The Neighbors

2.18 The Tour Gets Off To A Rocky Start

Despite our amazing anniversary celebration, we felt like the rug was yanked out from under us on the evening of January 2nd, just before Harry was scheduled to go on tour.

Harry and I both received several menacing emails from Cortin. There wasn't much in the way of words. They were mostly photos.

The first email was just plain annoying. It a series of pictures showing Harry's every move one day in LA. There were at least twenty pictures, documenting his every move from morning to evening. The intended message was clear: Cortin had been following Harry very closely.

The second message made me much more fearful. It contained pictures of ten of the venues where Harry would be performing over the next few months. Each arena was shown in the crosshairs of a gun.

The third message had me sobbing on the floor in a panic. There were many, many pictures of our children, going in and out of school, on the playground, and playing in our front yard. They weren't depicted in the scope of a gun, but Cortin Valow knew exactly what she was doing. She was terrorizing us, and threatening the people most dear to us.

Harry called 911 this time, wanting to communicate to the police that this was an imminently dangerous situation.

Then we called Charlie and Courtney and asked them to come and distract the kids while we spoke with the police. The kids had noticed the police coming over often, and they knew Officer Horan quite well, but for the most part, we had managed to keep them ignorant of the drama that was enveloping our family. Charlie and Courtney didn't hesitate and came over straightaway, taking the kids to the basement to watch movies.

It wasn't long before a few squad cars showed up in the front yard. Three officers came to the house and immediately searched the entire premises. Another four officers came shortly afterward to speak briefly with us, and then they left to investigate the neighborhood.

I have to admit that I was grateful when seven cops showed up to help us, but I was still trembling in fear.

"Harry, please call Phil or Liam. You can't leave tomorrow. Not while this is happening!"

Harry held me firmly and said, "Lise, I know you're scared, but I have to go. This is my first tour. I can't just not show up. It would destroy my career."

I pulled away and snapped, "So, you're going to let your family be destroyed instead?"

He frowned at me and calmly said, "No, Lise, of course not. Why do you think I called 911? I know that this is serious, but I trust the police to handle it. They will protect you while I'm gone."

"I don't want police protection," I whined. "I want your protection."

"I know, love. I promise that I will be in contact with the police every single day while I'm gone, and I will make sure they're doing everything they can do to catch the stalker. But I simply can't cancel this tour. You must realize that."

I didn't have an opportunity to answer because the three officers who were searching our property came back inside. They assured us that the property was secure and that there was no evidence that anyone had ever attempted a break-in, and there was no one posing an immediate threat to our safety, despite the terrorizing email messages.

We sat and talked with the police officers at length about all the threats that Cortin Valow had made. It was maddening that they weren't able to simply pull up a file with all of our information stored in it. Niall had been very thorough and we trusted him. I couldn't wait til he came back.

"Officer Horan already knows all of this, and he has leads that he has already investigated. Why do we need to re-hash all of this?" I asked, feeling my last shred of patience wearing away.