Monday, February 19, 2007

What Chills Your Soul

Chapter Fifty-Eight
Adam sat me down and pulled me to him, away from the view of the bed. I finally stopped screaming and then the tears started; tears of outrage and tears of fear.

Someone had been in our house and left another message for us and this time we couldn’t ignore it, not even if we wanted to.

On our bed lay the bloody body of a rat; a very large rat. It had been stabbed with a knife, probably from our own kitchen; impaled onto the bed itself. And lying next to it was another note, spatters of blood covering it so that it was almost impossible to read.

Adam stepped forward to see if he could read the note and I watched him with horrified eyes; not wanting to get any closer myself.

He read the note out loud and it chilled my soul to hear the words.

Betrayal is bitter
Deception angrily beats
back innocent souls
and scurries like a rat
through broken hearts
As actors heartlessly play their roles

I felt nauseous and had to take several deep breaths to get it under control. Adams face was pure white as he stood there, his hands clenched into fists at his side.

“Adam,” I said my voice little more than a whisper. Then louder, “Adam.”

It finally penetrated his thoughts and he turned to me, his face a grim mask of disgust and disbelief. “Yes?”

“We – we have to call the police…” I trailed off.

“Yes Sarah, I am aware of that!” he almost snapped at me and then was immediately apologetic. “I’m sorry love, very sorry. I don’t mean to snap at you.”

“It’s alright Adam. We’re both – uh, stunned.”

“Yes,” he answered absentmindedly, searching his pockets for his cell phone. He finally found it and pulled it open and dialed 911. “I haven’t a clue whether this will call the local police or California, where my phone service is,” he said while he waited for the number to ring.

I pointed to the regular phone on the night table and said, “Maybe we should use that?”

He nodded and closed his phone with a snap and reached for the land line phone. I stood there, staring transfixed at the gruesome scene on the bed while he punched in 911 again and waited for an answer.

I went into the bathroom and turned the cool water on and splashed it over my face a few times trying to dispel the sick feeling I had. The face that looked back at me from the mirror was pasty, with two bright spots of color on my cheeks. They looked like someone had painted red circles on them with lipstick. My eyes had a strange and brittle glitter in them that wasn’t natural at all. I started shaking then and waves of nausea rolled over me and I turned just in time to be sick in the toilet, heaving violently until my stomach was completely empty.

I sat down on the floor and leaned back against the cabinet were the sink was, resting my head against my knees. My breathing was still rapid, but I was starting to feel a little bit better.

I was disgusted with myself – with my reaction to all this. I needed to be strong for Adam and I was totally failing at it. He is the one who was being targeted and I needed to get myself together for him. I leaned my head back against the hard cabinet door and it felt cool through my hair. It actually felt kind of good and I decided that maybe I needed a cool washcloth so I stood up to pull one out of the cabinet and wet it.

Adam came in just as I finished that and had draped it around my neck. I leaned over and rinsed my mouth out as Adam reported his conversation with the police to me.

“I finally got them to transfer me to the local detectives. Detective Rodriguez had faxed them some information so they will be out along with a patrol car. The car should be here soon. How are you love?”

“Okay, I’ll be okay Adam. What about you?”

He shrugged his shoulders, but I couldn’t fail to notice how miserable he looked. His beautiful chocolate brown eyes looked muddy and dull and his face was still deathly pale. I reached up and brushed an errant curl back from his forehead and he grabbed my hand and pressed it against his cheek before kissing it. He let out an enormous sigh and I wrapped my arms around his waist and held him tightly to me, comforted by his steady heartbeat.

The doorbell rang soon after that and we went downstairs to answer it. It was the patrol car, here already as promised. There were two female officers standing there and we moved aside to let them enter.

Officers Mendoza and Porter were both very nice and I just felt better, having them here. They followed us upstairs to the bedroom and viewed the morbid scene on the bed. They were just starting to ask some preliminary questions about what we had done when the doorbell rand again and I left Adam with the officers to go answer it.

It was the detective from the Dallas police department. His name was Morgan and he just exuded an air of calm around him, which I appreciated a great deal. He said he knew Delilah Arnold, one of the detectives from Wichita and she had filled him in on all of this. I thought his eyes rather sparkled when he mentioned her, but who knows for sure?

He silently followed me upstairs where the two officers were looking at the bed and making notes. Adam was standing silently by watching them and I went to him and he put his arm around me.

