Page 59 of Their Stormy Reunion

“No, it wasn’t there, Mom.”

“Fallon, it was. Honey, your memory of that afternoon is really cloudy.”

“My memory was cloudy after I got bit. Trust me, I remember everything clearly before I got bit. I remember you setting out the lemonade. You asking for the geraniums to plant under the dogwood trees. You asking for the mulch and the trowel. And I distinctly remember the lock not being on the shed and how surprised I was.”

“Fallon, that’s just plain weird. Ask Michael if he took it.”

“Did he know the combination?”

“It hasn’t changed in fifteen years. I’m sure he did.”

I picked up my phone to call Michael. It went to voicemail, and I asked him if he had the lock, and if he didn’t, I asked him to buy one.

I didn’t waste any time after I got Fallon’s voicemail. I headed straight to the Onyx Security office. Simon was there and he looked up from a file that he was reading when I knocked on the doorjamb of his office.

“Hey, Michael,” he said as he closed the file. “Did you get another letter?”

“Something worse, and I don’t think I’m overreacting. I think Sid planted copperhead snakes in the Vickers’ shed.”

Simon got up from behind his desk and stepped to the front, then leaned back against it, folding his arms across his chest.

“How do you figure that?”

At least he didn’t immediately think I was crazy. That was a start.

“The combination lock for the shed was missing when Fallon went into the shed. I’ve been over there for years. That building was always locked. Always.”

“Damn, Michael. That would take some real effort. Possession of poisonous snakes is highly regulated. He’d have to find someone who sold exotic animals, get them, transport them, and release them into the shed. Seems more likely that the snakes just got into the shed somehow.”

“The shed isn’t wood, it’s totally manufactured, and Bob put it on a cement pad. It’s solid. There isn’t any way in but the door. As for transporting them, wouldn’t whoever sold them provide him with the container to transport?” I asked.

“You’re right,” Simon nodded. “How substantial was the lock?”

“He’d need bolt cutters to get it off.”

“You said the shed was manufactured. What’s it made out of?”

“My guess is galvanized steel. I’d need to ask Bob.”

“Let’s go take a look.”

We left the office and Simon followed me out to the Vickers’ house. I parked in the driveway and Simon parked out in the street. He followed me to the side of the house where the shed was. Once we knew what we were looking for, we could clearly see the scrapes in the metal where the bolt cutters had been used to cut the lock off.

“Oh my God. He did do this. He knows about Fallon,” I breathed out.

“Yeah,” Simon agreed. “But he didn’t give a shit who got hurt. It could have been her mom or dad just as easily as Fallon.”

“But he didn’t take credit for it,” I pointed out.

“My take is that he’s just wanting to rile you up. He wants you on your back foot so he can keep coming after you. If he knows who Fallon is and where she lives, he knows where you and your parents live.”

I nodded. “I want her staying at my house. I have the alarm, and I have Harley. I’m going to talk to Dad about not taking any more trips so he’s there with Mom all the time.”

“That sounds reasonable, but what are you going to do about your job?”

“I’m going to talk to the Captain about taking a leave of absence until this is over with.”

“Is that really feasible?” Simon asked as we walked to the front of the house.