Outside my apartment it was still waiting for me. A flat, rectangular box. Snoopy, perched on his red doghouse, smiled on top.
And suddenly, I couldn't take it anymore. Twenty-five years had not been enough. My father's training had not been enough. The threat was back, but I still didn't know who to fight, how to attack, where to direct my rage.
Which left me with only the fear. Of every shadow in my darkened apartment. Of every sound in this old creaky building. Of every person who might randomly wander down the street.
I left the package on the landing. I grabbed Bella by the collar and dragged her into the bathroom, where I locked the door, climbed into the tub, and prayed for the night to end.
YOU'RE SURE YOU didn't see anything?" Bobby was asking. "A car, a person, the back of a coat disappearing down the street?"
I didn't answer. Just watched him pace back and forth in the three-foot expanse of my kitchen.
"What about a voice? Did he speak, make any kind of sound coming or going up and down the stairs?"
I still didn't say anything. Bobby had been asking the same questions for hours now. What little I'd had to offer was already on record. Now it was about him burning off steam and trying to come to terms with events I still refused to accept.
For example, twenty-five years later, the unidentified white male subject had found me again.
My phone had rung shortly after four a.m., another sharp and shrill noise that made my blood run cold. But the voice that came through my answering machine was not a taunting lunatic's. Just Bobby, demanding for me to pick up.
His voice grounded me, restored my sense of purpose. For him, I had to leave the tub, open the bathroom door, brave my darkened apartment. For him, I could lift the receiver, cradling the cordless phone against my ear as I grimly snapped on lights and reported the night's events.
Bobby hadn't needed me to say much. Two minutes later he was off the phone and on his way to my apartment.
He had arrived with a bunch of men in rumpled suits. Three detectives—Sinkus, McGahagin, Rock. In their wake came a troop of uniformed officers, quickly put to work canvassing my building.
The crime-scene techs arrived next, working the front doors, lobby, stairwell.
My neighbors hadn't been happy to be awakened before dawn, but they were intrigued enough to be out now watching the free show.
Bella had gone insane at the sight of so many strangers overrunning her home. Finally, I'd shut her up in Bobby's car; it was the only way the crime-scene techs were going to be able to get the job done. No one was terribly optimistic. Last night's showers had turned into a gray morning mist. Rain washed away evidence. Even I knew that.
The crime-scene techs had started in the foyer and were now working their way upstairs, black fingerprint powder flying everywhere. They were homing in on ground zero, a small, four-by-six-inch rectangular box, neatly wrapped in the comics, waiting outside my door.
No note. No bow. The package didn't require introductions. I already knew who'd sent it.
My apartment door opened again. This time, D.D. entered. Immediately, activity ground to a halt, all eyes on the sergeant. D.D. appeared pale but moved with her usual grim-faced efficiency. Not bad for a woman with a fat patch of gauze taped to the lower half of her cheek.
"You should not—" Bobby began.
"Oh please!" D.D. rolled her eyes. "What the fuck are you gonna do, handcuff me to the hospital bed?"
According to Bobby, D.D. had nearly been mauled to death by an attack dog merely hours ago. Leave it to her not to let a little thing like almost getting killed slow her down.
"When did the package arrive?" she asked crisply, clearly off the bench and back in the game.
"Around three twenty a.m.," Bobby said.
Her gaze flickered to me. "Same as you remember?"
"Yes," I said quietly "At least from the outside, the box reminds me of the gifts I received when I was young. He always wrapped them in the comic strips."
"What'd you see?"
"Nothing. I searched the building, the street. By the time I opened my door, he was gone."
D.D. sighed. "Just as well. We sustained enough damage for one night."
Detective Sinkus came over. "We're ready," he announced. He had a stain on his left shoulder. It looked like spit-up.
Bobby hesitated, glancing at me.
"You can leave," he offered. "Wait downstairs while we open it up."
I gave him a look that said enough. He shrugged, so obviously my reaction was expected.