Rose Pressey - Chase Charley 02 - Seems Like Old Crimes Read online

  “Are you okay, buddy?” Dangerfield leaned down.

  The guy rubbed his head. “I guess so.”

  After a second he looked over at me and I recognized him. “You!” I said. “You tried to kill us.”

  Dangerfield grabbed the guy and pinned him to the ground. “Is this the guy who has been harassing you?”

  “Yes, that’s him.” I couldn’t believe that he was right outside my apartment. “What do you want?” I asked.

  Of course he didn’t answer me. I had to get someone to help Dangerfield.

  “What happened, Mrs. Perkins?” I asked.

  “I saw him trying to get in your door, so I called out to him. That was when he took off out the front door. I went after the bastard.” She pointed.

  My eyes widened at Mrs. Perkins’ fearlessness.

  “When I got out here, he turned around and acted as if he was going to attack me. I wasn’t having any of that, so I used the umbrella I’d brought outside with me.” She swung the umbrella through the air.

  “You beat him with it?”

  “Yes, ma’am. That’s what he gets for trying to attack me.” She shook her fist at him.

  I patted her arm. “I’m glad you’re okay,” I said.

  I called the police with Dangerfield’s phone. It only took about a minute before a patrol car showed up. The police hopped out and helped Dangerfield with my stalker.

  The guy looked me in the eyes. “Did you get my notes? I sent you a bunch of notes. I wasn’t sure if you got them. Since I couldn’t hand-deliver them, I had no way of knowing.”

  I had no idea why he had done all of this. Why did he think he could communicate with me just by sending notes? Or placing weird phone calls?

  “So that was you? Why did you do that?” Rage bubbled in my blood. I leaned down and shook my finger in his face.

  Dangerfield snickered.

  Why had I asked him that? He did it because he wasn’t all there. He somehow thought that it was acceptable to send letters to strangers and harass them with threatening messages.

  “April Benson wanted me to follow you. But it was much more than that after your newscasts.”

  “April made you do this?”

  “She paid me to do it,” he said. “I would have done it for free though.”

  Well, that made me feel so much better. And I meant that in the most sarcastic way possible.

  “I didn’t appreciate the things you said in the letters.”

  He frowned as if he was shocked that I would say such a thing. “You wouldn’t talk to me, so I had to get your attention. I probably would have never done anything to you.”

  “Probably,” I said. “That’s not encouraging.”

  How could he say probably when he had tried to run over me?

  “What about the flowers?” he asked.

  “Yes, I got those too.” Was I supposed to thank my stalker for the flowers? I didn’t think so.

  When I looked over at Dangerfield, he gave me a look as if to say, Sorry I didn’t send flowers. It was bad when the only flowers I got were from a stalker. I’d rather not have any at all.

  “They were a pretty red and I thought that was your favorite color.” He struggled to get up and Dangerfield pushed him back down.

  I wasn’t going to acknowledge any more of this conversation. I didn’t need to engage with him anymore. I should have known that he was the one behind the flowers. Actually, I had, but this just confirmed it.

  “No more letters and flowers for you,” Dangerfield said.

  “What? I hope I get flowers. Just not from him.”

  They loaded my stalker into the back of the police car. He looked back at me one last time. His vacant eyes looked as if he wasn’t even there. When I glanced across the street, I spotted a woman watching us. She had blonde hair and wore a big black hat. Something about her seemed familiar. The woman noticed that I had spotted her and she whipped around to leave. When she did, her big black hat fell to the ground. She bent to pick it up, and the blonde wig dropped from her head. April Benson looked up at me at that moment. She was the one who had been with my stalker at the Harbor Market. The blonde wig had been a disguise. Now I knew why she had seemed so familiar.

  “It’s April Benson.” I pointed across the street.

  When Dangerfield looked her way, she took off around the corner.

  Dangerfield stepped closer to me. “Wow, I can’t believe that.”

