Before the Dawn(21)

Tucker is here. She swallowed and would not let her emotions push her to say something she wouldn't be able to take back. He was there to help her. Nothing more, nothing less.

"The alarm didn't go off, but you think someone has been here."

She nodded. "I do." She walked toward the window. "It's small things that I notice. Things that other people might brush away." She pointed toward her bedroom. The door was open, and from her vantage point she could see the pictures that hung on her wall-a dark blue wall. She'd painted it blue because the color was supposed to soothe, to help her relax.

Only I haven't been relaxing at all lately.

"My pictures... One day, I noticed that two of them were moved. Just...switched in position." A mocking laugh came from her. "Try telling the cops that someone came in and moved your pictures for you. This is New Orleans. We had the biggest homicide rate in the US just a few years ago... The cops are too busy to worry about swapped pictures."

He stalked into her bedroom and studied the photos hanging on the wall. Dawn followed him, her steps slower. She'd taken both photos. Photography was her hobby. Another thing that was supposed to soothe her. When she'd been in therapy, her psychiatrist had been big on soothing. 

He'd actually been right about the photography, though. She liked taking her pictures. When she looked through the lens of her camera, she got lost in the moment. She forgot her past and only focused on the image she was trying to capture. She focused only on the moment. The present.

The present mattered. The past didn't. And the future? Why plan for something that could go so terribly dark?

Her breath eased out as she looked at the framed images. In one of the photos, she'd captured the sunset over the Mississippi. In another, she showed the imposing figure of the St. Louis Cathedral at nighttime.

"You and Detective Deveraux are friends. Surely he would have listened to you if you'd taken your fears to him."

It was because they were friends that she hadn't gone to him. He looked at her with respect, treated her as a colleague. She hadn't wanted him to start doubting her. And did I doubt myself? Maybe, at first, when I glanced at the photos, for a moment, even I wasn't sure... "I need more proof." She still needed it. She'd worked as a PI long enough to know that she didn't have enough evidence for the cops. So she'd tried to get evidence. Only it hadn't worked.

"Anything else happen?"

"I woke up one morning, and I could...smell him." Yes, even as she said it, Dawn knew her words sounded crazy. This is why I didn't go to Anthony. "That aftershave that Jason used to soak himself with...I smelled it. I woke up and it was all over the place." She pointed to her bed. "It was strongest right there, right next to me."

Her bed, a brass four-poster that she'd bought from an antiques store just down the street, sat in the middle of the room. A lounging chair that she used for reading was to the right of it, and a heavy cherry dresser leaned against the far wall. "Sometimes, you can think your mind is playing tricks on you. A familiar scent... Maybe you're just imagining it." Her fingers skimmed over the pillow on her bed. "But the scent was so strong. It was like he'd been standing right next to my bed, watching me. Like he was here with me." While I slept. She breathed out, nice and slowly, then turned back to face Tucker. "After that, I upgraded my security system again and...I don't think anyone has been back inside."

He was watching her with that too-bright blue stare. Goose bumps rose on her skin.

Why does he have to look so much like Jason? Her breath came faster, nearly shaking her chest. Before I'm done, you'll grow to like the pain. Jason's voice. Always in her head. Always, damn it.

Tucker moved toward her. "Dawn?"

She shook her head. She needed to get the rest of the story out, fast. "There have been a few other times, when I was out in the city that I thought someone was following me." She bit her lower lip. "I'm pretty good at spotting a tail." Mostly because she tailed others and she'd learned all the tricks of the trade. "But I could never spot him."

"Yet you're sure someone was following you?"

She faced him fully. "You know when you're being hunted."

His gaze drifted to her bed. If anything, his expression hardened more. "You should have contacted me."


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She blinked.

"I get that you thought you didn't have enough to show the local cops. You didn't want them thinking you were imagining things, didn't want to put your business at risk, but..." He took a step toward her.