Chapter 3

The rest of the afternoon Pearl buried herself in work, forgetting the headache of the busybody out in the front office and the reappearance of Gideon. The only problem was that Gideon was much harder to put out of her mind. The fact that he was even here both terrified and delighted her because it was one thing to hold on to a wish, hoping to make something happen someday, and another thing entirely to have the opportunity. This situation was one where she would have to step out of that comfortable shell she had built up around herself and make it happen.

The making it happen part was a whole lot harder, and something she wasn't sure she was capable of, which just pissed her off because that's why she was here in town. Yet, when push came to shove, she wasn't sure she would have the guts to talk to him. Did she have what it took to say, Hey, Gideon, should we try again? Did she want to try again, or was that all just part and parcel of the same dreams she'd sucked herself into believing? Was it possible that it could happen again for the two of them? She felt like a fool when she considered it, and it became one more thing to bury in the distant recesses of her mind. She would have to deal with it, but right now was not the time.

When she finally finished work and headed out to the parking lot, she got into her vehicle and slowly drove home. Everything seemed normal, except, to her, it was all in technicolor, so amplified and so unexpected. She wasn't at all sure she was ready to deal with Gideon. As she pulled into her neighborhood, she looked around to see if she knew anyone, but it was calm and quiet, the street bare. The roadway was completely empty, which she expected.

She never thought she would face traumatic stress over seeing Gideon again, yet here she was, figuring out how to get out of creating the very life she had always wanted for herself—a life with him. The fact that she wanted it now, and they were both right here in the same city, all made her worry once again that maybe it was just a dream state that just sounded great but wasn't something she wanted bad enough to try for.

As she walked up to her front door, she stopped and looked around, feeling something off. She took a slow turn around, only to see what appeared to be nothing. Frowning, she took another step toward her door. Not liking anything about it, she turned and walked away. She got right back into her vehicle and drove away. Suddenly feeling ridiculous, she drove around the block, then pulled over to the curb a bit down the street, still trembling as she stared up at her house.

What the hell was going on?

Why the hell was somebody—and maybe not somebody, maybe it was all in her head—but it seemed as if something was wrong. She sat here, gasping for breath, calming down the chaos inside her, but it wasn't working. She couldn't force herself to go into her house or even to get out of her car again.

What the hell was going on, and what was wrong with her?

As she sat here a few more minutes, she watched another vehicle drive slowly up toward her place. She watched in amazement as her coworker, Betty, the woman who obviously had it in for her, drove right to her curb, got out, and walked quickly up to her front door. Instead of ringing the doorbell, she dropped something on the front step and then ran back to her car and raced away.

But who the hell had been here earlier, their lingering presence giving Pearl the impression that it wasn't safe to go into her own house? She frowned as she waited. Just when she was about to force herself to get out and to walk to her door, the front door opened just a crack, and she stared at the stranger in her home, as he snagged up whatever Betty had left on the porch and dragged it inside.

Shocked, Pearl wondered what some man was doing in her house to begin with. Then she spotted a strange man walking the neighborhood, dressed in civilian clothes. Granted, she didn't know her neighbors, but now she was getting paranoid. Too scared to deal with whatever was happening, yet not sure who to contact, her fingers automatically dialed the number that she knew from a long time ago. When Gideon answered, she closed her eyes, feeling the tears, the relief, and the pain clogging her voice. "Oh, thank God," she choked out.

"Pearl?" he asked in a hard tone. "Is that you? Pearl, talk to me," he snapped.

"Yes, yes, it's me," she replied, after an uncomfortable silence.

"At least you're talking," he muttered. "What's going on? Why did you call?" She didn't know what to say or even how to begin. "Pearl," he repeated, his tone suddenly all business and allowing no argument.

"Somebody is in my house right now," she whispered, "and I don't know why or how."

After a brief silence, he barked, "Start at the beginning."

"I'm parked nearby outside my place," she whispered, her voice trembling, "because I couldn't enter my house. It felt wrong, like so wrong. So I drove away, then felt stupid, so I pulled back around. Now I was sitting here in my car, just figuring out why I can't go into my own home, when one of the women I work with drove up to my house and walked up to my front door. Now, for a little backstory, you've got to understand that this woman hates my guts for some reason, and I don't know why. She dropped something on the front step, then left real fast. While I watched, not even a full minute later, my door opened, and a guy grabbed whatever Betty left there and snatched it back into the house. Plus, I saw some strange man walking the neighborhood, yet I didn't see a parked car anywhere. Maybe I'm just being paranoid."

"Did you know either of the two guys?"

"No."

