Eyes Of Danger (3 page)

I hated to disappoint Connie, but I didn’t think he was chasing after her. I was afraid he might be stalking me for some reason. I knew that there were car thieves out there, but I didn’t think there was much call for jeeps. Besides, if he had wanted to jack my ride, he would have been able to pull the wires and be out of there before I had finished talking to the store owners. He had taken my information and he wanted me to know he had that knowledge about me.

When I got back to the office, I did some research on stolen cars, including the statistics. I was right. Jeeps weren’t even on the list, but
Hondas, Accords
and
Acuras
were because they could be stolen and sold easily. There were a couple of American cars on the list, but most cars now had sophisticated alarms with tracking devices and so thieves stuck to the cheap easy cars that the parts could be sold. The current car thieves were kids, drug users, or street gangs.

Unless you were going after something special and knew what you were doing. Then, you went after the high-end tickets with special knowledge and special equipment, and the jeep was not on that list either. Now, I was learning more than I wanted to know about stealing cars along with selling parts.

Okay, I had a stalker. He knew my address and name. If he went on line with the information he had on the papers he took from the car, he had a lot of facts about me. So what could I do?

I thought about it. I could report it to the police, but then I thought about what I would say.
Yes sir, I saw him three times. Yes, once he was in the parking lot at Kohls looking at my car. Well, I think he was looking at my car. No, he didn’t do anything to the car. No, he didn’t touch it. He just turned away and left. Yes, I was sure he was looking at my car. The next time I saw him? He helped us with a guy who was attacking a friend of mine in the parking lot of a bar. No, he didn’t say anything. No, he didn’t do anything threatening to any of us. Yes, he helped us and just went away with the guy that was causing us trouble. Then the third time I saw him was today. He was leaning against my car. Then, he left. After he left I found out my personal papers were gone. No, I didn’t see him take anything. I didn’t see him have anything in his hands. I just saw him lean against my car and then leave.

I really had nothing to report so I decided I shouldn’t over react, but just watch out for myself. Maybe it was a onetime thing. Alternatively, maybe Connie was right and he was interested in her. Maybe he was just getting the information from my car. I had nothing that was of interest to car thieves, and a guy as hot looking as this one would probably be more interested in Connie. Okay, what was it I was thinking the other day? Simple for Connie, complicated for me. Could it be just that I was over thinking and my weird warning signal was finally turning sour on me?

The next couple of days, I was careful coming and going. I parked close to wherever I had to stop. I did not delay on coming or going. I didn’t see him and I didn’t get any of my warning signals. Unfortunately, I was so distracted that I began to screw up on my reports and although my boss was a pretty nice guy, he finally called me in to ask me what kind of problem I had?

“I don’t want to pry into anything personal, but if you need a couple days off, let me know.” He smiled.

I liked him and I loved my job. Usually everyone worked on individually assigned projects. I got to work quietly alone in my own little cubby—my computer and me. I loved history, getting away from this world and into another that made more sense to me. I didn’t want to screw anything up that would reflect negative to me or to him with his customers.

“Hey, I am sorry, and I will get this under control. Just need to snap back. I owe you the apology for letting a silly personal thing interfere with my work. It won’t happen again.”

He looked at me a long time. “Michelle, you never take time off, and tracking info on the computers can wear a person out. If you do need time off, just call in a let me know. Okay?” Again, he gave me that fatherly smile that I had seen before and believed was genuine.

I got up feeling so guilty because I had this great job working for such a nice guy. “Thanks, Steve. I appreciate it. Let me work through this. I promise I will get my head on right. I’ll see that all research is done properly. I know how important the background checks are for you to your customers.”

I heard him sigh. “Michelle, I think in some ways, I have taken advantage of you. Before you came to work for us, we just threw together brochures and pasted in photos of sites from places people might want to travel and explore. Since, then, you have taken over and researched, and pulled together information that has piqued the interest that no one else has even thought about obtaining. We have people from all over contacting us about the unique historical planned tours.”

