CHAPTER FIVE

This time, Nate’s departure wasn’t quite at tortuous for Olivia. Like always, she still had a hard time letting him go, but it helped knowing that they would be together again soon. It also helped that she had exams to finish grading and paperwork to file at the Bureau. Nate was gone three days before she really had time to miss him. Except at night. She always missed his warm body at night.

Olivia finished everything a day earlier than she expected, so she changed her flight to leave Friday morning rather than Saturday. That was one less day she would have to be away from Nate. Olivia could picture the surprised look that would register on his face when he saw her and it made her smile as she packed her bags. Nate had been so busy working the latest murder in Chicago that they had only exchanged a few texts all week.

As she moved a stack of books from her bedside table, an envelope fell to the floor. Olivia scooped it up and was surprised to see her name scrawled on it in tight handwriting. For just a second, she wondered if Nate had left it for her to find, but she knew Nate’s handwriting better than her own and this wasn’t it. Inside the envelope was one picture and no note. She slid the picture out and stared at it in confusion.

It was a picture of Olivia and Nate, taken on the front steps of her apartment when he was leaving for the airport. She flipped the picture over and found a message on the back:

He left you alone.

Olivia immediately understood that it wasn’t a message, but rather it was a threat. The next thing that ran through her head was that the note had been left in her apartment. She quickly spun around and checked the room, even though she knew it was empty. One nice thing about a studio apartment was that she didn’t have to creep down long hallways and enter dark bedrooms to check for an intruder.

The piercing ring of her phone made her jump and even yelp out loud. Olivia felt a wave of relief when she saw Nate’s name on the screen.

“Nate.” She breathed heavily into the phone, struggling to catch her breath.

“Liv, honey, what’s wrong?” Nate’s voice was clear and steady.

She sank onto the bed, still holding the picture. “He was here,” she said in a whisper.

“Who was there?” Nate’s tone became more urgent. “Tell me what is going on, Olivia.”

“I found an envelope in my apartment. It had my name on it and there was a picture inside.” She sucked in a shaking breath and let it out slowly as her heart slowly returned to a more normal rate. “It’s a picture of us, Nate, taken outside my apartment when you were here.”

“You found a picture of us in your apartment?” Nate swore deeply. “Are you there right now?”

Olivia swallowed hard. “Yes.”

“Has anyone else been there with you since I left?” Nate said.

“Is that your subtle way of trying to find out if I’ve been whoring around?” Olivia joked lamely.

Nate sighed. “Liv, this is important.”

“No one else has been here, Nate. You’re my only sleepover buddy.” She flipped the picture over and studied the handwriting on the back. “There’s more. He wrote a message on the back.”

Another swear from Nate. “A threat?”

“Something like that.” Olivia tried to read the message as quickly and unemotionally as possible. “It says, he left you alone.”

Nate was quiet for almost a minute. Olivia could picture him running a hand through his hair as he quietly blamed himself for the whole thing even though that was ridiculous. “Liv, stay in your apartment. Don’t leave. Don’t let anyone in until you hear from me again. I’m going to call some of my contacts in D.C.”

“Please don’t worry, Nate. I’m fine. I’ll be back in Chicago soon anyway.” As she said it, she wondered if that was a good or bad thing. Maybe the person watching her knew that she would only be on her own in D.C. for another day. Maybe that would make him accelerate whatever he had planned for her.

“I should have stayed with you,” Nate said quietly. “I thought that maybe when I stopped getting the messages from him that he had moved on. I thought maybe the whole thing was just a prank. But he followed you to another city, Olivia. You’ve studied creeps like this. What does it mean?”

“It means he’s escalating. He feels more confident.” Olivia forced herself to stay calm. “It means he’s likely to make physical contact with me in some way, if he hasn’t already.”

She knew there was a chance that she had already met the man that was stalking her. Either because their meeting is what had triggered his behavior, or because he was already attempting to get close to her as he plotted his next move.

“Stay put, Liv. I’ll get back to you soon.” Nate said a quick goodbye and hung up, leaving Olivia reeling.

She had almost 24 hours to kill before her flight home and all her stuff was packed. Since she couldn’t leave, Olivia flipped on the television. There was nothing on but soap operas and crime show reruns. She tried reading for a while, but she couldn’t concentrate on the words on the page. Every sound she heard outside the window made her think that someone was trying to break in.

Olivia eventually dozed off, falling asleep to the sound of a district attorney passionately pleading for a conviction. She woke with a start at a loud knock on her door. The sun was still shining brightly through the window, so she knew she hadn’t been asleep for long.

The knocking continued and Olivia moved cautiously toward the door. She knew that if it was the person stalking her, he wouldn’t bother knocking. That didn’t make her feel any less anxious as she peered through the peephole.

