~ Mistletoe And Holly ~

by

Marilyn Gardiner

But Bree had seen him, even if no one else had. She’d rather not have had the experience, but what happened couldn’t be ignored.

That very night, she sat listening to music and reading in the upstairs sitting room while Becca did homework at a table nearby, when abruptly all the hair on the back of her neck abruptly stiffened. Absently, she rubbed the spot and went on reading. But the skin felt electrified. She frowned and glanced at Becca, bent over her paper. The child, already bathed and wearing her favorite granny gown, her bare feet swinging to some unheard beat, was writing industriously, apparently not bothered by any weird feeling.

And then, without thought, her eyes went to the window--and there was Bobby Gene. Only his face showed against the black of night, appearing to be a floating apparition. The rest of him wasn’t visible. He grinned like he’d put her in her place again and was about to assume control. Then, while she was still frozen with horror, he sank slowly from view and was gone.

For all of three seconds Bree didn’t move, and then she leaped from the chair and ran to the window. Her book clattered to the floor and the earphones were torn from her head. The window was locked, of course, and she could see nothing against the dark backdrop of night. Her heart clubbed in her chest and she was short of breath. They were on the second floor! Had Bobby Gene sprouted wings? Could she really have seen him? It couldn’t have been her imagination. His face had been life-sized, grinning with that arrogant smile she hated.

Becca watched, frowning, from her chair. “What’s wrong, Mom?”

So much for sparing Becca. If Bobby Gene was peeping at them through windows, the child had to be aware of the possible danger. Bree swallowed twice before she could say the words.

“I saw a--something, someone--at the window. It’s gone now, but I’m going to call the police. He can’t get in--everything is locked up for the night--so you don’t need to be afraid.”

Becca’s eyes had gone as round as a CD. “But you’re afraid, Mom. I can tell.”

“I was surprised. That’s all.” She struggled to keep her voice steady and reached for her cell phone on the table.

Kenny and a deputy were there in minutes. “You and the girl stay in the house,” he said, “while Heck and me prowl around out here. I don’t want the area contaminated by more footprints than are already there. Just stay inside and I’ll come tell you what we find.”

So, over protests, she tucked Becca into bed, assuring her there was nothing to be afraid of with two big policemen outside, left the hall light on, and then paced the floor and waited. She’d rather be outside, where the action was, but she’d do what Kenny said.

When she was about to begin gnawing on her knuckles, Kenny came in stamping the snow from his feet. He pulled off his gloves and asked for Grandpa.

“He’s upstairs, asleep. Should I wake him?”

“No, I guess not. And your little girl?”

“Becca’s in bed. I doubt she’s asleep, but I tucked her in a while ago. She didn’t see anything, though; she was doing homework. She couldn’t help you.”

He nodded. “Don’t disturb her. I can always talk to her later if I need to.”

Bree tucked her hands into her pockets. She was shaking. “What did you find?”

“He isn’t very smart, Bree. He stole a ladder from your neighbor’s garage--we found the tracks in the snow where he dragged it over here--and set it up to peep in the lighted window. He simply crawled up the ladder, did his peeping, and crawled back down. He dragged the ladder back where he got it and left the area. We lost his footprints when he hit the street.”

“But he would know you’d see his footprints. He’s not stupid, Kenny. Unless he’s strung out on something” she qualified with a shrug. “Then, he’s liable to do anything.”

“Maybe he doesn’t care. Maybe he’s so confident we can’t find him that he thinks he’s invincible. He certainly has a different agenda than most peepers.”

“Yes, and maybe he thinks he’ll just scare me half to death. We share some history built around that scene.”

Kenny seemed to think about that, and then said, “Right now, I have two men ringing doorbells up and down the street. If we’re lucky we’ll find someone who saw an unfamiliar car, either cruising or parked. Or, even better, he could have been seen loitering around. It would help if we had a picture so we’d know what he looked like.”

Bree shook her head, unconvinced. “You won’t find anything, but I do have a photo upstairs in a trunk. Can I bring it by the station in the morning?”

“Sure. Fine. And we’ll get him. We have plenty of footprints. Good ones. Only thing is, they’re a pretty standard size. Probably means he’s close to six foot tall.”

Bree nodded. “Six-one,” she said, and wrapped her arms around her waist. She was suddenly cold. “And skinny. But he’s strong as an ox. I saw him move a Buick all by himself, one night. Just lifted it up and moved it over about three feet, to prove a point. He was on meth at the time.”

Kenny nodded. “That’ll do it. We’ll stake out your house tomorrow night. Don’t get excited if you see people you don’t know outside. They’re supposed to fade into the area and not be seen, but just in case, don’t panic. It’ll be us.”

“You don’t think he’ll come back two nights in a row!”

“If, as you say, he’s strung out on something, he just might. If he’s desperate. We’ll give this a shot. But you stay inside. Don’t come out the door for any reason. Stay inside. You don’t have a meeting, do you, or need to go out for some reason?”

“N-no,” she said, through clenched teeth. She was shaking with nerves.

“Good. You’ll have to tell your grandpa, so he knows what’s going on. And I guess you’ll have to use your own judgment about what to tell your little girl.”

Bree nodded and showed him out. She stood for a minute, leaning her head against the door with her eyes closed. There was a vague feeling that she ought to know what to do, but she couldn’t bring the thought forward. Mistakenly, she’d thought Bobby Gene was knocked off her radar screen, yet somehow he’d followed to her to Winsom and seemed determined to insert himself into Becca’s and her life. There had to be some way to stop him.