“Hello Mr. Richland. I’m Detective Morgan and I’ll be working on this case for you here in Dallas. I think I have most of the history of the case from Detective Arnold in Wichita. I actually talked with her today in fact. They haven’t been able to get any clues from the notes so far, neither the note from California or Wichita. They are copies of copies of copies. They have no fingerprints on them and since they have been copied so many times it’s impossible to really tell where they might have been printed. We do know they were done on a PC computer using Times New Roman font, but that is about as much as we can tell. They could have been printed off anywhere. The blue fiber is from a Hanes sweat suit, but that particular color was distributed to thousands of locations in the US and that makes it impossible to trace. They are still working on the IP address from the e-mail. Now, let’s see what we have here,” he said, going to the bed to examine the rat’s body and the note.





I stood by the door, leaning back against the wall watching them examine the mess. Detective Morgan got on his cell phone and called for the forensics lab to come and process the scene and when he got off the phone he told us we all needed to wait downstairs.

In the living room I sat down on the couch and found myself rubbing my hands over my jeans, almost compulsively. It’s a habit I have when I’m nervous and when I caught myself doing it yet again, I stuck my hands under my legs in an attempt to keep them still.

Adam was sitting next to me, talking to the detective and the patrol officers, answering questions about what we did when we got home, what we had touched, etc. Adam was giving them a step-by-step rundown on our movements.

“Mr. Richland, did either of you touch the animal or the bed?”

“God no. I walked close enough to read the note, but that’s all.” Adam answered.

“Okay. Well, when forensics gets here we’ll be able to tell if the crime scene is contaminated or not. Do you recognize the knife?”

Adam frowned for a moment and then answered, “We just got here Sunday night. It could be from this kitchen, but we haven’t cooked much in there really, so I don’t know.”

“So you haven’t touched anything in there yet, the kitchen I mean?” the detective asked.

“We put away some groceries Monday evening, and Sarah made some dinner that night, but that’s all,” Adam said. “No we really haven’t touched much there at all.”

“That’s good, although I doubt seriously if our perpetrator has let any evidence; at least when you consider the previous notes.”

The perpetrator. Those words smacked me in the face and then in the heart. This was real. I mean, I knew before it was real, but we couldn’t pretend like it was going to go away any more. It was like war in a way and we couldn’t assume they were going to get tired of the game. The game in fact had changed; it was now deadly – at least for the rat.

What kind of a person could do that to a living creature I wondered? Even if it were only a rat; it still lived and breathed. Don’t get me wrong; I detest rodents, but to heartlessly, coldly impale it was cruel beyond imagining to me. The more I thought about all of this the angrier I got. I finally got up and went and looked out the windows. It was pitch black out tonight, the moon waning away bit by bit and only a quarter showing her dreamy face tonight.

Another vehicle pulled up outside and I went to the door and opened it before the man standing there had a chance to knock. His face showed a startled expression as I stood there looking at him. The detective and Adam were right behind me. It was a man from the security patrol from the complex. He had heard the call over his radio and wanted to know why we hadn’t called them first, which started a long discussion between him and the police who clearly had jurisdiction. The security officer’s point was that they had to be called first and refer it on to Dallas police as needed and I couldn’t stand to hear anymore then, so I stepped outside.

I just didn’t know where to go actually. There was nowhere in the house I could go without the concern of messing up the blessed crime scene and I couldn’t listen to it all anymore; I needed some distance to think, to get my head together. I felt brittle right then; ready to snap. I was angry, possibly angrier than I have ever been in my whole life. I sat down on a lawn chair on the small porch, pulling my knees up and wrapping my arms around them. I took a couple of deep breaths and closed my eyes, releasing the shaky exhale slowly.

The forensics people pulled up then and headed for the door; all sorts of equipment in tow. I pointed to the door wordlessly and watched them enter the house.

I suppose it wasn’t very nice of me to let Adam deal with it all right now but I knew I was close to losing it and frankly, I’ve had enough of cops lately to last me forever. Whether in Italy, Wichita, California or Dallas, they all have their notebooks where they take endless notes, each asking the same damn futile questions that don’t give anyone any answers.

I’m just so damn tired of it all.

The door opened again and I saw Adam come out, looking around for me for a moment before he spotted me, sitting off to the side. He came over and leaned against the railing by my chair and didn’t immediately say anything, just looked at me as if trying to gauge my mood.

