I showed the message to the first officer before he finished introducing himself.<\/p>\n
Officer Ramirez was perhaps forty, compact and calm, with the measured voice of someone accustomed to entering rooms after fear had already filled them. His partner, Officer Bell, stood slightly behind him, watching the street through Mr. Peterson\u2019s front window.<\/p>\n
Ramirez read the text twice.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe knows you\u2019re here?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you tell anyone you were coming over?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShare your location with him?\u201d<\/p>\n
My stomach dropped.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur phones.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat about them?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe share location.\u201d<\/p>\n
I had forgotten completely.<\/p>\n
Dererick and I had enabled it years ago after I got stranded with a flat tire on a rural road.<\/p>\n
Back then it had felt practical.<\/p>\n
Intimate, even.<\/p>\n
A tiny modern convenience that said we belonged to the same life.<\/p>\n
Ramirez nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cTurn it off.\u201d<\/p>\n
My thumb hovered over the settings.<\/p>\n
Then I stopped.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I turn it off, he\u2019ll know I know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe already knows something changed.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was difficult to argue with.<\/p>\n
I disabled location sharing.<\/p>\n
Within seconds, another text arrived.<\/p>\n
Why did you turn location off?<\/p>\n
Officer Ramirez\u2019s expression hardened.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t respond yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
He asked me to tell the story from the beginning.<\/p>\n
Not the beginning of the marriage.<\/p>\n
The beginning of tonight.<\/p>\n
I described the tea.<\/p>\n
Pouring it out.<\/p>\n
Pretending to sleep.<\/p>\n
The gloves.<\/p>\n
The camera.<\/p>\n
The samples.<\/p>\n
The notebook.<\/p>\n
The laptop.<\/p>\n
When I reached the folders bearing other women\u2019s names, Bell turned from the window.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow many?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAt least three besides me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNames?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJennifer. Patricia. Michelle. I don\u2019t know last names.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPhotographs?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSexual?\u201d<\/p>\n
I hesitated.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome were invasive. Most looked\u2026 staged.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ramirez kept his face neutral.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you copied files?\u201d<\/p>\n
I removed the flash drive from my pocket.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis.\u201d<\/p>\n
He did not touch it.<\/p>\n
\u201cKeep it for now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI also photographed the notebook.\u201d<\/p>\n
I handed him my phone.<\/p>\n
He scrolled through several pages.<\/p>\n
When he reached the note about preventing unsupervised departure, he looked at his partner.<\/p>\n
That small exchange frightened me more than either man reacting openly would have.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere is the notebook?\u201d Ramirez asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt my house. In Dererick\u2019s sock drawer.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the laptop?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a briefcase under the bed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid your husband take the camera?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe black bag?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think so.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you know what substance he used?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou should be medically evaluated.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI will.\u201d<\/p>\n
He asked if I felt dizzy.<\/p>\n
No.<\/p>\n
Nauseated?<\/p>\n
Only from fear.<\/p>\n
Any injuries I could identify?<\/p>\n
Nothing new.<\/p>\n
Ramirez wrote everything down.<\/p>\n
Then Mr. Peterson produced his calendar.<\/p>\n
The officer\u2019s pen stopped.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s this plate number?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPartial,\u201d Mr. Peterson said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t see one character.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou witnessed this personally?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDate accurate?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShould be within a day. I wrote it that morning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bell photographed the page.<\/p>\n
Ramirez asked Mr. Peterson to recount exactly what he had observed.<\/p>\n
The white van.<\/p>\n
The two men.<\/p>\n
The unannounced entrance.<\/p>\n
The large duffel.<\/p>\n
The bright bedroom light.<\/p>\n
By the time he finished, the kitchen felt less like a neighbor\u2019s home and more like an interview room.<\/p>\n
Ramirez stepped into the hall to make a call.<\/p>\n
Bell remained with us.<\/p>\n
My phone rang again.<\/p>\n
Dererick.<\/p>\n
No one moved.<\/p>\n
It rang until voicemail.<\/p>\n
Then another message.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re scaring me. Please answer.<\/p>\n
I felt a bitter laugh rise in my throat.<\/p>\n
He was scaring me.<\/p>\n
That wording sounded almost elegant in its cruelty.<\/p>\n
Bell saw my expression.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
I handed him the phone.<\/p>\n
He read it.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you normally ignore each other\u2019s calls?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWill that be unusual to him?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen he knows something is wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bell looked toward Ramirez in the hallway.<\/p>\n
