The letters

     After what Dillon thought was a perfect evening, he opened the door for her. Extended his hand to help her out of his truck, walking her to her door. 

     “How good is your memory?”

     He smiled, “depends?”

     “Remember these numbers.” She entered 4 numbers into a keypad on her front door. That’s your code to get into the house. 

     He took out his phone, quickly making a note of his code. “This is new.” 

     “I told you Doug is a dangerous man. It is my plan to make it as difficult for him as I can. The same code will work for the back door. Are you free any time this weekend? To look at furniture?”

     “Saturday.”

     “Call me.” 

     “Evie.” He presented her with a very old, very large envelope. Little boxes had been drawn in the top right hand corner with different shapes inside them. There in the middle was her name and address. In the left corner, was the name of that summer camp and Dillon’s name. He sighed, “everything was paid for. Everything I needed. Except snacks, stamps, stuff like that cost extra and dad didn’t give me any money. The day I got home I put all those letters in a brown paper sack and ran as fast as I could to the lumber yard.” He stopped remembering that day. “I handed Jack the bag full of letters and begged him not to tell you that I was home. He sat me down beside that big desk, pulled out that envelope.” 

     Evie smiled remembering that big desk and how it filled his office. 

     “One by one he pulled the wadded wrinkled letters out of the bag, smoothen’ them out with his hand. He told me what to write on the envelope as he pulled endless letters from that bag. He showed me a stamp, told me how many to put on the envelope, and I tried so hard to draw them as close to the real stamp as I could. When I had finished, he slid the letters inside and I sealed it.” Dillon looked at her. “I wrote you every day Evelyn.” 

Details

     Sheriff Milo looked at the number on the piece of paper. Looking at his deputy, he growled, “who?” The deputy shrugged. “Like I have time to talk to some first term sheriff.”

     Margaret answered the phone, “Sunshine Valley Sheriff’s Office.”

     His anger dissolved in an instant. “Sheriff Pace.”

     “May I ask who’s callin’?”

     He stifled a laugh. Her country accent was cute. “Sheriff Milo. I’m returning his call.”

     “Please hold.” There was no music. Just dead air as he waited for the transfer. 

     A very tired voice answered, “thank you for takin’ time out of your busy schedule to call me back sheriff. I’ll get right to the point. I need any information you can share with me about Douglas Greenroll.”

     Sheriff Milo’s blood ran cold at the mention of the man’s name. His heart skipped a beat. After clearing his throat, he asked, “sheriff, why do you ask?”

     He almost blurted out Evie’s name. Thought better of it before saying, “I’m protecting.”

     “Sheriff, he has no respect for your badge. He’s loaded with smooth talking, high dollar lawyers. I guess being a millionaire has its perks.” Dillon spewed coffee cross the room when Milo said millionaire. “You didn’t know?”

     “There’s a lot I don’t know.”

     “He doesn’t respect your badge. He doesn’t respect the fact that you’re a human being and he sure as hell doesn’t respect Mrs.” Milo stopped. “Ms. Rice. He shot one of my deputies. We are working the best we can to keep this bastard in jail. Sheriff, I will call you when they release him.”

     “Thank you sheriff.”

     “I’ll need a secure way to send you this information.”

     “Yes. Thank you. One moment.”

     There was a pause as Dillon flipped through a notebook to find the information for Milo. He heard the sheriff clear his throat. “How is she?”

     Dillon wasn’t sure he knew how to answer that. Not knowing the full degree of what she’d been through. “Good days and bad days.” Was all he could blurt out. 

Learning

     Sheriff Pace shut his office door, locking it. When he had his door shut, Margaret would body slam anyone that tried to bully their way in. But Dillon wasn’t taking any chances. 

     He pulled out the file he had so far about Evie. The paperwork she needed to file with his office. A few hospital reports. He and the administrator of the hospital had a good working relationship. She had been able to get 5 past reports for him. But he knew; from when Pandora’s Box burst open, there was more. He needed a timeline. 

     With unsteady nerves, he called Sheriff Milo. The name on the papers she had given him. A no nonsense voice told him the sheriff wasn’t in. 

     He did choose to leave his contact details.