“We will. I’m telling Eddie and Hank tomorrow. About this and about the threat he mailed to you, which is also actionable, not to mention the rope. It was harassment before. That’s official now. His shit is racking up.”

I felt relief, mostly because I didn’t know who this loser was, or how much more of a headache he’d be to Axl as well as Brett if they caught this creep and that did not go well.

Apparently, you could prosecute someone for using your mailbox inappropriately.

You could also prosecute them for things such as, say, illegal seizure and assault.

I didn’t share this with Axl.

I asked, “Did your guys go in and dust for prints?”

He nodded. “They’re running things, but all they’ve found so far is yours and Cisco’s.”

Hmm.

“And my laptop?”

He shook his head. “It wasn’t hacked and that porn site you subscribe to wasn’t hacked either. We’re running your two exes, but so far what we got is they’re clean.”

Boy, he wasn’t messing around with this.

And although they weren’t getting much, that felt nice in a number of ways. Including, importantly, that even with this creepiness happening, I felt safe.

“What does that picture say to you?” I went on. “Is that an escalation?”

“Yes, in terms of the fact he’s obviously following you, you clearly have a man in your life, as well as constant protection, and he’s not letting shit go. So I’ll be having words with Sly tomorrow too.”

When he caught the look on my face, he continued.

“Chill, baby. Not angry words. I’ve been so caught up in you, I haven’t been vigilant in looking for a tail. It could easily have been me that led him here.”

It was cool he held up his hand like that.

One lesson my father taught me that was worthwhile: you didn’t pass the buck. It was a supreme weakness to blame someone else. It took courage to admit you screwed up and take responsibility.

Of course, he often thought I’d screwed up when I didn’t. But that was beside the point.

“Are there other terms?” I pressed.

He shook his head. “No. He hasn’t gone off message. He just wants to keep tweaking you. Though, there’s a possibility he’s bi. But that’s irrelevant, unless we can get a lock on some kind of description and can start looking for him in earnest. And if he’s bi, that means he might be trolling for action in a number of lanes. And that opens the field of search, which always sucks because it’s a drag on time and resources.”

Well then, bad news, the creeper hadn’t lost interest.

Good news, he was still just a creeper and not a total, whackjob, “it puts the lotion on its skin” creeper.