Secret Love - Brenda Jackson [83]
Jake watched as Alex leaned forward in his chair, his gaze unwavering. “Now I want you to try and recall any background noises you may have heard during that second call.”
“Okay, although I don’t know just how well I’ll be able to recall anything. It was late and I was tired. The call woke me up from a sound sleep.”
Jake was silent as he tried to recollect his memories of the call he had received in his hotel room. His jaw clenched tightly as he remembered the man’s threat. “I don’t recall any of the sounds you recognized in the first call,” he said. “But instead of sounding muffled, the voice sounded kind of slurred, like the guy had been drinking, but there was nothing in the background to indicate he may have been calling from a bar.”
Jake shook his head and added, “But then I’m not as observant as you are,” forcing his voice to sound cheerful.
Alex grinned. “I’m paid to be observant.”
Jake nodded. “What I’ve told you is not a whole lot for you to go on, is it?”
“No, but at least it’s something.”
At that moment there was a knock at the door, then Blaylock walked in to deliver the mail. He placed the pieces of correspondence and a small rectangular box on Jake’s desk.
After Blaylock left, Jake said to Alex, “Excuse me while I sort through this. A lot of the men receive letters here and are always anxious when the mail comes. I like to get any letters they receive to them right away.” As usual whenever Jake sorted through the mail, he took the time to get rid of any junk mail.
He was about to open the box when Alex stopped him. “Wait, Jake. Do you usually get unmarked boxes through the mail?”
Jake frowned. “Unmarked boxes? What do you mean?”
“I mean that I happened to notice there isn’t a return address on that box. May I look at it for a second?”
Jake nodded and handed the box over to Alex.
Alex looked at the postal stamp. “Do you know anyone in California who would be sending you a package?”
“Not right offhand. Do you think it’s something I need to be concerned with?”
Alex shook his head. “Not if you were expecting this box, but yes if you weren’t. After the information you just shared with me earlier about those two calls, I don’t think we should take any chances.”
Jake watched as Alex took what appeared to be an ink pen out of his top pocket and taking it apart, he reassembled the ink pen into what appeared to be a handheld scanner. He ran the instrument all over the box.
After a few minutes, he said to Jake, smiling, “False alarm. But I like being safe rather than sorry.”
Jake nodded, shaking off the feeling of looming paranoia. He slowly opened the box. Pushing the tissue paper aside, he came to a group of photographs. He picked them up and looked at them one at a time. The hair on the back of his neck began to rise when he noticed they were pictures of him and Diamond taken at the press conferences in Houston and Los Angeles.
All of the photos were close-up shots of him and Diamond. And in each one, someone had taken a razor and slashed out his face. Not believing what he was seeing, Jake passed the photographs over to Alex.
He heard, without looking up, Alex release an angry hissing sound through his teeth. When he passed the last photo to Alex, he leaned back in his chair, his own anger barely contained.
“Whoever this guy is, Alex, I want him found. I’ll never do what he wants. I’ll never give Diamond up, no matter what.”
Jake stood at the window of his office, looking out. Behind him Alex was busy on the phone making calls, establishing contacts and following up on leads. One lead Alex thought he might have was linked to the photographs.
According to Alex, the camera used to take those photos was not one a typical consumer would own. The camera was one of high quality and could possibly belong to someone who was a photo buff or a professional photographer. He was having someone check out that lead with various camera manufacturers.