This wasn’t about one month. It was about the larger pattern.
After the fifth note, the list had dwindled to half. I crossed off any names that didn’t appear in a month when a note was delivered. Sadly, that still amounted to a lot of names. Including Terrance’s.
What I’d failed to take into account was that many people would be on the same schedule if they liked the complex tattoos Ahanti was known for. They needed design work ahead of time. Plus, many had to be done in stages, allowing the skin to heal in between. It seemed like a lot of Ahanti’s projects stretched out over months.
I rubbed at my eyes. When I dropped my hands, Ahanti stood in the doorway. “Eddie and I were wondering how it’s going.”
Her voice was the kind of soft people got when they wanted to put a tiff behind them without actually talking about it. Even though we hadn’t had a real argument, I was just as happy to move forward.
Might as well put the best possible spin on it. “I’ve already eliminated half the names on my initial list. I should have it down to one or two solid possibilities to give to the police by the end of the day.”
Her smile said thank you for everything even though she never actually said the words.
She ducked back out of the room, but returned a minute later. “I’m going to run across the street and grab us some subs for a late lunch. You want me to get you one? I think we could all use some food before we get back to it.”
My mouth watered before I could form a conscious response. A glance at my watch told me I’d already been at it two hours. No wonder Ahanti had cooled off.
I pushed back the chair and joined her in the main room. Eddie’d been face down on the table. He maneuvered to a sitting position with the cautiousness of someone with a bad sunburn. His back probably didn’t feel much better than if that was what he had. The brief glance at his skin showed a huge red patch where Ahanti’d been working.
I shuddered and averted my eyes.
Ahanti handed Eddie a slip of paper to write his order, and he passed it along to me.
My eyes struggled to focus. Something niggled at my mind, and the tightness in my throat that often preceded an anxiety attacked clawed at me.
I drew a stabilizing breath and scribbled down my order. It was probably just the fear that I might soon need glasses. It wasn’t ego that made me hate the thought. It was that it’d get expensive fast if I misplaced my glasses as often as everything else.
The tightness moved down my throat, into my chest, as I finished writing down what I wanted. Maybe it wasn’t the prospect of glasses. Maybe what was bothering me was that Ahanti sounded like she planned to go for the subs herself rather than letting me or Eddie or Lucas go.
I kept hold on the paper. “Wouldn’t it be better if I picked up the order?” I held out the paper and pen to her. “You could write down what you want.”
Ahanti grabbed the paper, leaving the pen behind. “I told you last night. I’m not going to be a prisoner in my life. It was turning me into a wreck. You can watch me go and come back from the front window. It’s perfectly safe.”
I couldn’t stop her if she’d made up her mind. Blocking the door physically would only make her angry, and she could still go out the back door.
Perhaps if it was two against one. I gave Eddie a help-me-out-here eyebrow raise.
Ahanti was already halfway to the door. “Don’t think he’ll back you up. He thinks it’s a good idea to live my life as normally as possible.”
What the heck, Eddie! He should know better considering Ahanti had told him about Cary. Since she’d told him what I was working on, presumably he knew about Terrance as well.
“Take Lucas,” I yelled after her just before the front door swished shut.
Whether she signaled Lucas or he heard me, he climbed out of his car and trailed after her. I watched them cross the street, then spun back around with a scowl.
Eddie stood right behind me, looking out the front door as well. A little too close behind me.
“She’s safe,” he said. “I won’t let anyone hurt her.”
My skin felt like it was trying to shiver off my arms. That assertion sounded a lot more like it was directed at me than at Ahanti’s stalker.
I stepped back, but there was only so far I could go. The door stopped my progress, and I couldn’t open it without either moving forward or to the side. Why hadn’t I gone with Ahanti?
Eddie didn’t come any closer.
Maybe I was overreacting. This situation hadn’t been as stressful on me as on Ahanti, but according to my counselor, I had a mild case of PTSD from everything I’d been through. It wasn’t impossible that I was reading too much into Eddie’s voice and body language.
I shifted to face him, abandoning my search for an escape route, and offered a truce smile. My gaze landed on the tattoo on his chest, and the smile died.
I’d seen some of Eddie’s tattoos in design form, but I’d never seen this one before. It wasn’t one Ahanti had designed since I’d known her, and this was the first time I’d seen Eddie’s naked chest close up. The actual inking process made me squeamish, so I always chatted with Terrance in the back or faced my chair away while Ahanti worked. In the past, when Eddie’s shirt came off, it signaled that I should turn away.
Now I couldn’t turn away. Right over his heart, the pattern formed what looked like a gift box. It was subtle. The design was made in such a way that it reminded me of those Magic Eye puzzles that used to give me a headache from crossing my eyes to see the hidden image.
But I saw it. It couldn’t be anything else.
Dear God protect me. Eddie was Ahanti’s stalker.
20
My throat felt like I’d swallowed a hornet and it went down stinging.
We hadn’t considered Eddie as a possibility for Ahanti’s stalker because he hadn’t been in the day the picture of Geoff appeared. I hadn’t thought to reconsider him now that we knew Terrance sent that photo.
Eddie’s name was on my list in the back, and even then, I hadn’t put the pieces together. He was just Eddie. Quiet, helpful, always-around Eddie.
Eddie, who got more tattoos than was normal and always wanted touch-ups on tattoos Ahanti thought were still fine.
Eddie, who had access to her apartment and the code to her security system because he’d installed it. Which gave him plenty of time to also install the smoke detector with the hidden camera and microphone. He might have even filched it from work. A lot of security companies now offered systems that allowed owners to covertly monitor their homes while they were at work or on vacation or to make sure the babysitter or nanny wasn’t abusing their kids.
