A Stranger In My Home

Chapter 16

Julie hugged herself as she stood beside Jason while the deputies fired off their questions. It wasn’t cold outside – they were in Florida, after all – but she felt as though she’d been dunked in ice water.

“Do you know anyone who might want to hurt you?” the female deputy asked, her notepad primed to take down descriptions or whatnot.

Julie ventured a glance at Jason, who nodded and rubbed her back soothingly.

“I received flowers a few days ago, at my job… the card said R.I.P.”

“Did the flower shop know who sent them?” the deputy asked, jotting down the information.

“No,” Jason said and Julie looked up at him, surprised. “And they never read the card. It came sealed along with typewritten instructions and a cash payment.”

The deputy nodded and asked for the name of the flower shop. Once Jason had supplied the information, the deputy turned back to Julie, awaiting her reply to the previous question.

“I was…” Julie paused and swallowed before starting over, “I just got divorced. My ex-husband sent me a text that suggested he… well, that I… that he wasn’t okay with it.”

“Can I see this text?” the deputy asked.

“Um… my phone’s in the house… I’ll go get it…” Julie said, excusing herself.

Julie looked through her purse but couldn’t find her phone. She decided to check the kitchen, as she couldn’t really remember where she’d last seen it, but it was not there either. Frowning, she went upstairs to check her bedroom.

Julie shook her head at her own forgetfulness when she spotted her phone on the dresser in her bedroom, charging. She pulled the charger out of the wall socket and started to leave, but stopped when she saw something lying atop the chair in the corner.

It was her pajamas, neatly folded. Julie frowned. She hadn’t done laundry recently, and she always kept her pajamas in a dresser drawer, or tucked under her pillow. With hands that were beginning to tremble, she picked up the pajamas, only to have it fall to the floor in shreds. Julie screamed.

-

“He was here, Jason,” she sobbed against his shoulder. “He was inside the house.”

“Shh…” Jason said, stroking her hair soothingly. “You’re safe. He’s not going to hurt you.”

“We’re taking the clothes to search for prints,” the female deputy said, “and we’re doing a full sweep of the house. Ms. Gibbons, could we sit down for a minute?” she asked, gesturing to the kitchen table.

Julie nodded mutely and Jason guided her over, pulling out a chair for her before taking a seat himself.

“If you don’t mind, Mr. Berkley,” the deputy said to Jason,” I’d like to have a word with Ms. Gibbons in private.”

Jason nodded in understanding. “I’ll be just outside, Jules. Okay?” he said and squeezed her shoulder reassuringly. Julie looked up at him and nodded, her eyes haunted and her skin pale.

“Ms. Gibbons,” the deputy said, catching Julie’s attention anew. “I understand this is difficult for you, but we need to know exactly what your relationship with your ex-husband is.”

Julie resigned herself to having to tell the whole story. After all, Jason had been with her when the explosion happened, there was no way the sheriff’s department would suspect him of blowing up his own boathouse. She hoped.

The text she’d received had been mysteriously deleted, as had all of her voicemail messages. But the shredded pajamas were proof someone had been in her bedroom, with access to her phone. Surely that was incriminating enough.