He looked at me and then looked down at the most recent printouts I had done. Even with the mistakes, they were colorful and interesting. “Please let me help you as much as you have helped us.”

All I could do was nod, keeping my head down as I went back to my computer to work through lunch. I didn’t want to tell him about my strange issue at the mail drop. It was beginning to seem just too weird to discuss at this time.

At quitting time, I decided to call Connie and tell her about the strange experience that day because she understood weird. She agreed with me that the guy was probably looking for her. She had no shame and a very large ego. She had a need for the next man in her life. We agreed to meet on Friday, this time just the two of us without a lot of bar hopping. She let me pick the spot and what we would wear so I didn’t have to go shopping. Hooray.

By Friday, I had decided that I had too vivid of an imagination. I was ready to get lost in Connie’s silly fantasies. I got dressed in jeans with a tight top that had tiny straps. I grabbed a comfortable sweater that matched. I pulled out my only good piece of jewelry, a nice piece of carved jade on a long thin gold necklace. I liked it because I had always had it, and it brought out the green in my brown eyes, actually listed as hazel on my driver’s license. Hazel sounded so nice, but next to Connie’s blue eyes and heavy makeup, I still felt just normal.

I had decided on a meal at a chain restaurant followed by a movie at one of the ABC movie houses. I loved these houses because they stacked the seats so you could always see over the person in front of you. For some reason this also seemed to cut down on the noise. The high ceiling and each row about a foot and a half higher that the next, let the sound of the rude talkers seem to get lost. You could actually hear and enjoy the movie.

Connie was up to par. She had me laughing and wondering how such a woman as she was could really exist in the world. She talked about a new skirt, then in the next breath she talked about a new position she and her present beau were in last night. I held up my hands to indicate TMI, especially since her voice carried and those at the next table were also laughing reacting to her descriptions.

We were late for the movie—well, with Connie, we were late for most things, so I had come to accept this. I didn’t allow it to upset me. Besides, these theatres set up a lot of sneaky advertisements before the movie actually started, so the only penalty for being late was finding your seat in the semi dark. We found a couple of seats and settled down to relax.

I really enjoyed the show, then we joined the mob as we made our way out, being pushed as other shows also let out. This was one of the weaknesses of the design for these theatres, as there were eighteen screens. Several of them let out at the same time, so there was this press of people to one side to leave while the front was full of the entering customers. Most of these big multi units could let people out both sides, but due to parking problems, this one had only one side exit area. It was large with several glass doors for exits, but it did create a jam at times.

Then, I had one of those
Michelle warning signals
. Was there danger in here? I stopped as several people bumped into me. One guy swore at me for blocking the way. I took a step forward, but looked around. I could see Connie’s head bobbing along about ten feet ahead. I was beginning to feel panicky because there were so many people who were packed so tightly. The warning feeling of something wrong was here, making me feel like a sniper was watching me in his crosshairs. I knew I was breathing too fast. I needed to control this or I was going to hyperventilate. Another man pushed me roughly, shoving me into someone else who mumbled at me. I was just stumbling along, in the way and being jolted on all sides by people in a hurry to get out to find their cars. I needed to reach Connie, but I also needed to get away from this push of bodies.

Then, a hand reached out and closed around my upper arm, pulling me sideways through the crowd until I found myself shoved up against the wall away from the rush. I took a breath, then looked up into the dark eyes. He stood in front of me, protecting me from the moving river of people. He reached down to lift the little jade hanging from its chain. He then looked from it to my eyes. I wasn’t sure I wanted to look into those dark eyes this close. He only looked at me for a second, then let go. He then moved away, disappearing in the river of people moving past me.

I leaned against the wall just trying to catch my breath. I took a minute to decide what had happened. I noticed that the crowd was thinning out. I knew that Connie would be looking for me. I pushed off and was surprised that my legs moved properly because my hands were shaking. I found Connie on the sidewalk, talking to a couple of guys, as usual. They all looked over at me greeting me with a smile from all three.

