She Wore Mourning by P.D. Workman (best desktop ebook reader .txt) 📕

“What is it?” Kenzie repeated.

Zachary’s first instinct was to crumple it into a ball and insist that it was nothing, but she was a grown woman and had made it clear she didn’t want to be lied to and protected. He handed it to her.

Kenzie’s eyes went over the page. A crease appeared between her eyes. She turned it over, examining the blank back as well.

“That’s kind of disturbing,” she said. “How often do you get these?”

“Third one from this idiot.” Zachary checked the controls for the heater again, not wanting to look at her. “Trouble is, they’re all as half-baked as that one.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, he doesn’t say which case it is!”

She looked back down at the note and gave a little laugh.

“Oh! Well, that’s an ego problem, I guess. He—or she—thinks his case is the biggest and most important, and you should know right away which one it is.”

“Exactly. He also never actually makes a threat. Or what? Drop the case, or he’ll do what?” Zachary shook his head.

“And you don’t know which case it is?”

“I can narrow it down, just because of the timeframe. There are only three or four cases that started before I got the first note that I’m still working on now.”

“And which of them would fit the profile of this note?” She squinted at it, considering. “Something personal, I would think, where someone’s reputation is at stake. With a… less-than-brilliant target.”

“I’m not sure about that. He’s smart enough to find my house and my car. It might just be ego, like you said, not lack of intelligence.”

“I suppose that’s a little more difficult… especially the car, when you’re out and about like tonight. How did he know you’d be here? Who did you tell your dinner plans to?”

“No one.” He didn’t tell her that he didn’t really have any friends close enough to care where he was going or what he was doing New Year’s Eve. That just sounded pathetic. “It’s possible he just happened to see my car in the lot and thought he’d use the opportunity.” Zachary shook his head. That didn’t sit right. He didn’t think it was a viable theory. “You stay here for a minute.”

Leaving Kenzie to enjoy the warmth of the heater, he climbed back out into the biting wind. He took a walk around the car, turning on his phone flashlight app to look for markings in the packed-down snow around the car. He couldn’t find anything suspicious. He crouched down by the bumper first at the front of the car, then the back, and took off his glove to feel under the bumper. That’s where he would have put a tracker. But it could be anywhere on the underside of the car, and he wouldn’t be able to do a thorough search until he could get underneath and examine every inch with a good light.

Zachary got back into the car.

“Anything?”

“No. Not that I could find. I’ll have to get it up on a lift later to see.”

He clenched and unclenched his fingers a few times to get the blood flowing again, and used numb fingers to turn on his GPS tracking app. The chances were not great, but it was worth a try. He searched to see if there were any transmitters nearby that he could pair with. No luck. He skimmed over the map, checking whether any of the subjects he was tracking were close by.

“What’s that?”

Kenzie was looking at his phone screen. Zachary shut it off and slid it into his pocket.

“Just a GPS app.”

“You don’t know how to get home from here?”

“I’m just checking who might live or work nearby, who might happen to drive by and see my car here.”

Kenzie put on her seatbelt. “Your car isn’t that distinctive,” she observed. “It looks like a hundred other cars in the city. Who is going to drive by and know that it’s yours?”

She was right about that. They would have to know his license plate or be following or tracking him. It wasn’t just serendipity that they had seen Zachary’s car parked at the inn.

He sighed and put the car into gear to back out, and then pulled onto the highway.

“Is it just like the other notes?”

“I… don’t know. It’s pretty generic. Why?”

“I’m just wondering if maybe it isn’t about a case. Maybe it’s your ex, and she’s trying to disrupt our date.”

“No.” Zachary was certain Bridget was nowhere close to the inn. “It’s not Bridget.”

“How can you be sure? Like you said, the note doesn’t say which case. It doesn’t actually specify any threat. Maybe that’s because she’s trying to disrupt your date, not get you off of any particular investigation. When did you start getting them? Or maybe this one is a copycat. Does Bridget know about the other two?”

“Uh… no. She doesn’t know anything about them. I’m the only one who does. Me and the person sending them.”

“And you’re one hundred percent sure that’s not Bridget.”

“One hundred percent,” Zachary agreed. His skin prickled with goosebumps at the suggestion. Zachary readjusted the direction of the heating vents, trying to get warmed up. “It’s not Bridget. You can be sure of that.”

“Okay… because you know she’s jealous about you seeing me, right?”

Zachary blew his breath out his nose. “I don’t know whether it’s because she’s jealous, or just because she’s mad at me.”

“She’s jealous.”

“Why? She’s been dating other men almost since the day we broke up. Why would she care if I start seeing someone?”

“People are rarely logical.”

There was a period of missing time.

Zachary was aware of a haze of pain. Of someone crying and shouting beside him. He couldn’t move. There were lights and voices, the chaos around him making it too difficult to focus on one thing, to figure out what was happening.

“It will be okay,” a voice told him. “Help is on its way.”

He felt as if everything were upside down. He couldn’t make heads or