A minute later, Ramirez returned.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to preserve the house.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does that mean?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBased on what you\u2019ve described, we don\u2019t want anyone disturbing potential evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCan you search it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot the whole place just because you asked.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my house.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s also his residence. We can enter under certain circumstances, but a full evidentiary search may require authorization beyond your consent depending on areas exclusively used by him.\u201d<\/p>\n
My frustration flashed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe laptop is under my bed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat helps.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe notebook is in our dresser.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat helps too.\u201d<\/p>\n
He kept his tone even.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we don\u2019t want is to go charging through the house and create a problem with evidence later.\u201d<\/p>\n
I understood that intellectually.<\/p>\n
Emotionally, I wanted every floorboard ripped open before Dererick could return.<\/p>\n
Ramirez asked me for Dererick\u2019s full name, date of birth and employer.<\/p>\n
I gave them.<\/p>\n
Then Bell said, \u201cWas he actually scheduled to fly to Chicago?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou said he told you that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you know whether he packed a suitcase?\u201d<\/p>\n
I thought back.<\/p>\n
Dererick had taken his standard rolling case from the closet earlier that evening.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw it downstairs.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid he carry it out when he left?\u201d<\/p>\n
I closed my eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t see him leave. I heard the door and the car.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bell looked at Ramirez.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo Chicago may be cover.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCould be.\u201d<\/p>\n
My phone buzzed.<\/p>\n
This message contained no gentle concern.<\/p>\n
Go home, Anna.<\/p>\n
I showed it to the officers.<\/p>\n
Ramirez immediately photographed the screen.<\/p>\n
Then another message arrived.<\/p>\n
We can talk before this gets worse.<\/p>\n
The room went very still.<\/p>\n
Mr. Peterson muttered something under his breath.<\/p>\n
Ramirez said, \u201cDo not reply.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe knows.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cKnows what?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat you discovered something.\u201d<\/p>\n
My legs felt weak.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat if he comes back?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why you are not going home alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ramirez made another call.<\/p>\n
This time he stayed in the kitchen and spoke quietly but clearly enough for me to hear fragments.<\/p>\n
Possible poisoning.<\/p>\n
Covert recording.<\/p>\n
Multiple potential victims.<\/p>\n
Preserve digital evidence.<\/p>\n
His language converted my private terror into categories.<\/p>\n
Each category made it more real.<\/p>\n
Within twenty minutes, an unmarked sedan arrived.<\/p>\n
Two detectives came inside.<\/p>\n
Detective Lena Shaw introduced herself first. She was tall, dark-haired, perhaps in her late forties, dressed in a charcoal coat over plain clothes.<\/p>\n
Her partner, Detective Owen Price, carried a slim folder and spoke little.<\/p>\n
Shaw asked to hear the story again.<\/p>\n
I wanted to scream that I had already said it.<\/p>\n
Instead I told her.<\/p>\n
She interrupted more often than the patrol officers had.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat kind of gloves?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLatex or nitrile. Light colored.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat side of the bed?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMine.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat kind of camera?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCompact digital. Black.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTripod?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow high?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe eight inches.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid he touch your mouth?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEyes?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGenitals?\u201d<\/p>\n
My throat closed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know on other nights.\u201d<\/p>\n
She waited.<\/p>\n
I forced myself to continue.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was unconscious.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shaw\u2019s face remained still.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnderstood.\u201d<\/p>\n
She asked about the other women.<\/p>\n
I described the deterioration visible in their photographs.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid any appear deceased?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cInjured?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot obviously.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRestrained?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t remember restraints.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAny file suggesting where they lived?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t look.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shaw nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou did the right thing by copying what you could without staying longer.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sentence nearly broke me.<\/p>\n
Not because it comforted me.<\/p>\n
Because it was the first time anyone had acknowledged that I had been in danger inside my own bedroom.<\/p>\n