The air left her lungs and she threw open the door. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Good to see you, too,” Nate said with a lopsided grin that made Olivia’s heart soar. “Also, I thought I told you not to open the door for anyone.”

Olivia would normally have made some retort about how she’d learned a long time ago not to listen to him, but the relief of having him a foot away negated any desire to make a snappy comeback and she lunged at him.

“I’ll always open the door if you’re on the other side,” she said as his arms went around her. She felt the weight of the morning slip away. “Should we move this inside? Apparently, there might be a weirdo standing across the street snapping pictures of us.”

Nate tensed. “I already checked.”

“I’m sure you did,” Olivia said with a wry smile. She stepped back and pulled him into the apartment. “You never answered my question. Why are you here?”

“I would think the answer to that would be obvious.” Nate looked over her shoulder and spotted her packed bags. “I thought you weren’t leaving until this weekend?”

“I changed my flight to get home earlier. I wanted to surprise you.” She glared at him. “Way to ruin the surprise.”

He grinned. “You like me. You really like me.”

“Right now, not so much,” Olivia muttered. It was hard pretending to be annoyed when she was so excited to see him. “I notice you didn’t bring a bag.”

“I kind of left right from work when you called,” he admitted sheepishly. “All I could think about was getting to you as fast as possible.”

His words were sweet, but also sobering. Olivia was reminded that this visit wasn’t about an inability to be away from her. Nate feared for her safety so much that he had jumped on a plane and flown hundreds of miles to check on her.

“The picture is on the table,” Olivia said.

“Get me a plastic bag,” Nate said, picking up the picture at the corner with the tips of his fingers. He slid it into the freezer bag that Olivia handed him and did the same with the envelope. “I doubt he was dumb enough to leave prints, but maybe we’ll get lucky.”

“I already got lucky the day I met you,” Olivia said with a wink. She wanted to keep Nate from getting too serious because she hated it when he treated her like another case he was working. “Play your cards right and you will definitely get lucky again soon.”

“Liv,” he scolded her without much conviction. “This is serious.”

She decided to ignore him and unbuttoned his suit jacket. “It’s not any more serious than the other pictures he sent you before. Why are you so bent out of shape this time?”

“Because I think you were right about him escalating,” Nate said, gently pushing her hands away. “Something happened in Chicago that you need to know about. It might be related to this.”

“Another note?” she guessed, taking a seat on the bed. If Nate wasn’t going to let her touch him, she needed to put some distance between them.

“Not exactly.” He pulled over a chair and sat across from Olivia. “A fourth woman was killed. She was 31, lived alone, worked as an accountant downtown. She fit the same victimology as the other women.”

Olivia still didn’t understand how this was related to her stalker. “I’m not following.”

“Vince did a good background on the vic, and he made a somewhat concerning discovery. Do you know someone named Quinn Daniels?”

“I went to school with someone with that name, back in Mercy. But it can’t be the same person, can it?” Olivia knew from looking at Nate that it was, in fact, the exact same person.

“The latest victim was in your class at Mercy High School. On its own, maybe it’s just a crazy coincidence.” Nate ran his hand through his hair. “But there’s more.”

It was all starting to come together. The victim had gone to high school with Olivia and her body was found just a few days before she found the picture in her apartment. “What else did you find?” she asked.

“I found her yearbook in her condo. I’m not even sure what made me thumb through it, but when I got to the page with your picture on it, it was circled in black marker. Either Quinn was a big fan of yours, or someone else has you targeted.” Nate shrugged. “I’m not taking any chances when it comes to your safety.”

“Your supposed to be solving a murder case, not visiting your girlfriend.” Olivia nearly smiled as she said that word. It felt good to officially be Nate’s girlfriend again.

“This isn’t a social visit,” Nate protested. “I’m here in my official public servant capacity.”

Olivia pressed her lips together to keep from smiling. “So you’re here to serve me?”

“I thought I asked you to take this seriously.” Nate wasn’t as successful fighting a smile. “Vince is glad you’re coming back.”

“Because he missed me so much?” she teased.

“Because I missed you so much. I haven’t exactly been a jolly partner these last few months,” Nate admitted. “Turns out not being with you has a dramatic effect on my normally rosy personality.”

“You’ve been grumpy?” Olivia summarized with a smirk. “Shocking.”

Nate narrowed his eyes at her. “Whatever happened to the Olivia that used to adore me?”

“She’s right here, Nater. Still madly in love with you.” Olivia stood and put both hands on his shoulders as she leaned down to kiss him. He brushed away her long hair, and softly caressed her cheek. All the ugliness of the day faded and Olivia said, “Take me home, Nate.”