Reaching her, Zach murmured, “Tess,” then finally turned to the tow truck driver and exchanged a few words. With a deep rumble, the truck departed.
“Still no police?” Zach asked, frowning.
“No. I’ve only had to call them once before, when we had a break-in. It took them half an hour that time, but it wasn’t an emergency. I mean, the guy was long gone.”
“This one presumably is, too, but I want to look around.”
He circled the Dumpster and went as far as each end of the alley, scanning the pavement as well as each side, pulling himself up a couple of times to look over fences. He returned, shaking his head. “Nothing.”
“What would you expect to find?”
He grunted. “Nothing. But you never know. The CCPD officer should look in the Dumpster to make sure our guy didn’t toss the knife.”
“Oh, sure,” she scoffed. “With fingerprints intact.”
His grin softened his usually bleak expression. His sharp blue eyes searched hers. “You okay?”
She’d crossed her arms tightly, Tess realized. Holding herself together. “I’m a little freaked,” she admitted.
“This is going to cost you, too.”
“My insurance might cover part of it. I’ll study the policy when I get home. If not—” Thank goodness for the indignation that made the fear recede. “Damn it, I bought a full set of new tires in November.”
Zach crouched beside one of her front tires, inspecting the slash and giving her an excellent view of his broad back with the olive-green shirt taut across it. “Nobody will be fixing these, that’s for sure.” He rose with an athletic ease she envied and faced her. “No note?”
Tess shook her head. “I assumed this was the ‘or else.’”
His eyes were very intense. “Or only the beginning. This kind of harassment may continue.”
She couldn’t help a small shiver. “What about you? Have you had anything like this happen?”
“Not yet.” His jaw muscles knotted. “I was given a few days’ grace to think about whether I want to rock the boat. I’m expecting to have another sit-down with the sheriff any day. The closest to a threat that’s come my way so far is being told I won’t be very popular with my fellow deputies if I insist on bringing Hayes down.”
Oh, heavens—her muscles were tightening and she wanted to retreat a step. “You’ve been worrying about whether I’d back down, but it’s more likely you will.”
“No.” There was no give in the one word, but his expression revealed his troubled state of mind. “The police culture does push us to support one another, and there’s good reason for that. We do a tough job. We have to be able to trust fellow officers. Civilians don’t always understand why we react the way we do...the split-second decisions we make. And we’re human. We make mistakes. This...was different.”
Watching him, Tess felt a burning in her eyes and sinuses. Yes, her first instinct had been right. This was a good man. She could trust him.
She took a shaky breath. “Okay. Thank you.”
“You didn’t call me about the note.”
“It made me mad, but I considered it petty. This is different.” In so many ways. What scared her most was that whoever had done this damage must have used a knife, and probably not a wimpy little pocketknife. This wasn’t just property damage. It was an escalation of the threat. Those deep slashes repeated the threat in an ugly way.
Or else.
At the sound of a car turning into the alley, they both turned. Tess relaxed to see the rack of lights atop the white police car that she knew would have a blue stripe down each side.
Then Zach focused on her again, the intensity burning in his eyes. “Tess, if anything else happens, however petty it seems, call me.”
“But...you implied we should keep contact to a minimum. You didn’t want us to be seen together.”
She couldn’t miss the determination in the hard lines of his face.
“This campaign to silence you trumps that. Promise me, Tess.”
Unable to tear her eyes from his, she finally nodded. “I promise,” she whispered. “But you have to let me know if they threaten you, too. Okay?”