“Michelle, these nice gentlemen have invited us out for a drink. What do you say?” Connie accompanied this with a flutter of eyelashes at the guys.

I hesitated, then tried a smile again. “Sorry, everyone, but I ate something that didn’t agree with me.” I just pushed past them, heading for my jeep. I was almost to the jeep in the large parking lot when Connie finally caught up with me. I was still shaking inside and knew I needed to sit down before the shaking reached my legs.

“Hey, that was pretty rude. Are you really sick?”

Connie tried to keep up with me, but I didn’t slow down. I got to the jeep, slid in, fastened my belt, and started the motor. She fumbled with the door, taking a moment climbing into the high step to get into her seat in that tight short skirt of hers.

“Michelle, are you mad at me? What happened?”

I pulled out impatiently into the traffic lines of the cars, leaving the movie parking lot to the main road. Finally, I realized I really was gripping the wheel too tight. I needed to get some control. I tried some deep breaths and I deliberately drove slower. I felt myself calm down, but I knew I was still scared. Okay, this guy was following me, not Connie. It was
me
that had been pulled against the wall. Connie was long gone in the flow of bodies, finding men to flirt with. I was the one looking into the dangerous dark eyes too close for comfort.

When I finally steadied my breathing and felt I could speak, caught up with her, and we got into my car, I exclaimed, “Connie, I have a stalker.”

Connie was tying a scarf around her hair, but she looked over at me. “The hunk?”

She was only playing dumb. She was right on when it came to good-looking men.

“Yes.” I drove carefully, keeping to the outside lane.

“You sure he is a problem? I mean, he really is handsome in a rugged way. Sex pours off him like the guy in the movie.”

I looked over at her and she made me smile. Only Connie could do that under such serious conditions. Then, I got a shiver down my back.

“I am sure he took papers out of my jeep, so he knows my name and address. He was in the crowd in there. I was getting pushed around by the crowd and he pulled me out to the side, then took off.” I took a deep breath remembering the eyes.

Connie looked over at me. I could see her movement out of the corner of my eye. “Well, taking the papers isn’t nice, but so far everything else seems okay. I mean, he helped save me, and now he helped save you from a crowd. Are you sure he means any harm? Maybe it is just that he would like to meet you.”

I quickly looked at her, but then rapidly put my eyes back at the road. Connie still believes in Cinderella and Prince Charming.

“No, I am getting some kind of bad vibe from him.”

Connie sat silently through a red light before she spoke, “What, you think he wants to hurt you? What I mean is that guys who beat up women wear cut up tee shirts and forget to take baths. He is too cute to be a serial killer and I don’t think I saw him on TV as a bank robber.”

Oh, Connie, sweet Connie
.

“I don’t know. The funny thing is, I
don’t
know. I am so mixed up. I feel like I am in some kind of danger. Like tonight, when he looked down at me, I felt safe, like he wouldn’t hurt me.” I shook my head. “I am one confused idiot, but I do know, I don’t want to be around him. There is danger and I just can’t figure what kind or what it involves.”

We drove on in silence and we were almost to Connie’s house before I felt the need to unload some more.

“I get the feeling that he is trying to find out something, but I don’t know what it is.” I pulled in her driveway.

Connie sat for a moment and then slowly got out.

“Call me over the weekend so we can talk. You scare me and I think you need some help. You know…someone to talk to.” She gave me a kiss on the cheek and was gone.

I drove home thinking about her words. Was I really losing it? Had some nice guy just happened to be in the wrong place and I read too much into it? Had my warning signal finally proved to be just a silly flutter in my brain that said I was a little nuts? Maybe I did need to talk to someone.

Years ago, when my parents were still there to support me, there had been an effort to get me some help. Two tries, and they both had been disastrous.

The first was with a nice lady who was so sweet that I felt she needed to take an insulin shot after each meeting. Of course, the lady agreed with everything I said and agreed that I did have special talents. She also felt the only answer for me was drugs. Fortunately, my parents said
Hell No
and decided to wait a couple of years.