The town sparkled in the dark night sky with the streetlights casting a warm glow on the sidewalks and the string lights draped over the main road created a dreamlike tunnel for the residents to walk through. To keep it family-friendly, the streets were lined with pumpkins and lanterns. River was in awe of its beauty as they began their trek in front of Angie’s diner and made their way up the four blocks. River had a hard time believing that it had been almost three months since she and her grandmother had stopped for lunch at the local eatery. Sue would have loved the decorations. Fall was her favorite holiday, but the facility she resided in didn’t think traveling for the night would be suitable for her. River understood, but she was still saddened knowing that Sue was sitting alone in her room while River traipsed around the town with her sexy neighbor and his daughter.
River recognized a few of the townsfolk as they passed by, many offering a small wave to Delilah, who would giggle and show off her pink teddy bear. River assumed that it was a gift from her mother and that was why she was so attached to the toy. While she spot cleaned it the other day after a mishap with some macaroni and cheese, Delilah had been inconsolable until the bear was returned to her.
“I see Preston up ahead. I want to talk to him about the notes.”
“Sure. Do you want me to take Delilah around?”
“That’s alright. I don’t think we’ll be long. It’s not like she’s getting candy anyway.”
That was true. Ridge had been side-stepping any candy offerings since his daughter was so young. River may have grabbed a few pieces as tribute. She couldn’t deny her sweet tooth, something she inherited from her grandmother.
“Sheriff, good to see you. Did you get my message?” Ridge asked the tall man that looked more like a model than a cop. He stood with a beautiful woman dressed as a pink Power Ranger and a little boy who wore the same in blue.
“I did. You said there were paper cut outs this time?”
“Yes, each of these seven envelopes contained a cut out letter from a magazine. There was a T, E, D, H, S, Y, and C. I put everything in this bag,” Ridge explained as he reached into the diaper bag under the stroller and pulled free a clear sealed bag.
“Hopefully, this will get things moving in the right direction.”
“Let’s hope because I honestly don’t know what else to except stake out my mailbox or move.”
“We don’t want it to come to that, but we can start reviewing your security footage more frequently. We’re lucky that things haven’t escalated much farther than the letters.”
“For now,” Ridge mumbled and River felt an uncontrollable urge to hug him. Instead, she settled for reaching forward and grabbing his hand in hers. He immediately squeezed her fingers in reassurance.
Preston nodded in understanding, then waved over someone in the distance.
“This is my deputy, Alexis. You may have seen her around a few times. I’m going to hand this off to her since she’s on duty.”
River and Ridge shook hands with the petite woman that had a fierce look in her eye. Behind her, a beagle patient sat and waited with a red leash tethering him to Alexis.
“It’s nice to meet you all. Preston has kept me up to speed on everything, so after my rotation tonight, I’ll take these in for evidence.”
“Dog!” Delilah shouted as she rocked back and forth in excitement at seeing the animal.
“Yes, this is our new detection training dog Brody. We just started working with him about a week ago.”
At the snap of Alexis’ fingers, Brody jumped up and wiggled toward Delilah, placing his front paws on her stroller to get a better look at Ridge’s daughter. Alexis reprimanded him with the command to get down and the dog dutifully complied. Brody sat on his bottom, his tail sliding back and forth against the sidewalk as he stared at Delilah.
“I’m trying to get him used to crowds. Obviously, we have a lot of work to do, but he’s been doing great so far in his training. He’ll be a good addition to the team.”
“No doubt. Well, thank you both and please let me know if you find anything at all. Preston, we can go over the security footage whenever you have the time. We probably want to get a camera on River’s house as well. Some of the letters have been found in her mailbox.”
The more River thought about it, the more she wondered if whoever was dropping off the letters wasn’t quite sure which house was his. Some of the other neighbors may have received letters as well.
She voiced her theory to the sheriff and he agreed to ask around their neighborhood the next day.
The group parted and continued to make their way around the town. Delilah had fallen asleep before Ridge’s cousin and his band went on stage. Though she was a bit excited to watch her favorite band's surprise performance, she would much rather spend her evening with the firefighter turned pirate.
Maybe she could convince him to stay in character just a while longer.
Chapter Eleven
Since the letters' arrival on Halloween, Ridge had been on edge – more so than usual. Anytime he left his house, he had been on high alert. He couldn’t even take Delilah to the park without continuously looking over his shoulder.
Just that afternoon, he had been pushing his daughter in one of the swings at the local park with a few other parents with non-school aged children when a woman with dark, almost black hair caught his eye. She was standing on the outskirts of the gated, just far enough away that Ridge couldn’t make out her features, but she reminded him of Penny. Penny’s hair had always had a light brown hue, similar to that of his daughter’s, but he couldn’t rule out that she may have colored it.
The woman must have sensed Ridge’s stare because she quickly turned away from the park and began walking toward the tree line. With his daughter close by he couldn’t risk going after the woman, even if just to confirm if it was his ex, so he grabbed his phone from his back pocket and sent a message to Preston. The Sheriff said that he would send one of his deputies out to search the area.