Free A Deadly Reunion by Odette C. Bell

back, and they sure as hell weren’t
pleasant. They felt like claws grating their way into the skin and
bone.
    “Threat?” I grabbed onto that one word.
“What do you mean by threat?”
    “I don’t know what I mean. But considering
what just happened in this town, I think maybe it’s time to call
the police.”
    I hadn’t been expecting that, and it was
like a punch to the gut.
    “Police?”
    “Dry yourself and put some clothes on.”
Denver walked past me, grabbed the door, and went to close it.
    I took a jerky step forward. Grabbing the
edge of the door, I stopped it in place. “What do you mean police,
Denver? And what do you mean threat? What’s going on here? I’m sure
it’s just... somebody fooling around.”
    “And if it isn’t?” he asked coldly.
    Damn... I could have fallen over at
that.
    If the card was threatening, then Denver’s
reaction to it was only driving home how serious it could be.
    While I hadn’t enjoyed high school, I’d
lived a fairly sheltered life. I’d never been the victim of any
kind of violent crime, and I’d certainly never been threatened
before.
    I had no idea how to deal with this.
    “Considering what’s going on in this town,
it’s best that we take this seriously.” He looked directly at me as
he spoke, and he had a calm edge of authority to his voice that
felt something like an anchor I could hold onto.
    He clearly knew what he was doing.
    “But—” I began.
    “Dry yourself off, get dressed, and we’ll
head down to the police station. We’ll report this. It might be
nothing, but we’ll take it seriously for now.”
    “ But... it’s just a postcard.”
    Denver brought it up, and he pointed at the
picture from my yearbook. It had little holes in it, as if it had
been pinned on a board. It was a detail I hadn’t noticed before
because I’d obviously been too busy freaking out.
    “What is it?”
    “You know those blue pins you keep
finding?”
    I swallowed hard.
    “ Well... they may be important to the
investigation,” he said casually.
    “May be important to the investigation?
Denver, what are you talking about?”
    “Fine. I probably shouldn’t be sharing this
detail with you, but considering what just happened, you’re going
to be told anyway. Plus, it’s not as if anyone can keep a secret in
this town. After the murder of James Wood, the school was searched.
A pin board was found. All the notices had been taken down, and a
picture of James Wood had been pinned up using a blue pin exactly
like the ones you’ve been finding. Underneath it somebody had
pinned up an excerpt from Time magazine.”
    “Time Magazine?”
    “Believe it or not, James was a software
developer. He recently wrote some kind of fancy app, and sold it
for millions.”
    “Jesus, I didn’t know that.” I
swallowed.
    “Hardly anyone did.” Denver stopped briefly
and shifted his jaw around. “But that’s not the point. The blue
pins are. And this,” he tapped the pinhole in my yearbook photo,
“and this,” he pointed to the cut-out-newsletter message,
“are.”
    I let go of the door and my hand fell
against my side.
    Without thinking, I also let go of the
towel, and it promptly fell from around me.
    Rather than stand there and cop an eyeful,
Denver turned around sharply. He closed the door gently and
reminded me again to get dry and get dressed.
    Well I didn’t, or not immediately. I simply
stood there in the middle of the room until I crumpled down into a
seated position next to the bath. With my back pressed hard into
the ceramic and tile, I rocked back and forth with my hands and
arms held tight around my knees and ankles.
    Fuck.
    Fuck.
    Had someone just threatened to kill me?
     

Chapter 8
    It took me a long time to get myself
together enough to dry and dress, and I only did so after Denver
prompted me repeatedly. By the time I opened the bathroom door a
crack, it was to the sight of him sitting neatly on the edge of my
bed. No doubt he had already gone through