Martha ran downstairs hoping Jasper was still on the phone with the police.  She had to tell him about the messages. The police needed more evidence that someone was after them.  After her.

“Jasper!”  She tried yelling, but not too loud so she wouldn’t wake up Teegan, so it ended up sounding like she was snapping at him in a low tone.  

“Would you hold on for a minute,” he said to the phone. “What is it Martha?  Calm down.”

“Don’t be mad, but you need to tell the police about these messages I have been receiving.  They are from an unknown number, but they look threatening.” Martha turns her phone toward Jasper.  Her heart is pounding, afraid of his reaction. He stared at her phone. His eyes were moving back and forth as he read the messages.  Jasper looks shocked, but he snaps out of it when he realizes that he is still on the phone with the police.

“Yes, I am still here.  My wife,” he looks at Martha, his expression was annoyed, “has just showed me some messages on her phone that she believes is connected to the strange person that has been watching us.”

Martha walked away as Jasper finished the phone call.  When he finished, he met her in the kitchen. She looked up at him like a dog that was in trouble.  She knew that she should have told him sooner about the messages.

“There is an officer coming tonight to check the perimeter and to take your phone for evidence,” Jack said monotone.  He looked at Martha and noticed her head down in despair. “Look, Martha. If there is anything else that you need to tell me about the strange things that have been going on you need to tell me now.  This is becoming dangerous. We are obviously being watched.”

Martha thought about the pictures upstairs.  Jasper was right, her family was in danger. She needed to confess this one last thing to him.  Then all of the secrets would be out in the open and there would be nothing else to hide.

“There is one more thing Jasper.”  Martha took a deep breath. She started to feel a dizzy spell again. “Someone sent pictures in the mail, pictures of Richard and I.”  Martha looked up at Jasper to see his reaction before she continued. He didn’t look angry, he actually looked interested.

“Was there a return address?  Any sign of where they would have come from?  Where are they? Can I see them?” Jasper was asking to many questions for Martha to process.  She was so dizzy, she was starting to feel sick again.  She just wanted all of this to be over. 

“They are upstairs.  I’d rather you not see them,” Martha said.  Her words were starting to slur. “They are of Richard and I in bed together.”

Martha went to sit down.  

“Martha are you OK?  You look very pale. Maybe you need to go back to the doctor.  Have you been drinking water?” Jaspers words started to fade in Martha’s mind.  He started to fade from her sight. Everything went dark.

The figure was back.  It had the claws. The eyes were hollow.  It was crawling out of the lake. Dripping from head to toe, it headed toward Martha.  Trying to run, she tripped over something. She looked down and saw a spare tire splattered with bits and pieces of rust.  Martha looked over and saw the white truck driving out of the lake. With the spare tire gone, the axel was dragging on the ground making sparks across the concrete.  The lightning show that it was creating was shining on the figure. Martha couldn’t get up. It kept getting closer, the truck following behind it. The engine kept roaring.  It got louder as it got closer. It sounded like it needed a new muffler.  The lights flickering like strobe lights.  A headache was forming.

Martha woke up laying on the couch, Jasper holding a wet towel to her forehead.  There were two policeman right behind him. She tried sitting up, but everything was still blurry.  

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, honey,” Jasper’s voice was muffled in Martha’s ears.  “You shouldn’t be getting up. You just passed out.”

“How long have I been out for?”   Martha asked, trying to make her eyes focus.  Her legs were stiff. She tried shaking them out to bring them back to life.

“About a half hour, honey.”  Jasper kept calling her honey which made her feel better.  “I don’t mean to ask about this at a bad time, but the police would like to know where those pictures are.”

Martha got up, her clothes were sticking to her.  “I want to get them. I don’t want you to see them Jasper.  It will break your heart even more.”

Jasper thought about this.  “OK,” he finally said. “Just tell Officer Marc where they are.”

Martha told the officer that they were in her underwear drawer upstairs.  When he left she told Jasper again that she didn’t want him to see the photos, she just wanted them gone and out of her life.  The mistake that she made was still burning in her mind. It crushed her every minute of every day.

The officer went upstairs to look for the photos.  Martha looked at Jasper, her eyes have sunken in and she looked super pale.

“Can you get me some water please?”  Martha asked Jasper. She hated feeling helpless, but something was going on with her body.  The last time she’d felt this weak was when she was...pregnant. The thought made he stomach feel like it was going to fall out onto the floor.  She might have a spare pregnancy test laying around from the last time. She’d have to look when things calmed down a bit.