He finally said, “They are examining the uh, bedroom right now; nothing for me to do.”

When I still didn’t say anything, he started to fidget. I looked at him; I knew he could tell I was upset and that I needed to talk to him about it, but I didn’t know what to say. I wasn’t angry with him at all, but I was pissed at the world right now; at circumstances. I wondered how to tell him those things and make him understand that the anger wasn’t about him, not in any way. He was holding his hands in front of his body, one hand sort of picking at the nails of the other one and staring at it while he was doing it. I think he was afraid to look at me and I knew I had to do something to help him.

“Adam,” I said finally, watching him as he looked down at me. His face showed clearly that he was miserable; scared maybe too. I licked my lips, mostly to stall talking about my unorganized thoughts for another moment or two.

“I’m sorry Adam, I just had to get out of there – I, I felt like screaming. Sorry.”

He nodded his head silently in understanding, his lips pursed. He didn’t say anything and I didn’t know if that was because he was upset with me or he just didn’t know what to say.

“Adam, do you understand that I am not upset with you; not angry with you?”

“I guess I don’t really know what is wrong Sarah. I know you are upset. And that’s certainly understandable, I just – talk to me Sarah, help me to understand your feelings.”

“I’m angry Adam; blown away with anger. At, at this whole situation; whoever is doing this, at the police who ask endless questions but don’t really offer any real answers. I’m pissed because our home has been invaded; because we are being toyed with, taunted. They came into our bedroom Adam; killed a helpless animal – coldly, cruelly. Left a note, as if to explain their actions; but it explains, nor excuses nothing. They are a sick bastard but it seems they are some kind of damn genius too; they don’t leave any clues. They don’t give us enough information to help anything; which is the point – I understand that.” I took a long and deep unsteady breath before continuing on my ranting and rambling dialogue. “It’s personal Adam and we can’t ignore that any longer; we can’t afford to ignore it any longer because the game is getting more dangerous. The rat is dead; what or who is next? Where will this person stop or will they even? We don’t even know why they are doing this. I can’t imagine that you have ever done anything rotten enough to someone to warrant this Adam, it is just unthinkable to me. But they aren’t stopping, that’s for sure and so all we can do is just wait for their next move and hope that sooner or later we get a real clue; hopefully that will be before they kill you. It doesn’t seem to matter where we are, where we go, they just tag along. We’re helpless, have no control!” I spat out adamantly.

Which was the problem for me; the crux. It all goes back to my issues of control, I knew that, understood it but that didn’t help me a bit. I hated this feeling – vulnerability. My eyes had sort of glazed over and unfocused as I spoke, lost in another world somewhere maybe. I looked at Adam then, searching his face with frightened eyes, looking for his reaction to my harsh words.

I think I saw relief but there was understanding too and acceptance of my words. “I was just so afraid you were angry with me Sarah, so afraid. I feel helpless too and I haven’t a clue what to do about it either. You’re right; we’re getting no help from the police, although I do feel like they are trying Sarah. And I can’t imagine who is doing this.” He was quiet for a full minute or so, in fact I thought maybe he was done when he spoke up again. He was half-leaning and half-sitting against the railing, his arms crossed in front of him in an almost protective gesture; maybe vulnerable is a better way to describe it. “You know, I’ve really thought a long time about this and I can’t think of anyone. I just haven’t had that many relationships and most were never really relationships anyway. I mean, like Rachel; we went out a few times, but that was all. And fans? That just seems so unlikely and the same with disgruntled actors. This – this is something that is passionate in nature, not sexually you know, but someone feels very strongly about all this; that I’ve – I’ve grievously hurt someone. You don’t walk away from someone after something that does that kind of harm without knowing it, you just don’t.”

I believed him, I did. I don’t think he is just forgetting something or even deliberately trying to hide it; but somewhere in his past was the cause for all this. Somewhere in his past lie answers.

Adams cell started ringing then and he pulled it off the clip and looked at it. “It’s Tamara, or probably the boys,” he said as he flipped the phone open. I knew that he hadn’t talked to them for several days; maybe it would be good for him to talk to them, I just didn’t know. It was almost eight o’clock here which means that they were calling after the game. I hoped that Tristan’s team had won; it knew it meant a lot to him. But still, I only listened with half an ear as Adam talked to them.

