“Then what happened?”
“About a week ago, I started noticing strange cars on my street.”
My body tenses.
Someone had to have talked. If not the nurse, then someone who knew Alexis. Maybe a neighbor saw a light on when the woman was supposed to be at work or maybe someone heard a baby crying. In a town with corrupt cops, it was impossible to know who was on anyone’s payroll.
“Alexis and I were nervous. We had blackout curtains up in my house and I thought we were going to be okay.”
“She never went outside?”
“Never,” Polly agrees. “Not even at all.”
“Someone was watching you, though.”
“Yeah,” Polly nods. “Someone from work started asking me questions about my roommate. I said I didn’t have one and he acted like I was lying or being evasive. It was weird. Then a neighbor lady kept trying to come over and get into the house.”
“When you were home?”
“No,” Polly shakes her head. “When I wasn’t. I had security cameras up and an app on my phone alerted me. I went home from work and caught her. She said she heard noises coming from inside the house.”
“You think that was fake.”
“I think it was all fake,” she says. “Someone caught wind of something. Maybe Alexis’ dad had been watching me the whole time. I don’t know.” She shakes her head. “But I failed her, Jace. I totally failed her.”
She looks up at me and there are tears streaming down her cheeks. She shakes her head.
“I called in sick from work.”
“Were you sick?”
“No. I just had a bad feeling.”
“Tell me.”
I’m tense now, and my hands are digging into my knees. It hurts, but not as much as wondering what happened to the woman who was supposed to be my wife: the woman I thought was already dead.
“I always keep the same work hours. This makes it easy for anyone to target my home. It’s obvious when I’m going to be gone. I’ve tried to apply for different or rotating shifts, but I work at the hospital, and well, it’s tricky to get an ideal schedule. Most people have rotating schedules, so I thought it would be easy, but my manager wouldn’t move me.”
“Understood.”
“But people have been acting weird around me and I told Alexis I thought we should move her and the baby.”
“Where?”
“Alexis wanted to come here, to you. Well, she said she’d been keeping tabs on you and she thought you were in Storm Haven.”
“That’s where I get my mail. She must have run my credit.”
Polly nods.
“Sounds like something she would do. That’s for sure.” She looks over at Brandon and takes a deep breath. I know that whatever she’s going to say next is killing her a little. She’s so nervous. She’s tense. I wish I could take this pain away, but once I know what’s wrong, then maybe I’ll be able to help.
“What happened, Polly?”
“They came for her.”
“Tell me. Tell me everything.”