“Mom?”  Martha heard Teegan’s voice from upstairs followed by Brick barking.  Martha slowly got up and headed to his room. Her legs were still a little stiff.  Teegan was halfway down the stairs already.  “Why is there a cop upstairs in your room?”

Martha didn’t want to worry Teegan, but she didn’t want to keep secrets from this family.  She was surprised that Teegan was even talking to her. She missed his voice so much these last few days.  

“Teegan, what are you doing awake?  Brick, it’s OK. Come here.” Martha tried calming down the pit bull.  He never liked different people being in the house. He always wanted to protect the family, just like Jasper.  

Once again, Teegan wasn’t talking.  Martha thought he was still making progress.  She explained to Teegan that her and his father thought that somebody was following them.  She told him that there was nothing to worry about and the police were just here to make sure everything was safe.  She left out the part about Richard. Teegan didn’t need to know that she had an affair with his principle. He was already in mourning, she didn’t need to make him angry as well.  

Teegan took one last blank stare at Martha and started heading back up the stairs.

“Teegan?”  Martha made one last attempt for him to talk.  It was after midnight so she knew he was tired, but everyone wasn’t sleeping well anyways.

Teegan turned around to look at his mom. “If you need to talk to someone, you know your father and I are here for you.  For anything you need.” Teegan just blinked a couple of times, nodded his head, then went back to his room without a word, Brick still following close behind.

“Is Teegan OK?”  Jasper was behind Martha now with a glass of water.  "You should be laying down."

At the same time, Officer Marc was heading down the stairs with the photos.

“Let’s head back to the living room and talk, then I will let you two get some rest,” Office Marc was the one to talk now.

They went to the living room and discussed the next steps.  Officer Marc told Jasper and Martha that there would be an officer outside their apartment building every night until this person was caught.  Knowing that they had just lost their son, Marc thought it would make then feel safe for the time being. He was going to take Martha’s phone and the photos into investigation, they were now evidence.  

“I will also try and get a hold of Richard.  If you hear from him before I do, please let me know.  We will keep in touch.  I will also follow the investigation with the white truck.  You believe that it is part of all of this as well?”

"Yes," Martha said.  "I have seen it far too many times for my comfort."

Marc nodded and left them. Martha watched him leave out the window and five minutes later another police car pulled up to the other side of the street, killed the engine and turned off the headlights.  

Martha felt a little relief.  She suddenly felt exhausted and was ready for bed.  She turned to Jasper and he looked how Martha felt.

“Let’s head to bed, but…” Martha cut herself off.  Would it be inappropriate to ask her husband to use his phone to call her ex lover?

“What is it Martha?  After everything that has been happening, I don’t think anything else can shock me.”

“Can I use your phone to call Richard?  Just to ask him if he knows anything about this.  You can even talk to him yourself, or I will put it on speaker.  If not, that is OK. The police can handle him, but I just thought it might be better if he heard from me first.” Martha was babbling again because she was nervous.  She wasn’t sure what Jasper’s reaction was going to be. It seemed to be taking him forever to answer her. She started to feel dizzy again. What was taking him so long to answer?  What was he thinking about? Was he going to start arguing with her? Stop babbling.

“We will call him in the morning,” Jasper finally answered. “It is getting late and we both need some rest.”  Jasper took Martha’s hand and led her to bed. They laid in bed together. They kind of laid side by side in that awkward postition again. Is this how it was going to be from now on? They were stiff and straight, like they were in bed together for the first time.  After about five minutes, Jasper started twitching. He was falling asleep before her. Nothing was going to happen.

Martha snuck out of bed, she was going to find Jasper’s phone and call Richard herself.  Maybe if she had a peace of mind with him, then she’d be able to sleep.

She found his phone sitting on the kitchen counter.  She swiped to unlock it and punched in Richard’s number.  As she was waiting for it to ring, she peaked out of the window and saw the police car still parked across the street.  She snuck in a small smile knowing that they were still being protected throughout the night.

His phone went straight to voicemail again.  She left another message saying that it was her calling from Jasper’s phone because hers got taken by the police for evidence.  She urged him to call back as soon as he got the message.

Martha hung up and went to Jasper’s call log to delete the history of the call.  Another secret, but she didn’t feel like it was important since Richard didn’t answer.  She pressed the delete button and noticed something else.  There were a couple of outgoing calls to Kelly.  They were all at times that Martha was at school.  She shook her head and tried to focus on what mattered at the moment.

Why would Richard’s phone still be off?  You would think he would have turned it on by now.  Where was he? He wasn’t at his conference. Martha made a mental note to try and convince Jasper to check on him at his home tomorrow.