I started thinking about them and sort of by default, Tamara. I knew inherently that she had nothing to do with all this, but since Adam had had so few relationships, I worried that they would strongly focus on her. As Adam had said, someone feels that he had grievously hurt them and that wouldn’t be someone he had known or been involved with casually. Unless they were seriously mentally disturbed or crazy that is. That thought was also chilling.

I knew that I was doing exactly what Tamara had said to me on the phone a few days ago; that I was up in my head too much – that was a given. I just didn’t know how to stop it, get out of my head that is. And maybe I shouldn’t.

With an ironic smile I realized I was doing it again – rethinking everything. I shook my head, trying to dispel those confusing thoughts about it all. I wasn’t solving anything or coming to any real conclusions; it was completely pointless and yet I did it so often. Maybe that should be a New Year’s resolution – STOP thinking, well so much anyway.

“Sarah,” I realized Adam was saying. He was holding the phone out to me, “Sarah, Tristan would like to tell you about his game.” He smiled at me, at my surprise over that fact. I pointed to my chest and he nodded his head and I reached for the phone, suddenly feeling so much better.

“Hi Tristan,” I said, eager to hear all about it. “So, tell me all the details, I can’t wait to hear!”

“Hi Sarah! It was great and we won, we really did. Well, 5 – 4 but anyway it was really cool!”

I laughed to hear his exuberance about it and wished we were there to see it. “Well, I guess the Tiger’s rule, huh?”

“Grrrrooowlllll!” he imitated their team mascot, which made me laugh.

“All right Tigers! Did you have fun?”

“Yeah, I scored a goal, and that was fun! Jimmy McMillian fell down though and Petey Rogers fell on him and he got his color bone broke. But it wasn’t bloody or anything.”

“Jimmy or Petey, broken collar bone that is?” I was sure he had meant ‘collar’ bone instead of ‘color’ bone.

“Jimmy. He was crying and everything ‘cause it hurt a lot. Now he can’t play for the rest of the season. And he runs really fast Sarah!”

“Wow, well then you’ll just have to run twice as fast! I bet you can do it Tristan!” I heard all the scoop about the game and I enjoyed every moment. Then Geoff wanted to talk to me and I waited as Tristan gave him the phone.

“Hi Sarah. What are you doing?” he asked with all the curiosity of a 5 year old. But it made me stop and think about exactly what we were doing and I wasn’t going to tell them about all that, so I thought of something else to say.

“We’re in Dallas and your daddy is working on a movie. I’ve been going with him and watching.”

“Oh, that’s kinda boring Sarah. He should let you do something fun!” He had really hit the nail on the head because it wasn’t fun at all, but I certainly wasn’t going to stay home now, not after tonight. I shivered then and pulled myself back to what Geoff was saying. “Mommy says we are going to come and see you at Thanksgiving. Do you make turkey Sarah? Daddy always makes our turkey but we’ll be at your house so will you let him cook it?”

I looked at Adam and smiled and told Geoff, “You bet your daddy’s going to cook the turkey. I bet he makes the best turkey, huh?”

All that made Adam smile and Geoff went on and on about how good Adam’s turkey was. The boys obviously missed Adam terribly and there wasn’t really a damn thing we can do about it.

Geoff started to wind down and he hadn’t talked to Adam yet so I handed the phone back and listened as Adam talked with Geoff, reassuring him about Thanksgiving and how much he was looking forward to seeing them. Adam then asked to talk to Tamara and I listened as he started relating what was going on here tonight. I could tell she was upset as I listened because Adam kept saying, “It will be alright Tamara, we’ll find out what is going on I promise you.”

Detective Morgan came outside then and asked us to come back in and stated that he had some questions for us. Adam told Tamara that he would call back later and we went inside and sat down in the living room. The security officer was still there, obstinately refusing to leave as long as the police were here, but he didn’t say anything, just listened to everything being said. The forensics team was just finishing up and I saw that they had the comforter in a plastic bag that they took with them. I shuddered as I watched them carry it out the door.

Adam was sitting next to me on the couch and I knew he must have seen that because he wrapped his arm around me and I just soaked up the warmth, the comfort from that simple gesture. I rested my hand on his leg and scooted a bit closer to him because I knew he was upset too; his whole body was tense and on edge, I could tell from the way he was holding himself, ramrod stiff.

