that they drove back to her house to finish what they had started before dinner.

E
mma sat in her office, finishing the paperwork that was never ending in her job. With the seniors completing their college applications, she had to keep up with their transcripts. She looked down at the next application form on her desk. It was Brad Evan’s. Thinking it would be a perfect opportunity to see him without appearing to be interrogating him, she sent a pass for him. A few minutes later, Brad entered her office cautiously. Looking up, Emma smiled at him and asked him to have a seat.

“I’ve got your application here. Let’s go over it and talk about your essay and what else you need to get ready.”

Brad relaxed and for the next twenty minutes, he and Emma enjoyed their conversation. He had a lot of questions, and she had the experience and knowledge to answer them. Emma realized how much she missed the times like this when she first moved to town, and Brad would come over to do yard work, then sit on her porch to talk when he was done. She knew she was taking a chance by moving the conversation to the latest events, but she needed answers.

“Brad, I need to ask you a question and I really hope you give me an honest answer.”

He looked at her warily before replying. “What is it you want to know Ms. Dodd?”

Emma took a moment to gather her thoughts. She looked up, directly into his young eyes and began softly.

“Brad, the night of the fire on my property, a park ranger said that he had seen some young people in the park. The next day, when I saw you, you acted very strangely, and you smelled of smoke. I just want you to tell me if you were in the area and if so why. I don’t care about the shed. I just care about you. If there is anything I can do to help, I want to help. I don’t want
this…,”
she said as she laid her hand on his application, “to be at risk because you made some poor choices.”

She sat quietly for a few minutes, letting Brad decide if he wanted to answer. He hung his head while she waited. Finally he looked up.

“Ms. Dodd, I like you. I have since I first met you. We really needed someone like you around here. Someone who cares. I just… I just don’t…,” he paused. He looked down at his hands as he twisted his class ring around and around. Taking a deep breath, he looked back up.

“You know, Ms. Dodd. It’s time I manned up. I got caught up in some stuff that was making me crazy trying to figure out how to make it right. I broke up with Suzy because of it. I cut back my work hours because of it. I’ve lost sleep and disrespected my parents because of it.” Brad sat up straight in the chair. “But no more. I don’t want you to worry. I’m going to take care of it myself.” He was looking directly at her, making eye contact, and she felt a mixture of pride and also fear.

“Brad, whatever it is, you need to let me help you. If it is illegal, then let me get Jake to help,” Emma stated emphatically.

“No, not Jake,” Brad said shaking his head.

Emma had an idea. “Well, if not Jake, then how about Mike?” Brad looked up at Emma with a confused look on his face.

Emma continued. “I’m sorry to tell you this, but after I smelled smoke on you I went to find Jake but he was out of the office. But Mike was there so I talked to him. He said he would do some discreet checking and if he did not need to question you, he wouldn’t. He told me at Thanksgiving that he did not feel that he needed to dig further.”

Brad nodded in understanding. “Maybe I will talk to Mike,” he said. Pausing for a few minutes as though collecting his thoughts, he agreed, “Yeah, that may be just the thing I need to do.”

At that he stood up to leave, this time turning to give Emma a hug again spontaneously.

“Thanks again, Ms. Dodd. I appreciate all you have done for me. Really, it means a lot.”

Emma watched him leave, feeling better than she had in a long time.

*

Emma and Jake had plans for dinner that evening. He called earlier in the day to say that he wanted her dressed and ready by seven, and he was taking her out on the town. Laughing, she asked him what she should wear.

“Emma girl, put on your best tonight. I’m showing off my girl,” he replied.

Emma smiled as she hung up the phone. This day was getting better and better. She called Laurie as she was leaving the school. Laurie was known as the fashion princess and tonight she wanted to look her best. Emma knew Laurie would bring over some dresses since they were the same size, and maybe she could get Carol to drop by to do her hair and makeup. Excited to help, Laurie assured Emma that she would go home after work, grab some dinner dresses then head over to Emma’s house.

As always now, Emma drove up her driveway, carefully perusing the area around. She preferred coming home in the daylight and nervously looked around at the area before getting out of her car. She had not received another note, but wanted to maintain diligence and not take any chances.

Her house appeared unaltered, so she entered and once again set the alarm. Mister, with his usual greeting of rubbing himself in figure eights around her legs, lifted his head as she bent to stroke him. Walking into her bedroom, she stripped out of her clothes, wanting to shower before Laurie came over. Stepping into the tub, she felt the pounding hot water ease her stress. After washing her hair, she shaved and lathered, knowing Jake loved her simple shower gel. Stepping out of the shower, she grabbed a towel and wrapped it around her hair. Grabbing another, she toweled off and then wrapped it around her body. Heading into her bedroom, she dropped the towel and slid into a short silky robe. Leaning over, she towel dried her hair, then ran her fingers through the tresses. Waiting on Laurie to arrive, she walked into her kitchen to pour a glass of wine.

A scraping noise near the back door startled Emma. She moved out of the kitchen toward the sound. With woods surrounding her house, Emma often saw raccoons, possum, and deer in her yard. She even found raccoons on her patio trying to get into her garbage cans, so she took extra precautions to place the lids on tightly to keep the critters out.

Oh, I don’t have time to clean up their mess now.

Emma walked into the small mud room leading to the back door. A dark figure was on her patio, standing in front of the window. His face was hidden with a ski mask, but Emma looked on in horror as the figure was attempting to open the small window over the washing machine. She wanted to scream but found that no sound came out. She heard the sound of glass shattering and realized that it was not the window, but the wine glass that had slipped from her hands, splintering onto the floor. At the sound, the figure looked up at her, then turned and ran through the yard and into the woods.

