SACRIFICES (32 page)

              Jenny looks away not knowing what to say. She looks back at him and asks. “We were together for the first time last night. How could he have known about me? Is it possible he was referring to another woman?” Jenny shrugs not understanding.

              Brad chuckles. “There is
no
possibility of another woman. He obviously saw you and me together at the Waterloo pub the first time we met remember?” Brad smiles. “I haven’t even been on a date in two months. And when I did it was just a dinner date. No this guy must be watching my every move.”

              Jenny smiles feeling extremely flattered. “So you think that the letter was referring to me?”

              “It would have to be. I think that this guy has been either bugging the office or even my house. I know at least once they got into the house. They sent me a tape in the mail that showed them walking through the house. The creep even videotaped my son while he was sleeping.” Brad tells her as the thought still gives him the creeps.

              Jenny gasps and covers her mouth. “They broke into
this
house?”

              Brad explains feeling frustrated as he remembers the tape. “They got in. I don’t know if they actually broke in. They might have picked a look or opened a latch. Any way you look at it they got in.”

              Jenny quickly asks. “Is the house safe now?”

              “I think so. It has a great security system on it. And it’s monitored to directly to the police headquarters. I feel pretty safe now, but it did no one any good today because I left if off because you were here and I didn‘t have time to show you how to work it. After last night, I wasn’t thinking to clearly this morning.” He forces a smile. “I mean that in a good way of course.”

              Jenny smiles and tells him. “That’s good enough for me. If you feel safe then I feel safe.”

              Brad looks away. “I hate to say this but the letter mentioned hurting someone I care about. I know my son is safe and all of the officers mentioned are aware of the threats. But now it’s different. Now
you
could be in danger and I don’t want to put you in the line of fire. This guy is extremely dangerous and I don’t think he’d hesitate to kill anyone,” Brad takes a deep breath and looks toward the ground.
“…Even you
.”

              Jenny looks away. Brad can tell she’s obviously shocked by all of this. How could she not be? Although he feels better for telling her he also feels worse because she’s most likely going to need to get away from Brad to avoid danger. The sound of that idea to Brad isn’t a good idea. He’s growing fonder of her by the minute. But what’s best and safest for her is most important.

              “Well, so why did you act so funny when I mentioned that guy in the black Camry?” Jenny absorbs all of this information.

              Brad tries to explain. “It’s a little hard to explain that one. I mean at one time there were reports of a black Toyota Camry at or around the sight of a couple of the attacks before or after the attacks,” Jenny listens. “…So anyway when we tried to find a link to the vehicles we checked vehicles that were ticketed during that time and a couple suspects came up but they all checked out.”

              “So why are thinking that car could be the guy doing this?” Jenny stretches her arms wanting to know why he feels that was the guy.

              “Actually honey until you told me about the black Camry just a little while ago I already dismissed it. But I think that now with it being seen in front of
my house
that it’s more than a coincidence. You know what I mean? Did you happen to get a look at the guy?” Brad smiles trying to hide his fear feeling more scared for her than anything else.

              Jenny starts to crawl over to him and she lays her head in his lap and asks. “No not really, just a quick look at the back of his head. He had blond hair for sure. But from upstairs I couldn’t tell you how tall or how big he was. I only saw him for a few seconds and the tree blocked most of that. So you think that was the guy that’s killing people that I seen today walking to the car?” Jenny looks up nervously.

              Brad looks away and nods his head. “Yes.”

              Jenny wraps her arms around him and looks up again.

“Now I’m really scared.”

              Brad leans down and kisses her on top of the head and says. “Me to.”

              After a few minutes of Brad holding Jenny he tries to make her feel more relaxed by assuring her that he’d take care of her. She puts on a good front but Brad can sense she is really scared about all of this. Jenny tells him she’s fine and not worried anymore. But Brad can see in her gorgeous green eyes that she’s scared and so is he.

BRAD AND JENNY SWIM FOR A WHILE AND COOK ON THE GRILL

             
They try to not talk about what’s obviously weighing on their minds. Brad fears that this guy is about to do something drastic and he’s concerned about Jenny‘s safety.

Jenny appears to be all right on the outside but Brad knows she must be terrified down deep. The guy making the threats is a cold-blooded killer and she just found out that it’s possible she could be his next target. He tries to enjoy this beautiful Friday night with Jenny not knowing how many more nights they’ll share together before she returns home from her vacation.

              They play around in the pool and sit on the deck drinking Margaritas and talking after dinner. The food was excellent. It’s getting dark as the time passes into the night. They’re having fun and both try to forget about the danger around them. Brad can’t do it. He’s smiling on the outside but nervous on the inside. Wanting to know more about the couple that turned up missing is eating away at him. He feels that’s going to be the only way to find out who’s doing this. Finding that link will be the key to the entire investigation. The file that Tammy, Dorothy and Betty compiled is in his briefcase and he hasn’t looked through it yet. He wants to but he doesn’t want to lose a minute with Jenny. He thinks that if they find out more about the couple then it will be possible to find out who would have wanted to avenge their deaths. That point is extremely clear at this time.

Brad and Todd both agree on the theory that someone out there knows what happened and has decided to take the law into their own hands. And for the most part they have done so. Hopefully Brad and Todd and the task force can use all the information they’ve obtained to catch this person before they complete their task and vanish into thin air.    Mr. Howard is the only remaining person not dead but he’s still a target, and they know it. Figuring out what to do about that will take some time and some calculations. Hopefully they do it before he’s just another number with a toe tag.