"Who else lives there with you?"

She muttered, "I live alone."

"What's the address?" he asked briskly, wasting no time. "And where are you right now?"

"I'm still sitting in my car, a couple houses away and across the street. I just don't know what to do."

"You stay there. Don't get out," he ordered, and she heard his rushing footsteps. "I'll be there in a minute."

When her phone went dead, she stared at it, realizing she had probably called the one person in the world she could count on unconditionally, but jeez. Of all the people to call, he would be the most difficult to deal with. Yet she couldn't help smile because he was coming. It seemed as if no time had passed between them, and he was here to help her, even though some very unpleasant conversations were up ahead. Yet she ultimately wanted this, so, in a way, whatever was going on at her house was advancing her own personal plans. Still, never in her wildest dreams would she have planned something so bizarre as this.

When a vehicle pulled up a few minutes later, she watched as Gideon stepped out of the car, and, with an unhurried look, strolled up the block and got into the passenger seat of her car, sitting beside her. "You still don't lock the damn doors, do you?"

She blinked, realizing that she hadn't. She shrugged. "I could have said that I left it unlocked for you, which you wouldn't like either, would you?"

"No, because it would be a lie." He glanced at her and then stared ahead, as he spoke in a formal tone. "You're looking well."

"Not right now I'm not." The tears gathering at the back of her throat choked her voice. "I don't know what's going on."

"No, and we have a lot of that happening right now," he stated, with a nod. "So, did you recognize the person in the house?"

"No, not at all. I didn't get a great look at him, but still enough to know I don't know him. I can't even imagine."

"Don't even imagine right now," he said, with a quirk of his lips. "Let's just deal with one issue at a time."

"I would love to," she murmured, "but I don't know what's going on."

"Did you tell anybody that I was here?"

She shook her head. "No, no way. I'm still adjusting to the fact that you are here."

"Yeah, I was a bit surprised too. The guy I was with—"

She cut him off mid-sentence. "I don't know anything about what else may be going on."

"Did you talk to anybody at work today?"

"Yes, while I did my job." She frowned, thinking hard and fast, but coming up empty. "Other than that, I don't know what you mean by talk to anybody ."

"Did you see anything unusual happen at work today?"

She blinked at that, thought about it, then shrugged. "No. I work in physiotherapy, so I'm not in the regular population of the hospital. Obviously I saw you in the stairwell, and that was a freaky scenario, particularly considering I'm the one who left last time," she shared, with a half laugh, unsure of what more to say about the sorry situation.

"You sure did," he confirmed in a causal tone, "and, as it was, we both ended up leaving."

"Yet here we both are again," she noted, with a questioning look.

"I came here to help a friend with a case, but this isn't where I've been living, not for a long time. I just flew in today."

She didn't say anything, just nodded.

"So, back to what's going on here," Gideon began. "Did you talk to anybody, see anything odd, different, unique in any of the places that you went to today?"

"None that I can think of," she said cautiously. "If you gave me something a little more specific, I might remember something. I'd had a tough day with a coworker spreading lies about me, which was fairly upsetting, so I stuck to myself."

"Why would they spread lies about you?"

"I don't know." She raised her hands in exasperation. "She's got it in for me, and nobody seems to want to stand up to her. She's one hell of a troublemaker, spreads all kinds of lies, and, if I were to guess, she could get away with murder and, well, I'm just stuck in the middle."

He shook his head. "That's not like you."

"No, it isn't. It's not like me to stick around when shit like that happens," she agreed, with a bitter tone. "I would much prefer to have a decent work environment, and I don't have that right now." He pondered it for a few minutes and when he didn't say anything, she asked, "What's that look for? Do you think I deserve it or something?"

Surprised, he shook his head. "Hell no. Why would you even say that? You've always been one of the most professional people I've ever met. I can't imagine how you would end up with somebody who hated you so much. That's all I was thinking."

Pearl added, "This woman's got it in for me."

"Any chance that she would do something to hurt you?"

Her stomach twisted. "I wouldn't have thought so, but I don't know what she was doing here or what she just delivered to my house. It didn't look as if she was necessarily delivering it in a nice way."

"What do you mean?"

"It was fast, as if she were skulking around. She raced up to the front door, dropped the package on the front stoop, and then left in a hurry."

"You don't think it was meant for the person inside?"

"That's seems far-fetched, but I don't know. To have two weird things happening at once is crazy too," she murmured. "Honestly, I don't know what the hell to even think at this point."

"It's all right. We'll get to the bottom of it."