Price asked for the flash drive.<\/p>\n
This time they took it.<\/p>\n
He placed it into an evidence envelope while I watched.<\/p>\n
Shaw turned to Ramirez.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s do a protective sweep first, then freeze the residence.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at her.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan I come?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know where everything is.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can tell us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI need clothes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll arrange that later.\u201d<\/p>\n
The certainty in her voice ended the argument.<\/p>\n
They crossed the street together.<\/p>\n
I watched from behind Mr. Peterson\u2019s curtain.<\/p>\n
Two patrol officers took the front.<\/p>\n
Ramirez and Bell went around the side.<\/p>\n
Shaw and Price remained near the porch.<\/p>\n
One officer knocked.<\/p>\n
\u201cPolice!\u201d<\/p>\n
Nothing.<\/p>\n
Again.<\/p>\n
\u201cPolice!\u201d<\/p>\n
Still nothing.<\/p>\n
My house looked empty.<\/p>\n
But I had spent the night learning how unreliable appearances could be.<\/p>\n
After several minutes, the officers entered.<\/p>\n
I could not see how.<\/p>\n
Mr. Peterson stood beside me.<\/p>\n
Neither of us spoke.<\/p>\n
The minutes became unbearable.<\/p>\n
Five.<\/p>\n
Seven.<\/p>\n
Ten.<\/p>\n
Then one of the officers emerged and spoke to Shaw.<\/p>\n
She immediately entered the house.<\/p>\n
Something had happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is it?\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
Mr. Peterson had no answer.<\/p>\n
My phone buzzed again.<\/p>\n
I looked down.<\/p>\n
Dererick had sent a photograph.<\/p>\n
At first I could not understand what I was seeing.<\/p>\n
Then I recognized the room.<\/p>\n
Mr. Peterson\u2019s kitchen.<\/p>\n
The image showed me standing by the window.<\/p>\n
It had been taken from across the street.<\/p>\n
My blood turned cold.<\/p>\n
The timestamp was less than one minute old.<\/p>\n
I dropped the phone onto the table.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bell, who had remained behind now that the detectives were inside, crossed the kitchen in two strides.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
I pointed at the screen.<\/p>\n
He looked.<\/p>\n
His hand went immediately to his radio.<\/p>\n
Within seconds officers were moving outside.<\/p>\n
Lights came on around the block.<\/p>\n
A patrol car accelerated toward the corner.<\/p>\n
Mr. Peterson backed away from the window.<\/p>\n
I could not move.<\/p>\n
If the image had been taken from my house, the officers would have seen whoever was there.<\/p>\n
Unless it came from a camera.<\/p>\n
A hidden one.<\/p>\n
Bell seemed to reach the same conclusion.<\/p>\n
\u201cStay away from windows.\u201d<\/p>\n
We moved into the hall.<\/p>\n
Two minutes later Shaw called Bell.<\/p>\n
He listened.<\/p>\n
His expression changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d I demanded when the call ended.<\/p>\n
He hesitated.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey found a camera.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cInside your house.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPointed here?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
I felt sick.<\/p>\n
Dererick had installed surveillance aimed through our front window toward Mr. Peterson\u2019s property.<\/p>\n
He had not needed to be nearby.<\/p>\n
He had been watching remotely.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs that all they found?\u201d<\/p>\n
Bell did not answer immediately.<\/p>\n
My stomach tightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat else?\u201d<\/p>\n
He glanced toward the front door.<\/p>\n
\u201cDetective Shaw will explain.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTell me.\u201d<\/p>\n
His jaw set.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey found a concealed compartment in your bedroom.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stared at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat compartment?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBehind the baseboard inside the closet.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know there was one.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI figured.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was inside?\u201d<\/p>\n
Bell looked uncomfortable.<\/p>\n
Then he said, \u201cMedication.\u201d<\/p>\n
My breathing stopped.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow much?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat kind?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re identifying it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnything else?\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked at me for a long moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSeveral identification cards.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhose?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re not yours.\u201d<\/p>\n
The hallway blurred slightly.<\/p>\n
\u201cJennifer?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPatricia?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnna\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMichelle?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re checking.\u201d<\/p>\n
I grabbed the wall.<\/p>\n
The names in the folders were no longer simply labels on photographs.<\/p>\n
Their identification had been hidden inside my house.<\/p>\n
And whatever Dererick had done to them had ended with pieces of their lives concealed less than twenty feet from where I slept.<\/p>\n
I showed the message to the first officer before he finished introducing himself. Officer Ramirez was perhaps forty, compact and calm, with the measured voice of someone accustomed to entering … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insightdrama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13646"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13670,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13646\/revisions\/13670"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}