              Brad swims a few laps while Jenny remains on the edge of the deck with her feet dangling in the water. He tries to work off a little frustration about the case.

              The sun has gone down and the only light besides the glow of the moon is that of the mosquito torches Brad has surrounding the deck dimly lighting the pool. The atmosphere by the pool side, although only minutes from one of the largest cities in the world, seems like a desert island. The water, moonlight and the fire burning from the torches make this extremely cozy. It’s like they are a million miles from anywhere.

              Brad swims over to the edge where Jenny’s feet are dangling. She’s leaned back slightly holding a tall Margarita in one hand and holding herself up with the other. Brad walks over the remaining few feet and wipes the water from his eyes and pulls back his hair while he positions himself in between her slightly spread legs.

              “Let me have a drink?” Brad extends his hand toward her while he rests his left arm on her leg catching his breath.

              Jenny hands him the drink while she remains pretty silent. “Here you go.” She moves a few strands of his hair back. “You swim pretty well.” Jenny touches the side of his face as he hands her the drink back.

              “Thank you; I was a lifeguard back in high school.” Brad responds still breathing hard from the laps he swam. “Are you a good swimmer?”

              Jenny grins. “No, not to good at all, I can barely tread water. But I can tell you this, if I was swimming in the pool that you were a lifeguard at…I can tell you that I would have definitely pretended like I was drowning just so you could save my life that is for sure.” She smiles.

              Brad gives her a hug and winks. “Is that right? Well let’s think about this for a minute. I would have been 17 to 18 when I was a lifeguard…and I’m guessing that your around 10 years younger than me, so you would have been 7 or 8 years old back then. So I would have saved you of course but I would have given you a much different type of mouth to mouth then I would today.” He winks.

              Jenny takes another drink. “I must say you are so charming and sweet. You honestly think I’m 32 years old?”

              “That would be my guess, maybe a little younger.” Brad smiles and gently rubs her thigh.

              “I must admit, you make me feel so good when ever you open your mouth. You are always so complementary and sweet and adorable.” Jenny rubs the side of his face.

              “Well little lady, I’m just saying what I feel.”

              “You’re a doll. But instead of letting you think I’m only thirty-two I will tell you the truth. I actually turned 36 just a week ago.” She smiles and touches the side of his face again as she moves his hair away from his eye.

              “Well all I can say about that is I’m gonna take you out tomorrow night for a belated birthday celebration then. How does that sound?”

              “That sounds nice,
it’s not necessary
, but it’s a very nice offer.”

              “It’s settled then. You think of someplace to go and when I get off work tomorrow it’s a date.” Brad once again rubs her leg gently as she smiles at him. Brad gently reaches back and places his hands on her ass cheeks and picks her up slightly off the deck and pulls her into the water and wraps his arms around her.

              Jenny wraps her arms around his neck. “Remember be careful, I can’t swim.”

              Brad winks as he holds her tight walking through the water. “You don’t have anything to worry about, like I told you earlier I’d give you mouth to mouth if you need it.”               “Would you do that for me?”

              “Yes I would. If fact you wouldn’t have to be in the water for me to offer you that service.” Brad pulls her close.

              “Why Mr. Jostler, I’d say that was a come on.” Jenny tilts her head to the side smiling.

              “Why Miss McQueen, It was.” Brad leans up and gives her a long hard kiss on the mouth.

              Jenny rubs the side of his face and looks him directly into the eyes. “Has anyone ever told you that you are such a sweetheart and any woman in the world would be lucky to have you?”

              Brad nods his head and smiles. “Oh sure, I hear that a million times a day.” He shyly looks away. “I’m just kidding…but thank you.”

              He holds her in his arms and begins to swim. She’s smiling and holding onto his neck and she wraps her legs around his waist. He pulls her close and warns. “You better watch those legs of yours. If you get me excited there’s no telling what I might do.” Brad raises his eyebrows and smiles.

              Jenny starts to squeeze him tight and she makes the comment as she looks around. “Is that a fact? Well there’s no one here but you and me. And I’m quite sure no one can see us...
But
,” She looks away and loosens her hold on him with her legs. “I think your bluffing.”

              Brad reaches down and grabs her thighs and forces her legs back around him. “Bluffing, we’ll see about that.”

Brad starts to kiss her on the neck while they slowly move through the water holding each other tight and kissing. Brad moves her to the edge of the pool and looks her in the eyes.

              Jenny stares back as he starts to lower his trunks and says. “I guess I was wrong,” She leans back and closes her eyes. “Oh Bradley...”

AN HOUR LATER IN THE KITCHEN

             
Jenny finishes washing the dinner dishes while Brad dries them. He sits down the dishtowel. “I’m going to go take a shower.” He starts toward the doorway leading to his bedroom.

              Jenny smiles, “I’ll be up in a little while to get out of this swimsuit and take a shower too. I’m going to finish cleaning the kitchen first.”

              She walks over to the refrigerator and puts away the ketchup and other condiments as she hears the water come on from upstairs, wraps the remaining food in saran wrap and puts it away. After finishing she starts toward upstairs when she hears a knock on the door. She turns and looks toward the clock on the microwave and thinks. ‘It’s almost nine, I wonder if he’s expecting someone.’ She walks toward the stairway and yells. “Brad, someone’s knocking at your door.” He doesn’t respond. He probably can’t hear her over the shower. They start to knock louder and she thinks. ‘I’ll go see who it is.’