Page 52 of Secrets Beneath the Waves (Beach Read Thrillers #2)

Kelli came up to stand next to her as Jules read the text, also sent from her phone.

Your pink sweater is pretty.

Kelli gasped and pressed her fingers to her mouth. When she swung her gaze to meet Jules’, her dark eyes were filled with horror. “How would Dante know what Brie was wearing?”

Jules gazed at her friend’s pale pink sweater. How would Dante know that? Unless, of course, he’d been watching the building when Brie arrived.

Her jaw tightened. “I’m calling him. And then I’m calling his boss. This is ridiculous.”

She stormed over to the entryway, grabbed her bag from the floor, and set it on a small table so she could unzip it.

It took a minute, since her fingers were shaking, but she managed to open it and root around for that card.

When she found it, she zipped her bag and stabbed the numbers for Dante’s work phone on the keypad.

So her friends could see for themselves what a jerk he was, she hit the speaker button.

“Officer de Marco.” He sounded a little confused, which wasn’t surprising since he wouldn’t recognize Kelli’s number. Or would he?

Jules’ grip on the phone tightened. “It’s Jules. What are you doing?”

“Uh, I’m working. Why? Is something wrong?”

“Of course something’s wrong. You’re sending my friends creepy messages through my phone.”

“What?”

“You heard me. I want you to stop. Now.”

“Jules. Where are you?” His voice had gone deadly serious.

“What difference does that make?”

“Your phone is still in the lab. Even if I had it, I would never send you or anyone else creepy messages. Now, where are you?”

The irritation seeped from her. Jules spun around to stare at her friends. Kelli had pressed her fingers to her lips again. “We’re at 74 Downey Street. It’s an apartment building.”

“I’m on my way.”

Through the device, she caught the squealing of tires and then the mournful wail of a siren.

Jules hit mute on the device. “Kels,” she hissed. “Open your sliding doors and tell me if you hear a siren.”

Her friend nodded and headed for the glass doors that led out onto the balcony. After she’d slid the door open a few inches, she leaned toward the opening a moment before closing the door with an emphatic thud. “Nope. No siren.”

Jules’ stomach twisted. The siren still wailed in the background of their call.

Dante wasn’t lying. He was nowhere near them.

Of course, he could have seen Brie earlier, when she arrived at the building, and then driven away.

Argggh. She grasped a clump of hair with her free hand, tempted to pull it out by the roots.

She had no idea what was going on or what to believe.

She had to trust Dante. She unmuted the call.

“We’re in apartment 412. When you get here, hit 93 on the intercom, and I’ll let you in. ”

“Got it.” Tires squealed again. “I’m eight minutes out.”

“Okay.” Jules hit the end button.

Kelli came around the couch again and stopped next to Brie. “Should we?—”

A cool draft blew through the room. They all swung around to gaze at the sliding glass door, standing open several inches.

Jules grabbed Kelli’s arm. “I thought you closed that.”

“I did.” Her friend’s voice shook. “What is going on, Jules?”

“I’m not sure.” She let go of Kelli. That dangerous heat that had gripped her twice before after this man had freaked her out flowed through Jules like a raging river. Lowering her voice, she said, “Kels. You and Brie go to the bathroom and lock yourselves in until Dante gets here.”

“No way. We’re not leaving you out here alone.”

“I’m only going to close and lock the door and then I’ll join you.”

Brie shook her head. “Absolutely not.”

Jules exhaled. “Fine. But stay back here.” She had to issue the directive, although she had no expectation that her friends would comply. She was right. As she stalked toward the balcony, she caught the sound of footsteps behind her.

Despite desperately trying to regulate her inhaling and exhaling, her breaths remained shallow and raspy.

As soon as she was close enough to reach out and grasp the handle of the sliding door, she did so, ramming it into place and clicking the lock.

For two seconds, she peered outside, but the far end of the balcony, away from the soft lighting in the living room, was shrouded in complete darkness.

Jules yanked the curtains closed over the door before whirling around.

Kelli clutched a china vase in one hand while Brie brandished a bronze candlestick in the air.

Under other circumstances, Jules might have laughed.

Instead, she inclined her head toward the hallway leading to the bedroom and bathroom. “Let’s go.”

When they were halfway down the hallway, Kelli slipped her phone into the back pocket of her jeans and pushed open the bathroom door.

Once they were all inside, Jules clicked that lock as well.

The bedroom would have been preferable, since it also had a lock and they could have shoved the dresser in front of it for extra security.

That room had a large window, though, while the bathroom was an interior room.

Either way, it should take the killer, if he was actually here, a bit of time to get inside the locked apartment.

By then, Dante would have arrived. She hoped.

Brie set the candlestick on the closed toilet seat before lowering herself to the side of the tub. “Jules,” she whispered, shooting a look at the closed bathroom door, “What is happening? What haven’t you told us?”

Jules pressed an ear to the door. Silence on the other side. Her legs were weak, and she leaned back against the counter and crossed her arms. “All right, there is more to the story. The guy I saw kill that woman showed up at my house around four am the next morning.”

