Learn To Love Again

Chapter 31

I didn't sleep at all that night. The more I tried to take my mind off of detective Sterling and that kiss, the more impossible it proved to be. In a failed attempt to distract my mind, I had decided to continue reading a very interesting Agatha Christie novel I had started some time before. That didn't help; I could read the words but my brain was too distracted to process them. I then turned to watching reruns of Friends. It was pointless.

A week passed by slowly. I hadn't had another encounter with Malcolm and neither had I seen detective Sterling. Officer Barnes was the one who would follow me around and report to me whatever they found out about Malcolm. It didn't feel the same as when detective Sterling was around. Nothing was the same without detective Sterling.

I told myself this was because I was feeling guilty about what I said to him that night– about never wanting to see him again. I didn't want to believe that I was missing him.

Whenever I was at work, I wanted nothing more than to just leave and go back home. But work was distracting, and I really didn't want to be alone with my thoughts.

Presently, I was pulling into my parking lot after a long day shopping. Though it was Monday, I hadn't been to work that day. I hadn't been to work since the previous Friday. Everyone on the building where my office was located had been asked to vacate so that the building could be prepared for hurricane Olivia– not that anyone had been planning to stay.

I got out of the car and opened the trunk as Officer Barnes pulled into the driveway and parked his car.

There must've been at least a dozen bags in the trunk of my car. I knew it was a bit careless to go hurricane shopping the day before the storm but it wouldn't have even crossed my mind at all if Erika hadn't reminded me about it that morning. Fortunately, I got everything I needed.

I opened the front door, then came back to the car to start bringing in the bags.

"Do you need a hand with those?" I heard Officer Barnes call from his car.

"Sure, thanks."

With his help, I managed to bring all the bags inside, then locked my car and the front door.

I knew it would be tiring to go through all the bags and place each item where they belonged, but I did it anyway. By the time I was done, I was exhausted.

I was glad I had already gotten someone to get my house ready for the storm the day before because I was too tired to handle it if I had decided to do it today.

It was about 2pm and I decided to take a nap. I didn't want to go all the way up to my room. I curled up on the sofa and closed my eyes, soon slipping into  comfortable sleep.

When I woke, I could hear the rain I hadn't been aware was falling outside. I got up and searched for my purse and, when I found it, removed my phone to look at the time. It was seven minutes past five.

I spent the next ten minutes trying to decide what to cook for dinner. Nothing I could think of sounded interesting enough. I ditched the idea of cooking and decided to just grab a snack later. I wasn't feeling up to it, anyways.

I had just dropped myself onto the sofa and turned on the television when there was a knock on the front door.

"Mrs. Saunders? Its officer Barnes. There's something we need to talk about."

Curious, I rose from the sofa, turned off the TV, and went to open the door. The rain had stopped at some point. A female officer stood next to Officer Barnes. She was a bit tall, plump, and wore glasses that seemed a little too small for her face. I also noticed that another car– a black toyota– was parked in the driveway.

"This is officer Wright," officer Barnes said, gesturing to the woman. "There's something we need to discuss with you. May we come in."

"Sure." I stepped aside and, when they entered, closed the door behind them.

"Sterling told us about the plan to trap Malcolm by getting him to think you're alone," officer Wright began. "He wanted us to do it tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" I said, surprised. "The storm is tomorrow."

"I know, but he has good reason. Malcolm would definitely suspect that something's up if we just randomly left you alone at the house one day for no apparent reason. He won't expect that anyone will be outside in their car watching you during a hurricane, or that anyone will want to be away from their family. When he gets here, he won't see anyone. The backup officers will be staying right next door and officer Barnes and I will  already be inside your house... waiting for him to get here."

"How would the backup officers know he's here?" I asked.

"We will all be equipped with HTs. I doubt we'll need backup but as soon as he gets here we'll alert them."

"What makes you think he won't notice what's going on?" I wanted to know.

"We'll make sure he doesn't," Officer Barnes responded. "We'll leave in our cars and take a taxi back about dawn tomorrow. We'll stop around the corner and walk the rest of the way, behind the houses, and enter through the back door. The backup officers are already next door and will keep an eye on you until we get here."

"The officers are willing to be here during the hurricane?" I found this a bit hard to believe. Actually, I didn't, but I desperately needed a reason to say no to all this.

"Yes," officer Barnes responded. "All we need is your agreement."

They were right. There was no better time to do this. We had to seize the opportunity once it presented itself, otherwise, Malcolm would probably never get caught. However, I needed to be able to defend myself if, God forbid, I needed to.

"Okay," I said. "But I'm going to need a gun."

Officer Wright hesitated a few seconds before saying, " I'll see what I can do." She rose from the sofa she'd been sitting on. "We have to leave now. I'll let Sterling know you agree."

"Okay." I followed her and officer Barnes to the door and, when they exited, locked it behind them.

I sighed and returned to the sofa. I couldn't help the nervousness that crept in when I thought about what the officers had just said.

________________________________________________________________________

A/N:

Yes, I'm still here. Sorry I took so long to update.

Thanks for reading.

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