"I hope so," she muttered, unsure of the conversation now. "Look. I don't know what you'll do here or in what way this could have anything to do with you and why you came to town, but I do appreciate the fact that you came to help me."

He nodded. "I appreciate the fact that you called. That couldn't have been easy."

"No, it wasn't," she admitted. "Still, foolish of me for making it difficult." She shrugged. "It seems as if a lot of things have been difficult these last few years."

"I'm sorry," he said. "That's not what I would have wished for you."

She shrugged and stared at her front door. "So, what the hell is going on in my house?"

"Do you own it?"

"No, I don't. I rent," she replied absentmindedly. "I've been here now for quite a few months though, so it's not as if I have an absentee owner or somebody coming back—not without some notice given to me."

"I wonder if it's a case of mistaken identity."

She asked hopefully, "That would be good though, wouldn't it?"

He shrugged. "Maybe, though they still moved into your house. Somebody is skulking around delivering something. Plus, he opened the door immediately and brought it in. That's all strange. Would your security camera have picked it up?"

"Yes," she said, but then shook her head. "I don't even know why I didn't think of that," she muttered, as she brought up her security system on her phone. She tapped the screen so it would play, then she handed him the phone. "There. That's my coworker Betty."

"The one who hates you?"

"Yes, the one who hates me."

They watched as she raced up to the front door, looking around in that furtive manner, then dropped whatever it was on the front step, before taking off again.

Gideon nodded. "Definitely furtive, definitely not sure she should be there, and yet, in one way or another, heavily involved in whatever this is."

They waited and watched the security video as the person inside her house opened the door and grabbed whatever had been left.

"That also is very bizarre."

"It makes no sense." She turned to stare back at the house. "None of it makes any sense."

"It will," he murmured. "It always does at the end of the day."

She turned to him and nodded. "I guess that's why I called you. This is the stuff you do, isn't it?"

"Oh, it's definitely some of the stuff I do," he murmured. "Though I can't say this is exactly the stuff I do because this is weird and bizarre, even for me."

"Ya think?" she quipped, with a headshake. "I just don't understand. Nothing here makes any sense."

"It will," he stated calmly. "It will. It's just that we'll need a few minutes to figure it out." He pulled out his phone and contacted somebody on the other end.

"Look. I'm here at Pearl's house." And he recited her address. "She's got a strange male in her house whom she doesn't recognize. Somebody came by, delivered a parcel. Pearl knows the person who delivered the parcel, but the woman delivering it is furtive and sneaky, and they've had workplace issues," he explained, "so we're not sure what kind of scenario we have here, but definitely a stranger is in her house."

She listened to the one-sided conversation with great interest, as Gideon went on.

"Can you check to see if anybody has reported anything suspicious in the neighborhood?" He turned to her, then smiled, noting Pearl's worried expression. "It's okay. It's just Jasper, the guy I work with."

She nodded and slumped in her seat, as she returned her attention to her house. "It makes no sense," she muttered.

"Remember that it will later. We just don't know enough yet."

She nodded and didn't say anything, as the two men talked.

"Okay, I'll go in and see if we can flush him out." She stared at him in alarm, but he just smiled reassuringly, as he finished his call. "Okay," he told Pearl. "I'll go have a look around. I want you to stay here, and I don't want you to open this door. Keep both doors locked," he stated pointedly, "and I'll be back in a few minutes."

"But what if he sees you?"

He smiled. "It will be a good thing if he sees me, won't it?"

She frowned. "I don't know what he's doing here, Gideon. What if he's got a gun?"

"Then he damn well better use it," Gideon replied, "because I don't take kindly to strangers hiding away in women's houses. Just give me a minute." He gave her a brief smile and added hurriedly, "Nice to see you, by the way." With that, he slipped out of the car and slipped up to her house.

*

Nobody'd been more surprised when Pearl had called than Gideon, but, as soon as he realized what the issue was, he'd come running. He knew he always would, and something about this damsel-in-distress situation was totally his thing. They always got to him, especially this damsel. However, he was desperate to keep Pearl alive and well. Seeing how she had been years before and seeing her now was like time had just completely skipped over her.

She was still beautiful in that same breathtaking way. Listening to the story she had to tell, initially he wondered if she were delusional. Now, having seen the video, he knew something was going on here that made absolutely no sense.

Of course he couldn't get the idea out of his head that it might be connected to Mason's shooting, the nightmare in his world that he had been called to help out with, Yet he knew of no real reason for these two events to be connected. Still, how many times did things like this happen with people in the same area? He walked away from her house to circle around the block, judging when he was close to being on the back side of her house. He slipped into the neighbor's backyard and headed for Pearl's backyard.

