“What about that?”
Luke plucked his coffee from the carrier and sank into the chair. “I guess I owe you an apology for acting like an asshole.”
“Apology accepted.”
“Well that was easy.”
“We all do stupid things for the women we love.” Ty didn’t give him a chance to argue, he just plowed right on with his drawl. “And speaking of the woman you love, I got some information and I don’t think you’re going to like it.”
“What is it?”
“I found the case file on this Clive Perry. It was pretty bad. James had a houseful of kids who were all beaten, malnourished, and suffering from neglect. Harper lived with him for about eight weeks. According to the report, one night he came home drunk and started wailing on one of the younger ones, and Harper got the others out of the house to a neighbor’s and went back for the little one.”
Luke braced his hands against his knees.
“Anyway, there was a confrontation, and she put herself between him and kid and held steady until the neighbor’s husband busted in with a shotgun and got Perry cornered in the kitchen. Police showed up and Harper was pretty beat up. Broken arm, cuts and bruises. Took her to the hospital and found she had broken ribs from an earlier beating. She told them everything. Got him put away for twelve years.”
“She was just a kid.” Luke stood up to pace Ty’s miniscule office.
“I put in a call to the investigating officer. He’s retired now, but I got him at home. He gave me the name of a rookie cop who was on the scene. Seems she bonded with Harper and the two of them have testified at every one of his parole hearings.”
“Did you talk to her yet? Does she know Harper’s a target?”
“I have not. I was about to when you showed up with Dawson’s.” He eyed up the pizza box.
“Call first, eat later.”
“On it,” Ty nodded, picking up his desk phone. “While I’m dialing, here’s a little something to brighten your day.” He slid a printout across the desk.
Luke picked it up. It was a news story, from a year and a half ago, about a building fire in the city. The lead picture was Harper, covered in ash and soot, half carrying an elderly woman in her nightgown out of the flames.
Luke pinched the bridge of his nose as a stroke threatened behind his eyes. “Christ. She just told me she was home when the fire started. She didn’t say anything about dragging people out of the building.”
“Two people and one cat,” Ty said, covering the receiver.
Luke skimmed the story while Ty talked his way through a police station switchboard.
His brave, wild girl. Ready for any challenge. He wondered how she felt about Perry. Was she scared? She was probably planning something stupid like meeting him face to face.
Like hell she would. He’d make sure that she never had to face that monster again.
“Detective Rameson? This is Deputy Adler out of Benevolence —”
“No, she’s just fine, but she is the reason I’m calling. I’m here with a ... colleague,” he darted a look at Luke. “Do you mind if I put you on speaker phone? Great.” He stabbed a button on the phone and hung up the receiver.
“You there, detective?”
“I’m here,” her voice was clipped with a touch of Jersey. “What’s happening down in Benevolence?”
“Clive Perry. What kind of a threat is he going to be to Harper?”
Luke heard her sigh. “Thank freakin’ God she finally decided to tell someone. I’ve been on her for a year. ‘Yagotta have a plan,’ I keep telling her.”
Luke snorted. Harper with a plan.
“I can tell by that response that you know her pretty well then. You’re not the asshole who dumped her, are you? God, she’s got shitty taste in men.”
Ty cleared his throat. “I’m not, but my colleague is. He’s not so much an asshole as a dumbass.”
“You ask me, pretty often they’re one and the same,” Rameson said.
“Look, we just need to know if this Perry guy is going to come after her when he gets out,” Luke cut in.
“You read the letters?” she asked.
“I read them all. Ty here read enough to call you.”
“Here’s the deal. This Perry moron writes to her every couple of months since she hits eighteen. Everywhere she goes, he finds her and the letters start again. Always the same shit ‘You owe me, you’ll pay, blah blah blah.’ Good thing is, the letters didn’t play well for him in his parole hearings. Bad thing is, he never directly threatens her. No one’s gonna take him as a serious threat unless he gets more specific, know what I mean?”