“Mr. Keaton,” Detective Morgan started, indicating the security officer, “States that Krista Marshall signed for this unit for you and that his office gave her two keys. Do you have both of those keys in your possession?”

Adam nodded and said, “Yes, I have one and Sarah has the other.”

“Could we see them please? Mr. Keaton would like to check the serial numbers on both of them.”

Adam reached into his pocket for his key ring and I got up to get mine out of my purse. We each handed our respective keys to Mr. Keaton who compared them to numbers he had written on a notebook. “They are the correct keys,” he told the detective. “They do say ‘Do Not Duplicate’ on them, but you could probably find someone who would for a few bucks extra.” He handed them back to Adam and me and watched silently as we put them away.

Detective Morgan asked us if it was possible that someone could have got our keys to make copies. Adam and I looked at each other and we both shrugged before Adam answered, “Well, it’s possible. When we are at the studio there are lots of times that we are not in the dressing room and the keys are. It wouldn’t be hard for someone on the movie to know when those times are.”

“The dressing rooms don’t have locks on the doors?”

“Yes, but I mean, we don’t every really use them. There isn’t ever anything valuable in there.”

“You don’t consider a purse and keys valuable Mr. Richland?”

“Well yes, but you don’t expect someone to take them out of a dressing room. And everyone there works on the movie and there is also security on the set. It’s not like someone unknown is wandering around unchecked detective. I have made over 30 movies in the last 20 years or so and I don’t ever remember anything being taken out of a dressing room before.”

“I’m afraid that’s a rather naïve attitude Mr. Richland and obviously incorrect; since it is almost assuredly someone from the movie who is doing these things.”

“I’m afraid I don’t follow why it has to be someone from the movie necessarily.” Adam told them.

“Opportunity Mr. Richland. Someone knows where you are and has been to all the places you have been. And this issue with the key; someone got a copy of that key because they didn’t break into this house. They had to know when to get that key and get a copy made. Since you stated unauthorized persons cannot roam around the movie set that only leaves someone on the set.”

Those words were sobering to us both and we sat silent as we comprehended what they meant. Adam and I looked at one another and the reality of the situation hit us both hard. The detective had to be right; it could only be someone from the set. The implications of that were almost unthinkable; it means we don’t have a clue who we can trust, it could be anyone.

Detective Morgan was flipping though several pages of notes and commented, “In California there was some trouble with Rachel Tomlinson, is that correct?” When Adam nodded he continued, “Has there been any problems here with Ms. Tomlinson?”

I suppressed a groan and I’m sure Adam did the same thing. Adam told the detective everything that had went on with Rachel and he listened, taking copious notes and wearing a frown that creased across his forehead dramatically. After Adam finished with the description of events, Detective Morgan sat tapping his pen on the notebook as he thought about Adam’s statement.

“So the scenes you filmed with Ms. Tomlinson were this morning, correct?”

“Yes,” Adam stated.

“Where was Ms. Tomlinson this afternoon? Was she still on the set?”

We looked at each other blankly. I didn’t remember seeing this afternoon, after the scene was done and I just assumed she had left the studio. Adam confirmed the same thought. “But we don’t know that for sure,” Adam told the detective. “She could have been in her dressing room for all we knew.”

“Well, we can check on that, but it certainly seems as if she had the opportunity and she was very angry about the problems with the scene as well. She certainly sounds very impulsive.”

“Yes, she is and that is exactly why I can’t see her doing all this. Some of it has taken a great deal of forethought you know. Not exactly Rachel’s strong point detective.”

“Perhaps you don’t know her as well as you think Mr. Richland? Often times we underestimate what people are capable of, I assure you. Today was a totally impulsive act.”

“Yes, it was; at least the dead rat part. Which I cannot possibly imagine her touching. But that doesn’t account for the uh, note. That wasn’t impulsive; that was premeditated.”

“We’ll see Mr. Richland. We will check it out, I promise you. Now, will you be staying here tonight or going to a hotel in town?”

I hadn’t even given it a thought until now, but I had no intention of staying here. Not even a chance and when I looked at Adam he knew what I was thinking and answered that we would be going to a hotel. We gave the detective our phone numbers and told him we would let him know where we decided to stay and they all left and suddenly the house was empty again and I couldn’t wait to get out.

Adam had his arm around me as we watched them drive off and I leaned my head against his shoulder and sighed. We had to up to that bedroom to get the things we would need to go to a hotel and I dreaded going up to do it.

