“Can you make out who it is?”
“Kind of hard to tell. Whoever it is has a cap pulled down over his forehead, with a coat on and his car windows are tinted. It looks like a dark skinned person.”
Tucker reported this to Rev. Nichols. “I want you to get him as soon as you can. We have to find out who it is and why he’s doing what he’s doing, because Cassandra has no idea who it is,” Benjamin Nichols told Tucker.
“These letters they have dropped off are typed and signed ‘a friend’,” Natalie said to her husband after retrieving some unmarked mail from the mailbox over a week’s time. “They are definitely for Cassandra.”
Natalie showed Cassandra a couple of the letters, but Cassandra insisted she did not know who it was, but she later told Prudence, “I am thinking that somehow Grant may be using a different strategy to stay in touch with me. I can’t say for sure, though. There’s no return address or name.”
During Wednesday night prayer meeting, while the Nichols’ family was away at church, Jake dropped off a medium-sized box. His shoe lace had become untied as he hurried back to his car. Opening up the driver’s side, he rested his foot on the seat and bended over to tie his lace. A car pulled up behind him with its headlights on high beam.
“Hey, you!” someone shouted getting out of the car.
Jake jumped into his car and quickly took off with the other car following close behind. Darting in and out of traffic he cut across the railroad tracks to the other side of town where he turned his car lights off, but still drove on. Knowing the neighborhood like the back of his hand, he soon lost his pursuer.
“That was close,” Jake sighed. “I’ve got to be more careful.”
Natalie took the box to her room. “It’s probably some more cosmetics,” she told Cassandra and Prudence on her way up the stairs.
“Just as I thought,” Natalie said to her husband as she took some toys out the box. “More stuff for Grant Lee.”
Before Benjamin could answer, the phone rang.
“Hello, Nichols’ residence.”
“Hello, Ben, this is Tucker. Got something for you. My partner, Jimmy, chased someone away from your house tonight over to the black side of town, so whoever it is, he’s from over there.”
“Thanks, Tucker. Great work. I’m going to try and stay up some nights in case the culprit comes by again.”
On Thursday night, Rev. Nichols stayed up in his office waiting. He heard the front gate creak open. He glanced discreetly through the curtains to see a figure come up the front steps, quickly loosen the lightbulb to put the light out, then do what he had to do. Rev. Nichols phoned Tucker who was waiting inside the garage. Tucker called Jimmy who was laying low in his car a few houses up from the Nichols’ residence.
Rev. Nichols quickly left his study to look out the small window above the front door. Through the window, he saw a man’s dark face in the moonlight. He was trying to stick a letter in the screen door which was locked.
Tucker quietly came through the side door of the garage. Once he reached the front steps, he flicked his flashlight on and shone it directly into Jake’s face. Jake was caught off guard, but he quickly recovered and was about to dart down the steps, but saw Tucker on the middle step, blocking his path.
“Don’t move, or you’re dead,” Tucker said.
Jake took a step back, and grabbing the iron rail on the side of the steps, he swung his feet over the rail to land in the flower bed. Tucker seemingly reading his mind stepped to the side of the steps behind the rail. Jake kicked at him as he landed in the flowerbed and sent Tucker flying backwards towards the ground. Jake then jumped over him and made a run for his car. Tucker pulled a gun and rolling over onto his knees, fired a shot which shattered one of the side windows of Jake’s car.
Episode 6
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