Intercepting Love (Second Chances #5)(49)

No, I screamed in my mind. Luke hadn’t caused any problems since I made my decision. Why would he do such a thing?

By the time Cooper and Lara made it back to the house, the police finally pulled up. “Did you get the license plate number?” I asked.

Cooper shook his head. “No, it was too dark. They had too much of a head start.” It was then he looked down and noticed that the tires on his car had been slashed. “What the f*ck?” he growled.

Lara came to my side and put her arm around me, shaking and breathing hard. “We have never had anything like this happen in our neighborhood.”

When the officer got out of his car, he shined his flashlight around my yard and approached us. “I’m Officer Stilwell. What’s going on here tonight?” he asked, looking back and forth at all three of us. He was pretty muscular, with a shaved head and blond goatee, and probably around my age or maybe slightly older.

“Well, Officer, it was probably about twenty minutes ago when Lara,” I said, pointing to her, “called me and told me that she saw someone lurking around my house. They had a car parked up the road and it looked to be something like a blue Toyota Camry or something along those lines. We didn’t get a license plate number or anything.”

“I see. And who lives here?” he asked, pointing to my house.

I lifted my hand. “I do. My name is Kate Townsend.”

He nodded and pointed to Cooper. “And you are, sir?”

“I’m Cooper Davis. I live in that house over there,” he said, pointing to the one beside Lara’s.

“And I’m Lara Jacobs. I live next door.”

“Did any of you get a good look at the person? Were they male or female? Did they steal anything?”

We all shook our heads, but then I pointed to the car. “They didn’t steal anything, but they did slash Cooper’s tires.”

The officer shone his flashlight around the car until he got to the knife. “Do you have any enemies, Mr. Davis? Or anyone that you’ve pissed off recently.” Pulling out a glove from his pocket, he took the knife out of the car and inspected it.

Cooper laughed halfheartedly. “I’m sure I have plenty of enemies, Officer, but I can’t think of anyone that would want to do this.” He glanced at me quickly and I could tell he was lying. He knew he had pissed off Luke. I wonder why he’s not saying anything.

“Do any of you know someone with the initials of LC?” Officer Stilwell asked, holding up the knife.

Lara gasped, putting her hand over her mouth. “I take it that means yes. Care to tell me who?”

Nervously, Lara glanced over at me, leaving me no choice but to tell the officer what I knew. “It’s Luke Collins, Officer. That’s his knife.”

“And how do you know it’s his?”

“I know it’s his because I bought it for him for his birthday. I had his initials engraved into it.”

Fuming, Cooper crossed his arms at the chest and mumbled something to himself. He was pissed and I couldn’t blame him. I had no idea Luke would ever do something like this and leave the evidence behind.

Officer Stilwell walked around the car, shining his flashlight this way and that. “It looks like we need to pay Luke Collins a little visit. Do any of you know why he would do such a thing?”

My gaze went straight to Cooper.

“Ah, I see,” Officer Stilwell said. “I take it he didn’t get the girl.”

Spotting something on the ground, he shone his light onto it and picked it up. Cooper walked around his car and looked down as well.

“Does this mean something to you?” he asked Cooper. “It says this is your second warning. When was the first one?”

Marching to their side of the car, I glared down at what the officer had in his hands and then up to Cooper. “What is that? What does it mean by second warning?”

Cooper sighed and hung his head. “I was going to tell you tonight, but then we got distracted. There was a first warning last Saturday.”

“Was it just a note that time?” Officer Stilwell asked.

“Yeah, but it was on my car in my driveway, not Kate’s. It said to stay away from her and that it was my first warning. That’s all it said.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I snapped, interrupting them.

Sighing, Cooper came up to me and gently took my hands in his. “Because he’s your friend and I know you care about him.”

Officer Stilwell took the note and the knife to his patrol car and bagged the evidence. “All right, I’m going to take this stuff to the station and find out where Mr. Collins is at. As soon as we find out what’s going on, we’ll get in touch with you. Before I go I’m going to need your phone numbers.”

He handed us a notebook and pen, so we all three wrote our numbers down. “If Luke did this, what will you do to him?” I asked, handing him the notebook.

“There’s probably not much we can do other than make him pay for the damages and charge him with a misdemeanor. Now if he tried to harm you or anyone else here then the charges would be different. The only problem with these types of scenarios is that the issues tend to escalate. The first warning was a note, this time it was slashed tires. What’s it going to be next week?”

“I understand,” I said with a nod. “You have a point.”