Adam’s phone rang again and he pulled it out and looked at it with a frown before answering it. “Yes Lyle?”

I listened as Adam filled him in on everything. He had evidently been notified by the complex company about the problems. He was two steps ahead of us; already had a hotel arrangement for us and told Adam that the schedule had been rearranged for tomorrow and that Adam didn’t need to report back until Thursday, which we appreciated a great deal. Adam thanked him and we went upstairs to grab a few things to take with us.

We both stopped at the door of the bedroom when we saw the bed. There was a large blood stain on the mattress as well as a hole where the knife had sunk into it. We tried hard to ignore it, but it was very hard. It was a tangible reminder of the scene here two hours ago; a scene fraught with horror and fear.

It didn’t take us long and we both practically flew out of the house and were on our way to the haven of the hotel.

34 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did I realy look forward to this? I don't want Sarah and Adam having to go through all this any longer! So glad they are moving into the hotel, I wouldn't stay in that house another minute myself.
All the time I didn't want the stalker to be Krista, but now I'm fairly sure she did it.

Have a good start into the new week everybody!
Andrea

kmorales4 said...

OMG. This blog only gets better and better. I can'y wait to find out who "THE PERPETRATOR" is. I would bet on Krista but it's to obvious. Maybe Mark. Oh I don't know, I'm no CSI.

Anonymous said...

I so wish that we could read more. But Hope once again you have done a wonderful job. I am looking forward to Wednesday.

Tammy

Anonymous said...

I am still saying Adam is the the target. It is Sarah! And it is her ex boyfriend (right before Adam) Does't anyone remember the blowout in Cassey's hospital room when he yelled at Sarah.

Anonymous said...

I am still saying Adam is NOT the the target. It is Sarah! And it is her ex boyfriend (right before Adam) Does't anyone remember the blowout in Cassey's hospital room when he yelled at Sarah.

Anonymous said...

Wow! Whjat an exciting entry. Once again, Hope, you have another incredible entry. Can hardly wait to see what develops next!

Becky

Stephanie Graston said...

Well this certainly was unexpected!!! I didn't think a bloody rat would be lying on the bed! I agree with kmorales, that its too obvious to be Krista. However, I do get a funny feeling from Sunni. I don't know why but its just an eerie feeling from her.
Anyhow, I hope you all are enjoying this holiday home from work. I actually had to call off due to my stupid cold! and the wind chill outside is 0 so i am perfectly fine with staying in! Can't wait for wednesday - Stef

Anonymous said...

mark? no way its mark! hes such a sweetheart, and everyone speaks very highly of him, plus why would he wantto kill Adam?? No, no, all of this is too passionate to be a man, "the perpetrator" has to be a woman.

Hope said...

Good Morning Everyone and Happy Monday!

How I wish I were at home, snuggled down in the bed and sleeping. Boy it was hard to get out of bed today!

A little advance warning here: I will not be posting on Friday, 02/23/07. My birthday is the following Monday, so I am taking off on Friday so I can have a long weekend. I will not be able to take that Monday off. They are planning something fiendish here at work for me since it's my 50th birthday. We always do gruesome things like wear black veils and we often drape the person's office in black tulle and fill it with black balloons. Only for those 'big' birthdays mind you. I sincerely hope they do something very gruesome, but I know that it will be a fun day regardless!

I don't think we have a planned lunch escape for today. Last week Tita mentioned Japenese, which would work well for me. I am always in the mood for sushi! Let me know!

tita said...

Hello Everyone;
Personally I'm really confused, I bet the perpretator is Krista, but that seems obvious, I don't think is Sarah's exboufriend because Adam's tea was contaminated with liquid nicotine before knowing Sarah....Oh I really don't know....Actually Rachel isn't as stupid as the pretends to be...OMG
Hope, excellent job.....I love this blog, it's the best one.
XOXO

Anonymous said...

Eeewww! Man Hope, that was creepy with a capital C. And the verse was worse than the rat!

Do you write your own verses for this? If so, you have a very fascinating mind! LOL

Excellent Hope, as always. It gave me goose bumps!

Anonymous said...

OMG!!! Really creepy! I am still shivering Hope.

