Page 66 of Fight or Flight
Taking her cell phone out of her pocket, she used the flashlight to search the area below. “Tyler, are you there?” She walked to the edge of the steps, preparing to search for him, when she felt her jeans rip. “Damn!” Apparently, she’d caught her leg on an S-type hook that the previous owners had left.
In the dark and alone, fearing something bad had happened to Tyler, she hit the number one on her cell. Her safety person. Doc. He didn’t answer, so she left a message. It wasn’t like Doc to avoid her phone calls. Then again, he was with family, so he’d probably given up his phone for the evening. But what about her dogs? She hadn’t planned on leaving them with Doc all night. He knew that. He also knew she would be sick with worry if she couldn’t get in touch with him when her dogs were in his care. “Darn jerk!”
“Hey, that’s just plain rude,” Tyler said. “I’m not perfect, but . . .”
“Tyler! Are you all right?” She raced to the bottom of the steps. “I thought something had happened to you. I promise I wasn’t calling you a jerk! I was just saying it because, well, I tried calling Doc, but he isn’t answering, and I didn’t know where you were.”
“Hey, calm down.” Tyler reached for her, wrapping his arms around her. “I was in the garage. Didn’t you hear me tell you where I was going?”
Had she? No. Did he really tell her or was he just saying that to protect himself? He was a professional, and he knew how to do that type of thing.
“Though to be honest, I was halfway there when I thought I’d better let you know where I was. I didn’t mean to frighten you.”
“Are you sure you’re not playing head games with me? If you are, please leave.” She stepped away from his embrace. “I’m scared and confused, Tyler. I don’t know who to trust, or who not to. This entire world is new to me. I know I sound nuts, and I sometimes think I am. My thoughts are all over the place. I’m not agoraphobic. I need to be with people. I need to hear life, see life, and most of all, I really, really want to start living my life. If I can’t trust you now, then just go.”
Tears streamed down her face, but she didn’t care who saw her. If this was what a nervous breakdown felt like, she was in the throes of one right now. Her thoughts were like shooting stars. One went off in one direction just as another shot off in the opposite direction.
“Katherine, listen, I am going to call my mother. She’ll come and sit with you. She can reassure you that I’m not a stalker or a serial killer or anything else that you think I might be. Is that okay with you?”
Katherine didn’t answer him. Instead, she walked upstairs and, using her fist, she punched the laminate Tyler had used to cover the windowpane. She reached inside and unlocked the door. Once she was inside the house, she started turning on every light. Upstairs and downstairs. When she returned, Tyler was in the kitchen, making a pot of coffee. “Doc is on his way with the dogs. He said he was bringing Steph and Bethany over.”
Jolted back into reality, Katherine sat down on a barstool. “Did I just whack out or what?” she asked Tyler, confused.
“Not really. You’ve just had a dose of life, I think. I’m taking responsibility for my part in this, because I shouldn’t have left you alone in the dark. I did shout out to you, but I was too far away for you to hear. I’m so sorry.”
“Can we forget this ever happened?” she asked, as a fresh round of tears gushed down her face. Tyler stuck a tea towel in his belt loop and went over to her.
“It’s okay, Katherine. You’re gonna be all right. I’m never going to let anything happen to you. I’m so sorry I screwed up. It’s my fault.” He used the tea towel to wipe her tears.
She laughed and felt snot on her upper lip. “Good grief, turn your head.” She took the towel from him, wiped her nose, then tossed the towel aside. “I never cry, and now I can’t seem to stop.”
“Listen, this is all new to you. You went from day to night at the speed of light. You’re going to cry, be confused, pissed, happy, sad, and glad.”
“Good thing you went to medical school, because you aren’t much of a poet,” Katherine said. “Me, either. I can write novels, but poetry, no.”
They sat in silence while the coffee brewed. Katherine had humiliated herself, but she didn’t feel judged by Tyler. She needed him. More than he knew. She’d flipped out, as she’d taken too many hits today. But she wasn’t going to continue down that pity road. She was done.
“So, how bad was the garage? I haven’t been in there since I parked the Nissan all those years ago,” she said.
Tyler nodded. “I see.”
“What?”
“There is no other way to say this other than to tell you straight out—there is no vehicle of any kind in your garage.”
She laughed. “That bad, huh?”
He got up and poured them each a cup of coffee. “I’m not joking, Katherine. I’m serious. There isn’t a car in your garage. It’s clean as a whistle. No tire tracks, gas smells, or oil stains. Any normal things that would have been there if a car was stored there this long.”
“I have the title and a set of keys.” She hurried across the room to her desk. Opening the drawer where she kept important papers, she searched until she found the title to her car. She’d kept the keys in the drawer under her desk as a reminder that someday she would drive again and see the world. Now that day had arrived, and she apparently didn’t have a car. And she couldn’t find the keys.
“Someone has been in my house. More than once,” she said when she returned to the kitchen. “Look.” She handed Tyler the title paperwork. “The keys are missing. I put them in a drawer, and I’ve never moved them.”
How could Katherine have gone about her day-to-day life and be oblivious to a person violating her space, stealing her car? Maybe it would be wise to allow Tyler to place her in an institution, where she could be treated around the clock. She’d been so engrossed in her self-imposed exile, focusing on her dogs, work, and the Friendlink group, she’d unknowingly allowed her home, her safe place, to be violated.
Tyler glanced at the title. “I see this is your vehicle, registered in the state of Illinois. Somebody knows your routine. They know where you are in the house. When you take a shower or when you sleep or whatever, they must come inside and take what they want. Do you have any idea who might be behind this?” Tyler’s tone was deadly serious.
“No, I swear. I don’t know anyone here. Just Doc, you, and Carson.”
