Maritime Caper (Coastal Fury Book 12), Matt Lincoln [good books to read for beginners TXT] 📗

“He wasn’t explicit,” Martha quipped. “Though let’s just say that he made it clear between the lines that they wouldn’t be good or legal.”

“Did you think to call the police?” Tessa asked quietly, mirroring the manager’s own tone of voice.

“Oh no,” she scoffed, shaking her head again. “I thought it was a prank, to be honest with you. Just some kids from town were having some fun with me. I wasn’t sure how they knew about you, of course, but I just thought maybe they overheard me talking with Pierce about it when we were open and ran with it.”

“What changed your mind?” I asked her, almost afraid to hear the answer.

“Well, when I got home, there was a message waiting for me on my dining room table, repeating what he’d said to me on the phone,” Martha said, flinching as she said the words. “After that, I was terrified. I’m an old woman, and I live alone.”

“I understand,” I said, giving her a warm smile to show that I meant it. “Have you had any contact with these people since?”

“They… remind me that they’re watching on occasion,” Martha admitted, wincing again. “They leave more messages for me, in my home. In different places, too, just so I know that they can, I think. I’ve never seen them in person. I just know that they’re watching. They’re always watching.”

18

Tessa

Tessa couldn’t help but feel for the museum manager, even if the old woman had been giving her and Ethan the runaround for weeks now. She imagined what it must feel like to know that someone—or multiple someones—had access to your home without your knowledge and could sneak up on you at any moment, watching you for any sign of a wrong move.

Tessa realized that she couldn’t quite imagine what that would be like. It was too horrible to imagine.

“And you still didn’t think to call the police?” she asked Martha, but it wasn’t an accusatory question, more of a pitying one. She realized that the old woman must’ve been really scared not to tell anyone that this was happening to her.

“I was afraid to!” Martha cried, as if this should be obvious, and it kind of was. “They gave me the impression that they were watching me at all times! And goodness, now I’ve gone and told you everything… There’s no way that I can go home now.”

The old woman rested her head in her hands on her desk, and her whole torso started to shake.

Tessa looked back at Ethan, and he sighed.

“I’ll see what I can do,” he murmured, glancing back at her and giving the manager a sympathetic look. “We’re stretched thin as is, but this is a real case now, I’m afraid. Diane will have to help us out.”

Tessa noticed Ethan’s fingers twitching at his side, where she knew he kept his phone.

“Why don’t you go give Diane or Holm a call and let them know what’s going on?” she suggested, knowing that the MBLIS agent was just as anxious to find out what was happening back in Miami as to figure out what was going on here. “I’ll stay here with Martha.”

“I’ll just be right outside the door here,” Ethan said with a curt nod to her. “Holler if you need me.”

Tessa doubted that anything could happen to them inside the museum in broad daylight, but she nodded to him in thanks anyway and then rounded the desk to kneel down next to Martha. The poor woman had worked herself up into hysterics.

“It’s alright, Martha,” she said soothingly, patting the manager on the back of her fluffy sweater. “We’re going to make sure that nothing happens to you.”

“I can’t go back to that house,” the woman said, her voice wobbling just like her body. “They’ll kill me. I swear to God, they’ll kill me.”

“What exactly is it they’re saying to you that makes you think that?” Tessa asked quietly. “It’s not that I don’t believe you, of course. It’s just that it will be way easier for us to help the more details we have available to us.”

“They never left any clues about who they are or what they want,” Martha insisted. “Just thinly veiled threats, letting me know that they were watching. That’s all. I’ve told you everything I know.”

“I’m sure you have,” Tessa said. “It’s just that every little detail counts, even if you don’t realize that something might be important. Did they ever give any indication as to why they were doing this to you? What was the point? Did they ever want you to do anything else, or was it just about avoiding Ethan’s and my calls?”

Tessa found this all so very strange. She knew that it was par for the course in Ethan’s line of work, but she was used to dealing with objects and nature more than people. In a way, it was exhilarating. But it was also frustrating. At least she knew that random moose in the Yukon weren’t actively trying to hide or keep anything from her.

Not that she didn’t trust Martha, but the old woman might not be remembering something important or might not understand something she did remember properly.

“I just assumed whoever it was had some problem with Agent Marston,” Martha sobbed, reaching out and grabbing some tissues from a box sitting haphazardly atop a pile of papers on her desk and blowing her nose rather loudly. “You know, one of the people he put away in his job or something. That happens, right? Criminals hold grudges?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Tessa mused, though she wasn’t certain how common this really was. “I don’t know that I’ve heard that happening all that often outside of TV, though.”

“Yes, me neither,” Martha said, blowing her nose again, and the two of them just sat there in silence as the manager continued to sob until a knock came on the door and Ethan slipped back inside.

“It just spoke to Diane, my boss,” Ethan