I don't think it could be Krista, but it doesn't seem like Sunni either. She seems to sane to do this, but then, that doesn't mean anything. Suspicion is just running me in circles, which means Hope is an excellent writer, because we don't know. For awhile I thought it was Mark, kind of a quiet character and it could have been some professional kind of grudge; but Tamara is so nice and I just don't think she could be with someone capable of doing something like that.

But what about the director guy. We haven't heard too much about him, but maybe in his and Adam's past there has been something between them. He certainly had the opportunity to know where Adam was all the time and the ability and money necessary to maybe hire people to get in to Sarah's house and everything. I'm starting to think about him more.

DayDreamer said...

Oh wow... this is great.
I'd say it's Ms Scarlet, with the Knife, in the Bedroom.

Quick, open the envelope... am I right?!!!

Seriously, this is the best ever. Who is it? Sunni was gone all morning, it could be her.
The keys could have been copied before even giving them to Sarah & Adam. Could be Rachel, she seems to have enough anger towards Sarah & Adam. I say the victim could be Sarah and not Adam, but then that wouldn't explain the tainted tea before Adam even met Sarah.

Oh, I just LOVE a good mystery. I'm becoming obssed. :>)

NO,you can't let Misery die....(just kidding)

And happy Birthday (early). My sons birthday is this Wednesday!!

Anonymous said...

Great post Hope, better than I expected. You Know maybe Adam should hire a private detective to find out who is doing this.I'm going to miss not having this blog to read on Friday!..I so look forward to them. Have a happy birthday Hope

Shirley

Anonymous said...

That dead rat is really creepy. And my first thought was that Rachel couldn't/wouldn't have touched it, but you know what? I think maybe she did. She would be the last one we would think of doing that isn't she? I can't imagine her touching a rat, but on the other hand she is very cruel and twisted, she could very well have done it and I think she did!

Anonymous said...

Aw, poor little rat. :-( I'm with Sarah - I hate to see a defenseless animal get hurt. I do understand her thinking though. She knew it was serious before but now it's getting really really violent and dangerous. If I were Sarah, I'd never be able to go anywhere without feeling like someone was watching me. And I too found myself wondering if Sarah was the intended target, not Adam.

But who? And why?

Oooh Hope, this is soooo good.

Anonymous said...

I am not sure what I imagined was going to happen today, but not this!

Sarah is so right, this is dead serious now and Adam had better take it all seriously. I understand his need to believe that no one is going to hurt him/them, but he has to see now that isn't so.

I would be just like Sarah, so freaked out. I thought it was very realistic, her reactions to this; her feelings of anger as she tried to work through them and find a way to explain them to Adam.

Truly excellent Hope!

Val said...

Heyyyy Hope! Great post! I've decided not to try to figure out what happens. Because all too often I'll figure it out and the end is a let-down. So I'm just going to read and enjoy and try not to think too much. ;)

I'm late reading today, most of my family is sick. My oldest four all have the flu. The youngest two are still.feeling.just.fine. YIKES! I actually had to get my hubby to come take my oldest to urgent care today because he's still not getting any better, and it's been going on since last Wednesday. So not only do I have sick kids, all my help is sick. So I'm doing all my usual chores, AND their chores. I'm TIRED! LOL!

x5head3pay said...

I can't help but wonder about Jason and who may have given him information about Adam. Remember all of Sarah's info including her house keys and her email info was stolen in the "accident." I can't help but believe that Jason knows who is doing this - at least partly. I also think others know too. I think Rachel is a red herring. She's just a prima donna. Krista and Sunni hold the key.

Happy early birthday Hope.

Hope said...

Hey Val, hang in there and I hope everyone gets to feeling better soon! And I know that Lynne knows exactly what you are feeling.

It is getting gloriously warm here, well, compared to the deep freeze we have had for awhile. Enjoying the sunshine!

Thanks to all those wishing me a happy birthday. I thought I'd go ahead and tell you all what I want though--I want Adam!

I don't think Sarah will mind, do you? hehehe

Anonymous said...

GREAT POST, but getting so eager to get this over with so JUSTICE can be served to whoever is doing this to Sarah and Adam...I think the obvious is right, I think it is Krista and she is his daughter that he never knew about and maybe Rachel is her grandma and the one that made her hate him so much, cause in the letter on the bed it said "as actors heartlessly play their roles" I think Krista wrote that because of how Adam acted to her when she was crying telling her the father missed out on her life and she thinks he is acting, but in reality he doesnt even know he had a daughter...Ok done ranting that is just whnt I am thinking...cant wait till Wednesday!! Kristie

Anonymous said...