He quickly jumped over the neighbor's wire fence, which led to an empty backyard. Satisfied with that, he walked alongside the wooden fence of Pearl's backyard, as close as he could get, then quickly jumped over the wooden fence and approached Pearl's house from the back. Walking up to one of the windows, he pressed his ear against the wall to see if he could hear anything. A conversation was going on, but, from the sound of it, it was one-sided, likely a phone call.

"No, she's not home yet.… I don't know why we had to pick her place anyway. You should see what the hell somebody delivered to her front door. This girl has already got enemies.… It's like one of the most malicious cards you've ever seen, definitely high school BS," he explained. "I'm thinking that we don't want to get involved with this.… No, we're not involved, but yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever." He groaned. "I'm right here, waiting for whenever you're ready to get your shit down here, so we can get this done." He ended the call, then muttered, "Bloody unbelievable."

Gideon figured that comment was related to whatever was in the delivery parcel.

"Christ, that woman has got to be nuts."

Gideon wasn't sure which woman the intruder was referring to. Now hearing footsteps, Gideon took a chance and peered in the window, only to see the stranger walking from the kitchen into the other room. So Gideon moved toward the back door, and, finding it unlocked, he slipped inside.

He moved quickly to where the intruder had been standing and checked out the area, looking to see where he'd gone. He found him in the living room, staring out the front window, waiting impatiently for whatever was to come. Gideon just didn't know what that was.

The man turned suddenly and caught sight of Gideon standing there. The stranger stared at him, then roared, "Who the hell are you, and what are you doing here?"

"More to the point," Gideon replied, stepping closer, "I'm supposed to be here. Now, who the hell are you, and what are you doing here? You're trespassing."

"So are you," he declared, with venom in his tone. "That bitch lives alone."

"Is that who you're waiting for?" he asked in a soft tone.

The other guy shrugged. "No, I don't give a shit about her. What does it matter to me? She's supposed to be some uptight broad, so I don't give a fuck."

"So why are you here, and what the hell are you doing messing up her world?" As Gideon took another step forward, the intruder pulled out a handgun.

Gideon looked at it and nodded. "I wondered why you were hiding out in a woman's house, without a weapon, unless you thought you could just overpower her," he stated calmly, as he stared at the guy. "I can't say I appreciate any asshole who'll do that."

"Hey, it's not about overpowering her. I'm here for something else."

"Yeah? I don't believe you, and you're here trespassing in a woman's house, with a gun now." He pointed at the intruder's weapon. "As far as I'm concerned, I'm thinking the worst, and so will the cops."

"Except the cops won't find me," he declared, as he lifted the gun.

"Ah, so you think you will skip, huh ? You think that shooting me won't bring all kinds of trouble on your head?"

"If it does, I won't be here to face it," he declared.

Something about the guy's tone made Gideon realize that he believed it. That meant one of two things. Either the intruder had someone else coming fast or he had an out from this that would get him away or off the hook. "I'm not sure who's been getting you off the hook so far," Gideon admitted, "but that's about to come to an end."

The other guy laughed and laughed. "As if you even know what you're talking about." He smirked. "All kinds of things in this world you don't understand, and you've just stuck your nose into something that you shouldn't have."

"If you hadn't got caught sneaking into a woman's house," he noted, with a smile that exuded confidence, "you wouldn't have failed. But now you're the failure, and there'll be a penalty for that."

The other guy shook his head. "You're just trying to stress me out."

"Sure, I am. I'm wondering whether this is connected to something else or you're just one of those slimeballs who likes to rape women."

The other guy paled, then burst out in a fury, "I don't have to rape nobody. I needed this bitch's house, that's all."

At that, Gideon didn't know what to say. He considered some angles, then asked curiously, "So it didn't matter who lived here?"

"No, I don't give a fuck who lives here," he snapped. "All I needed was her property."

"What about the parcel you picked up out front?"

At that, the guy started to laugh. "Oh my God, I don't know what the hell's going on with that. I saw the woman who delivered it, and I didn't want to just leave it out there to attract attention, so I brought it inside, but wow." The gunman shook his head. He took a moment and laughed again, the gun still pointed at Gideon. "That is one seriously twisted mind."

"What did she leave?" he asked curiously.

"Some nasty, insulting shit. Whoever that woman is, she's got a serious problem."

"She's not working with you?"

He shook his head. "No, she isn't, though I should say yes, so she would get picked up and interrogated," he shared, again laughing. "Regardless you won't live long enough to tell anybody." With that, he casually shifted his gun hand, but Gideon was already on the move.