to be patient. It’s all about making that effort and knowing that it’s worth it in the end.”
I nodded, my expression thoughtful.
“If you need anything or have any questions, give me a call,” she said. “It’s not that Jane and Dick couldn’t give you good advice, but I’m a little closer to your age.”
“Definitely, I’ll text you my number,” I said, taking out my phone.
“Oh, I already have it. I found your info through the Council’s databases ages ago. Jolene had to fill out paperwork when she joined Jane’s committee. You’re listed on her forms as ‘one of the few normal relatives you could contact in an emergency,’” Gigi said, tapping on her own phone, “and I just sent you the contact information for everybody in the family. And you’re on the emergency phone tree.”
I don’t know which part was more touching—that Jolene listed me as someone she trusted in an emergency or that I’d been added to the “family” phone list. I was included here. I was appreciated. Maybe I could forge this new life with these new people and not lose everybody in the pack. Maybe I could have everything I wanted.
This was a dangerous line of thinking, and I was grateful when Andrea got Nik calmed down enough to explain why he’d damn near torn off Jane’s shop door. There was a large mug of Calm Your Ass Down blend tea involved. “Gigi went to check the mail earlier tonight and retrieved a package from our mailbox. She found this, mixed in with the bills and junk mail,” Nik seethed, tossing a large clear plastic bag containing a small carboard box and some sort of mangled metal cannister. Both were splattered with a shiny grey substance that rolled around inside the bag.
“It took me longer than it should have to realize there was something wrong with the package,” Gigi admitted. “It was addressed to Nik, but there were no postage marks. I was walking back to the apartment when I heard the noise.”
“Colloidal silver,” Nik spat. “The cannister inside was loaded with it and rigged to spray when the package was opened.”
“A nasty trick,” Jane murmured. “And painful. It happened to me a few years ago. If Dick hadn’t been there to help me, I would have died.”
She paused to smile fondly at Dick, who winked back at her. Andrea leaned her head against her husband’s, clearly proud of his heroics. Even Gabriel, as reserved as he was, put his hand on Dick’s shoulder.
“If the cannister hadn’t been jostled loose and sprayed early, if Gigi hadn’t heard the cannister spraying and tossed it down the hall, she could have died,” Nik said. “As you can imagine, I find this beyond unacceptable. Jane, Dick, I believe this is an escalation of the harassment Cal, Iris, and Alex have experienced. Please, tell me what you are going to do about it.”
Jane had donned latex gloves to handle the contorted bit of metal evidence. “Why is the cannister so beat up?”
Nik peered down into his teacup. “When I recognized the threat to Gigi, I may have kicked it away from her.”
“But first, he stomped it into oblivion,” Gigi noted.
“That’s a pretty big escalation, from vandalism and spray paint to a colloidal silver bomb. Are you sure it’s the same person?” Jane asked.
“Look at the handwriting on the package,” Nik said. “Even when you use spray paint versus a pen, your handwriting remains the same. Look at the curious way the R curves. And the A, a perfect right angle creating the inverted V shape. That’s unusual.”
Dick wheeled the murder board out into the open and Nik pointed to the R and A shapes in the word “VAMPIRE” painted on Iris’s house and Alex’s school. “See? They’re the same.”
“I have video this time,” Nik said. “He placed the package in our mailbox around seven, just before we rose for the day. I’ve sent it to your Council email address.”
“How do you have video of him?” Jane asked.
“I keep a video camera trained on our mailbox,” Nik replied, as if this was a completely normal thing for someone to do. “It sends motion capture clips to my phone.”
Jane didn’t comment on why you would want to surveil your mailbox, which was probably wise. “Did you get his face?”
“No, he is wearing a baseball cap that covers his face from the camera angle.” Nik played the video, showing a thin, tall masculine shape, his face shielded with a UK cap. He approached the