  I shook my head. “I know, this is crazy. April really was involved. I shouldn’t be surprised. I hope the guy will admit to her involvement. She shouldn’t get away with this. By the way, it’s great that you kept him down until the police got here though.” My built-up anxiety was making me frenzied.

  Dangerfield stood a little taller, sticking out his chest. “That wasn’t what I was talking about. What I can’t believe is you called me Bill.” His sexy smile appeared.

  My cheeks grew hot. “A one-time mistake,” I said, trying to hide my grin.

  “Yeah, sure,” His mouth tipped up at the corners into a wide grin. “I know who that man is.”

  “Who is it?” I asked.

  “The man from the case that you helped me with. I suppose he teamed up with April Benson.”

  “The case I helped you with earlier?” I asked.

  Dangerfield ran his hand through his hair. “Yeah.”

  “So April Benson recruited him to become my stalker. I thought we had taken care of both of them, but I guess not. I’m just glad that you and Mrs. Perkins were able to help me. You saved me from him,” I said.

  Mrs. Perkins was standing next to me. I reached over and hugged her. She tried to escape my embrace at first, but finally relaxed a bit.

  “Okay, that’s enough of that now,” she said as she lightly patted my back.

  At least now the man was going to be arrested. The police pulled away with the man in the back of their car. I was glad to see that he was being taken away. Now what would be done with April? My job was getting more dangerous by the minute.

  Mrs. Perkins said, “Well, I have to go inside now and finish my baking.”

  Dangerfield whispered, “Do you think she’ll bake us chocolate chip cookies?” The corners of Dangerfield’s mouth turned up.

  “Thank you again, Mrs. Perkins,” I said.

  “You’re welcome,” she said with the slightest smile.

  “I think she really likes you,” Dangerfield said.

  I laughed. “She has a funny way of showing it, but I guess she does.”

  I couldn’t believe that I had a stalker. I supposed that came with the job.

  “Let’s get you back inside,” he said.

  Dangerfield walked with me back toward my apartment. Marc would be surprised to hear about what had happened. It was something he had told me to take more seriously and I should have. I just hoped that the stalker never came back again.

  I should be glad that Oscar watched those letters for me. If he hadn’t alerted me to the situation it might have been too late when I finally had figured it out. I would thank him later with a fruit basket or something. Everyone loves fruit baskets, right?

  When we reached my door, I said, “I still don’t know the identity of the anonymous caller. Why did he tell me to go to the crime scene?”

  Dangerfield looked down at his brown shoes. “The caller was me. I disguised my voice. I thought you would recognize that it was me.”

  “Why did you do that?”

  “When I arrived and a detective I know told me that the victim had your name, I knew you would obviously be pulled into the case. I wanted to help you solve it, but I figured unless we were linked to the case together that you would never work with me.”

  I didn’t know whether to be mad or think it was one of the sweetest things anyone has ever done for me.

  “Will you forgive me?” He flashed me a sad-eyed look.

  I stared at Dangerfield, and then said, “I forgive you. I could have solved this on my own.”
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  “I never doubt your investigative abilities, Charley.”

  “Now you should kiss and make up,” Mrs. Perkins said from over his shoulder.

  My nosy neighbor had been listening the whole time.

  About the Author

  Rose Pressey is a USA Today bestselling author. She enjoys writing quirky and fun novels with a paranormal twist. The paranormal has always captured her interest. The thought of finding answers to the unexplained fascinates her.

  When she’s not writing about werewolves, vampires and every other supernatural creature, she loves eating cupcakes with sprinkles, reading, spending time with family, and listening to oldies from the fifties.

  Rose suffers from Psoriatic Arthritis and has knee replacements. She might just set the world record for joint replacements. She’s soon having her hips replaced, elbows, and at least one shoulder.

  Rose lives in the beautiful commonwealth of Kentucky with her husband, son, and two sassy Chihuahuas.

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