Claiming Sarah (Ace Security #5)(23)

“I started receiving the first gifts not too long after that. At first I didn’t know who they were from, and I was flattered. First was the flowers sent to work. Then candy. The first time he signed his name to one of the gifts, I was completely confused. I had to think to even remember who Owen was. Then the letters started. They also came to work at first, but then I started receiving them at home.

“That freaked me out. But not as much as the presents. They continued to come. As you probably saw from the pictures, it’s not as if he went to the store and bought them. They look like something he picked up from around the house, wrapped up, and sent. The drinking glasses with the note that said he dreamed of sitting on the porch of his house and sipping tea with me as the sun went down. The stuffed animal that was missing an eye. Or the God-awful pillow that seemed like it probably came from his couch. They were weird gifts.” Sarah shuddered. “I’ve seen him here and there a few times, but recently not as much.”

“What did he do when you saw him?” Blake asked.

“This was a month or so ago, and the last time I talked to him in person. I was at a take-out Mexican place near my house to pick up dinner, and he pulled into the parking lot while I was at the counter. I wouldn’t normally have confronted him, but I was frustrated and worried. I grabbed my dinner and stormed out of the restaurant. He had a big smile on his face when he saw me, and even as I told him that I was sorry but I didn’t feel the same way about him as he obviously did about me, and that he should stop sending me presents and letters, he still smiled. It was as if he didn’t even hear what I was saying.

“After a few minutes of him smiling creepily at me and not saying a word, I just turned around and left. I drove around for thirty minutes, making sure I wasn’t being followed before I went home. Which was stupid, because he already knew where I lived since he’d been dropping off gifts and notes for a while. I haven’t seen him since. And I actually hoped I’d finally gotten lucky and he’d gotten the message, but then the letters and gifts started up again not too long after that confrontation. No such luck. And now . . . that.” She shrugged and gestured to the cookbook in the middle of the table.

“Do we know where Owen lives?” Ryder asked the group.

Nathan had a computer in front of him and had been concentrating on it while they’d been talking. “A search of public records shows his address as the same as his mother’s here in Castle Rock. I shot Alexis an email to see what she could find, and she just replied and said that it looks like there hasn’t been a payment made on the house since Aubrey Montrone passed away a few months ago, and the loan company is starting the process to foreclose.”

“Does he work?” Logan asked.

Nathan shook his head. “If he does, I haven’t been able to find out where. But I’m guessing the answer is no. Alexis says there have been regular payments from the disability office deposited into a joint account he shares with his mother.”

“Disability?” Cole asked. “What kind?”

“No clue,” Nathan said calmly.

“I’m surprised Alexis hasn’t found out already,” Blake said. “She’s gotten scarily good at that shit after working with that retired Navy SEAL guy.”

Sarah’s gaze went from one man to the next as they talked. She almost felt as if they were discussing someone else’s life and not her own. It was a peculiar feeling. But she couldn’t deny the sense of relief. They were taking this seriously. They weren’t blowing her off because the gifts and letters all seemed to be sent with love and not hate.

“When you were eating with him, besides him not really saying much, did anything else strike you as off about him?” Logan asked.

Sarah tilted her head in question. “What do you mean?”

“Don’t think too hard,” he urged gently. “Just tell us your initial reactions to him.”

She nodded and closed her eyes, trying to remember that lunch so long ago. “I was tired, as the shift had already been tough . . . I had a lot of very needy patients . . . sometimes that happens, they seem to come in bunches. Anyway, I was kinda irritated at Aubrey for pressuring me into lunch with her son in the first place, but I didn’t want to be mean. I figured we both had to eat, so why not? The first sort of weird thing was in the elevator.” She paused, trying to figure out how to put her feelings into words.

None of the men rushed her. They let the silence stand as she thought. Cole hadn’t said anything since she’d started talking, but his hand on her thigh let her know he was still there and still very concerned about her.

Her eyes opened, and she looked around the table. “You know how, when you get in an elevator, there are certain unwritten rules? The first person stands by the buttons. The second stands across from the first, near the wall. The third goes into the back left corner. If there’s a fourth, he or she goes into the other corner. The fifth typically stands against the back wall. Now, if there are more people who get in, they stand in the middle, or against one of the walls, filling in the spaces. Then everyone faces the doors or looks at the numbers as the elevator goes up or down.”

“Owen didn’t do that?” Ryder asked.

“No. There were already two people in there when the car arrived, and I went to the back left corner. Owen stood in the middle of the elevator with his back to the doors and stared at me.” Sarah felt silly even mentioning it.