“Gabby! Come here, honey!” he called out in a weird tone of voice. Braden and I glanced at each other and went to meet him in the entranceway. I saw that my dad was holding a letter of some sort.
“What is it?” I asked warily.
“It’s a letter for you, but there’s no return address and no postage.”
“Can I see that?” Braden asked.
“Sure.” Dad held it out to Braden.
“You hold on to it and tear it open carefully. I’ll come over and look over your shoulder. If it’s something suspicious we don’t want too many sets of fingerprints on it,” said Braden, the prosecutor. My dad did exactly what Braden asked. My mind was racing. Maybe it was some kind of marketing gimmick. When I got closer my hopes were dashed as I saw that the handwriting was familiar. It said, “You should stay away from him! Something very bad could happen if you don’t!”
“What the hell?!” my father exclaimed.
“What’s going on?” my mom asked, coming in from the kitchen.
“Gabby got a threatening letter!”
“From who?!”
“It’s not signed and there’s no return address.”
“Oh my God!”
“Mom! Don’t worry! It’s probably some kind of a stupid joke.”
“Threatening someone is funny?”
“It may not even be meant as a threat. It’s completely ambiguous. You can’t tell if they’re trying to warn me off because they like me, or trying to warn me off because they don’t.”
“The fact that there’s no stamp means it obviously didn’t come with the rest of the post. It must have been hand delivered,” Braden added, making even me a little weirded out. If this had been a movie, lightning would have streaked across the sky and thunder would have boomed just as he said that.
“Who even knew you were here?” my dad asked.
“Just our closest friends and Braden’s family. Nobody else and I’m sure that none of them would play this kind of joke.” I told myself firmly that it couldn’t be Cam.
“We need to report this to the police,” Braden said, sounding authoritative.
“Yes! Of course!” my father agreed. “Maybe the FBI too. If someone followed her here they crossed state lines.”
“Let’s not go crazy here, J. Edgar,” I said, rapidly feeling like this situation was getting out of control. After all, it wasn’t a death threat – at least not an explicit one. Maybe my job had made me a little numb to crime but this just didn’t feel all that serious to me.
“Gabby, this sounds threatening to me and I would rather be safe than sorry,” my mom, who had come over to read the letter, chimed in.
“I agree,” Braden added.
“That makes three of us,” my dad said. “You’re outvoted. We’re going to report it to the police and to the FBI. We’re also going to need to take precautions. We have an excellent, state of the art alarm system here. Gabby, you’re going to need something like that too.”
“I live in a secure building,” I reminded him.
“It couldn’t hurt. I’m buying you a dog too.”
“Dad, I don’t need a dog. I don’t even know if I’m allowed to have a dog in my building.”
“I’ll get her a dog,” Braden assured him.
“Thank you, Braden,” he said gratefully, patting him on the back affectionately.
“Oh my God.” I rolled my eyes.
“Of course you know that we want you two to stay together no matter what this crazy person says,” my mom said, looking almost imploringly at Braden.
“Mom, we’re not breaking up because of some stupid letter!”
“If anything, we feel like she’s safer with you, Braden. If you had been dating longer I would suggest you move in together,” my dad said with a sigh.
“You sure you didn’t send this?” I asked dryly.
“That’s not funny, Gabrielle,” my mom chastised. She was “Gabrielling” me. Ma was stressed.
“Maybe you should spend more time at my place,” Braden suggested.
“Should I bring my dog?” I asked with a smile.
“Alright, I’m going to go call Lou,” my father announced.
“Why are you calling your lawyer? Do you need investment advice?”
“I just feel like he should be in on this. Maybe he knows some cops.”
“Dad, he’s a corporate lawyer. Braden here is a prosecutor. Don’t you think he might get a little further?”
“Good point. Braden, let’s go into the study and make some calls.”
“Okay, Ben. I’m going to call some people in Philly too and have them coordinate with New York.”