Great post, Hope! I've quit trying to figure out 'whodunit.' I have my ideas, but since they're usually off the mark (hmmm....did I say 'MARK?'), I'll just wait patiently for Wednesday's post.
I'm home today (holiday), and after two weeks of sub-zero weather it's 50 degrees! Snow and ice are melting, and the sun's shining!
I'll miss your post on Friday, but hope you enjoy your day off. I turned 50 last August, and all I can say is.....take a camera! I still wear my "I'm 50" tiara when I think I need to! :-)

mary jane said...

OMG, I aqm not going to even try yo figure this out any more. I am going with the flow. Poor little rat, I am with Jo and everyone else I hate to see a poor creature killed. :(
Can not wait until Wednesday.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY HOPE!!!!
Y'all have a good week
MJ

Engbunny said...

Oh My God...it has to be Krista or Sunni and I am leaning towards Krista. Please don't let Sarah or Adam get hurt. I still think that Sarah is the target but I can't figure out why they would have been poisoning Adam's tea in Italy if they were trying to get to Sarah? Also, I think this was happening before he met Sarah. *Grrrr* I just can't figure this out! Great post, Hope!

Anonymous said...

Boy has this been a killer day - in more ways than one apparently.

Awesome Hope! Very creepy indeed. I think that Sarah needs to get Adam to pay more attention, he's too kind hearted for his own good and it's going to get them dead!

Anonymous said...

Ok, I think the target was originally Adam, but the stalker has switched to Sarah out of jealousy. Also, I think it's Sunni, she said she didn't know that they were in Cali, I think that's a lie. She seems smart enough to pull it off, also she worked on that other movie with mark and tamara so she could be in coohoots with one of them. Hmmm...too much speculating...

Stephanie Graston said...

Oh this i fabulous, I love when we all think about who it could be. I could be with those who choose to not think about it but its too hard for me!! I was reading what deena said about it being the Director Lyle. He did seem to know pretty quickly about what happened and already had a room ready for them, I don't the the security guard would have bothered the director of all people right away.... Which brings another weird thought, there was also commotion there, they are in condos that the whole movie is on, wouldn't people see police cars and wonder what was going on.... hmm Great as always, PS to all those that are sick, try Emergen-C its a pretty good boost and it seems to help. I am sick too so I am trying anything i can think of this is miserable! i hope everyone feels better and Hope you are fabulous happy early birthday!

Val said...

I use emergen-C all the time! I work in the hospital a lot, so I keep it on hand. But it's a great supplement.

Anonymous said...

sorry i'm late; i was sleeping all day because this weekend i participated in ucla's dance marathon, where we dance for 26 hours straight to raise money for pediatric AIDS research. this year we raised $330,245.70!!

anyway, i agree with andrea - i'm so sad for sarah and adam; they really, really don't deserve this. nobody would.

oh, and finally: happy early birthday, hope! you're so considerate, letting us know when you won't be posting. this is the best blog out there by FAR!

Hope said...

Good Morning All!

-c-, what a fantastic accomplishment! Completely awesome! Thanks for sharing such wonderful news.

It's Tuesday, so it's recipe day. If anyone has a recipe they would like to share, feel free to post it. For those who are celebrating Fat Tuesday, don't get too crazy!

Engbunny said...

Good Morning, Hope! Happy Birthday to you, albeit a little early! I hope you have a wonderful day today! Since it is Fat Tuesday, I think we should start the day with a cup of Cafe Au Lait and a couple of Beignets at Cafe Du Monde. Anyone care to join me?

Hope said...

I'm right there with you Engbunny, I could use a huge cup of cafe au lait!

Thanks for the invitation!

Anonymous said...

I totally psuedo-called it! Godfather style, a big disgusting rat, ewwww...!
I loved todays post, I was at the DR office when I remembered it was Wednesday, needless to say I'm so grateful my phone has broadband and I was able to read the post in the waiting room.
The people looked at me funny when I read the part about the rat and I gasped out loud. I think Sunni has something to do with it, I don't think it would be Krista, but I think she knows what is going on and too scared to say anything for fear she might not get to see Adam anymore.
Have a great birthday Hope!

Anonymous said...

I adore benets and I love the hot chocolate from Cafe Du Monde. I was there in November, New Orleans is even more majestic than I remember.