Emma, startled into action, ran to the kitchen to grab her phone and call 911. As the operator came on, she finally found her voice, but couldn’t seem to make coherent statements. She managed to choke out her address and “man outside”, when the doorbell rang. Emma began screaming, terrified that he was now on her front porch. Through her screams, she heard a voice she recognized.

“Emma, Emma! Let me in! Emma!”

She recognized Laurie’s voice and ran to the door. Throwing it open, she stumbled into Laurie’s arms. Laurie grabbed hold of Emma and pushed her back inside. Laurie heard voices coming from Emma’s phone on the floor, and she picked it up, quickly realizing that she had the emergency operator on the phone. Emma managed to calm enough to tell Laurie that there had been a man trying to break into her house. Laurie relayed that information and agreed to stay on the phone until someone came. Emma turned and seeing that the front door was still open, jumped up and slammed it shut. Hands shaking, she grabbed Laurie and pulled her into the hall, the only place in her house with no windows.

Laurie wanted to ask questions, but before she could get them out, the sound of sirens could be heard coming down the road. Laurie jumped up, looked out of the living room window and saw a cruiser come down the drive, followed closely by Jake’s truck. The policemen jumped out with guns drawn, circling around the house toward the back while Jake and Tom came running up to the front door.

Emma threw open the door just as Jake reached it and jumped into his arms. He could feel his own heart pounding in fear as he held a shaking Emma in his arms. Tom pushed in around them, going over to Laurie.

“I don’t know what happened,” Laurie quickly explained. “I just got here and I heard Emma screaming before I could get to the door.”

“What did she say?” Tom asked.

“She said a man with a ski mask on was on her patio trying to get in the laundry room window – the one by the back door.”

Tom turned and looked at Jake, still holding a shaking Emma. He nodded at his partner and went toward the back to check it out. As he walked into the small laundry room, he noticed the broken wine glass on the floor. Stepping over it carefully, he made his way to the door and opened it. The patrolmen had made their way to the back yard as Tom stepped onto the patio. He looked to the right where the intruder would have been standing. Next to one of the bushes was a crowbar and a piece of paper nearby. Tom pulled his gloves on and picked up the piece of paper. He spoke to the patrolmen and had them begin securing the area.

He heard steps and turned, seeing Mike coming around the side of the house.

“Emma?” Mike asked.

“She seems okay. Shaken. Still with Jake and Laurie,” Tom answered.

“What did you find?”

Tom showed him the note, now incased in a plastic bag. Mike swore and looked out towards the woods.

“It’s not the first,” Tom remarked. Mike just nodded.

“Jake is gonna be fucking furious,” Tom continued. Mike just nodded again. The two men walked back inside of the house to head to the living room. As they entered, they noticed Rob standing in the doorway, holding Laurie. Knowing Rob, once Laurie called him, he would have broken all speed limits to get to her. Rob gave a head jerk in their direction and the men continued into the living room where Jake and Emma were sitting on the sofa, wrapped up in each other.

“Emma,” Tom said softly looking over at his partner. “We need to talk.”

Emma lifted her head from Jake’s shoulder, her face tear streaked, and moved to sit beside him instead of on his lap.

Jake’s heartbeat had calmed down slightly, but he was still so angry he found himself unable to process what was happening.
Get a fucking grip.
Jake forced himself to start thinking like a detective, not just a pissed boyfriend. He looked up at Tom and Mike, nodding that he was ready. As he turned to Emma, it dawned on him that she was wearing nothing but a robe. A thin robe. A short, thin robe.

Fuck, she is almost naked sitting here. Tom and Mike may be my friends, but they are still men.

“Laurie, take Emma into her bedroom and help her put some clothes on,” Jake said quietly.

Emma, still in shock, just looked at Jake numbly. He took her face in his hands and gently pulled her face in close to his.

“Baby, you need to go with Laurie. She’s gonna help you get some clothes on sweetheart.”

Emma looked down, finally realizing her lack of attire and blushed. Clutching the robe around her, she stood as Laurie came over wrapping her arms around Emma’s shoulders. The two women left the room as the other men politely averted their eyes, waiting until they were gone to begin speaking.

“W
hat have you got?” Jake barked out. Mike settled into one of the chairs facing the sofa and Tom sat on the coffee table close to Jake. Rob moved into the room as well, standing by the fireplace, wanting to know what was going on without interfering.

“We found a crowbar and this note outside the window of the laundry room,” Tom replied handing the note to Jake. He watched silently as Jake read the note. He continued to watch as Jake’s face began to show first his confusion and then his anger. He looked up at Tom, his jaw tight, enraged.

“She never told you?” Tom asked.

“You know she didn’t,” Jake bit back. “I sure as hell wouldn’t have sat on this if she had.” Jake stood up quickly. “Goddamn it!” he growled, running his hands through his hair, pacing the length of the small room.

Emma and Laurie entered the room again, Emma having changed into yoga pants and a simple t-shirt. She immediately felt the change in the atmosphere of the room and looked quizzically at the men.

“Jake, what is it?” she asked, walking over to him. He seemed so angry, but she needed his comfort. She reached up to touch his arm, but he swung around on her quickly holding out the note.

“You want to explain this?” he asked sharply.

Emma looked down at the note in his hands. It was like the others, only this one was encased in the protective plastic for evidence. The plain letters on the paper seem to scream out at her.

you are not taking me seriously – this is the last message I will leave – stop snooping and no one will get hurt

Emma’s hands began to shake again, and she felt her legs give out from under her. Jake scooped her up before she hit the floor and settled her on the couch.