“What?” Kelli nearly shouted the word before slapping a hand over her mouth the way Jules had that night in the alley.

She uncrossed her arms and held up a hand. “It’s okay. I woke up and saw his face outside my window, but then he left without trying to get in.”

“Why? Why would he do that?” If anything, Brie’s face had grown paler, and she pressed a palm to the tub on either side of her as though she needed the support.

“Dante thinks he could be playing some kind of long game with me.”

Kelli lowered the vase to the bathroom counter. “That’s why he’s here.”

“ If he’s here, then yes, maybe.”

“What did you do when you saw the face?”

“I emailed Dante. He came over as soon as he got the message the next morning and checked around the place before calling in the crime scene investigators.”

“Did they find anything?”

“Only two shoeprints beneath my bedroom window.”

“Jules.” Brie released her name on a shuddering exhale. “You must have been going crazy the last couple of days. Why didn’t you tell us?”

“I didn’t want to worry you. I kept hoping the police would track the guy down and then this would all be over.”

“But they haven’t.”

“No, they haven’t.” Jules’ voice carried a hard edge. “Mostly because, even though he made no attempt to hide it, their key witness can’t visualize the suspect’s face. Which means the guy is still out there, terrorizing me and who knows how many other women.”

Brie straightened. “That’s not your fault, Jules. You’re the bravest person I know. Most people wouldn’t even have had the courage to go to the police with what you saw, so don’t you dare put yourself down.”

Before Jules could respond to that, Kelli’s phone vibrated. She tugged it from her pocket and looked at it. “Someone’s at the entrance.”

“It must be Dante.”

After Kelli confirmed that it was him through the door camera app on her phone, she hit the button to release the lobby door. Jules pushed away from the counter. “Stay here. I’ll let him into the apartment.”

“Yeah, okay.” Brie stood and she and Kelli followed Jules out into the hallway. No noise from the balcony. If the murderer was out there, he was making no attempt to break either the lock or the glass. Small mercies.

The elevator doors down the hall opened and closed. Seconds later, someone rapped lightly on the door. “Calgary PD.”

To be safe, Jules peered through the peephole. Dante. She flipped the lock and tugged open the door. “Hey.”

Dante nodded curtly. Dark shadows rimmed his eyes. Was he coming off a string of shifts? He looked as though he hadn’t slept well in days. When she stepped back, he strode into the apartment. “My partner is checking the perimeter. Is everyone okay?”

“We’re fine, although, after I spoke to you, we noticed the sliding balcony door was open.”

His eyes narrowed as he swung his gaze in that direction. The doors were hidden behind long, floral curtains. “Is it still open?”

“No. I went over and closed and locked it.”

His jaw tightened. “That wasn’t smart.”

“I didn’t think allowing a murderer to stroll into the apartment would be smart either.”

Dante exhaled. “You’re sure it was closed before that?”

“Yes. Kelli opened and closed it while I was on the phone with you.” No need to let him know that she’d done so in order to verify his story.

“You didn’t look out?” He glanced at her friends, who’d come up to stand next to Jules.

Kelli shook her head. “No. It didn’t occur to me, since it’s so dark out there.”

Dante nodded and shifted his attention back to Jules. “Did anyone try to get in after you locked the door?”

“No. At least, we never heard a noise like he was attempting to break the lock or anything.” Also no need to mention that the three of them had been huddled in the bathroom at the time.

“Okay.” Dante held out his arm, his palm facing the three of them. “Stay here. I’ll check it out.” He rested his hand on the gun in the holster at his waist. “If anything happens, get to the bathroom, lock the door, and call 911, okay?”

Although none of them answered, Dante must have taken their silence as assent enough, as he headed for the balcony. When he reached the curtain, he slid it out of the way, hit the light switch on the wall next to the door, then glanced out before flipping the lock and sliding the door open.

One hand still on his weapon, he stepped outside and disappeared behind the curtain that covered part of the glass.

Thirty seconds later, he reappeared, his gun still holstered.

“No one out there and no sign anyone was that I could see, although I told my partner to check out the ground below the fire escape and I’ve called in back-up to search the neighborhood.

” He closed the door, locked it, and pulled the curtain back across.

A little of the tightness in Jules’ chest eased as he walked over to them, his dark eyes locked on hers. “Want to show me those creepy messages you mentioned?”

The same jolt that had rocketed through her when he had made that slow, intense perusal of her in the pub shot through her now. She swallowed. “Sure.” She turned toward her friends. “Kelli and Brie both got one.”

Kelli held up her phone, the screen turned toward Dante. He scanned it and nodded before turning to Brie. She showed him her screen as well. “How do you think he knows what I am wearing?” Her voice shook slightly, although some of the color had returned to her cheeks.

Dante shot Jules a look before saying, “The only way he could is if he was watching the building when you arrived or he actually was on the balcony at some point observing the three of you in here.”