Page 62 of Still Afraid

“Maybe glance through a bit, see if anything jumps out.”

He raised his hand in surrender. “If you think it’s best.”

She shrugged.

He pulled out his phone and dialed Buck’s number.

“Detective Darius Buckley.”

“Hey, Buck, it’s Josh Schneider.”

He wandered into the kitchen while he explained the situation. “We have no idea if it’s connected. But the break-ins did happen after she posted it online looking for the owner.”

“That is suspicious. Maybe it’s a coincidence, but I don’t believe in those.”

“Same. Chloe’s glancing through it now to see if she notices anything that would make someone be desperate enough to not claim in online.”

As he talked to Buck about where it had been, how they had found it and such, it dawned on Josh that Chloe had put it in her SAR pack and that’s what had been dumped in her house during the break-in. So while it seemed like a silly thing to be so desperate for, it also fit.

Buck said he and his partner, Martinez, would come to Josh’s house. They hung up. Josh went back to the living room and sat next to Chloe on the couch. “Anything nefarious?”

“Well, there is this one section that I’m not really sure what he’s talking about, but it’s suspicious at best.”

She handed him the journal and pointed to the right-hand page.

It finally happened.

After much hunting, I figured out who the snitch was. The boys and I are going to make sure Jack pays for his loose lips, and boy, do we have plans for how he’ll suffer.

Josh passed it back to Chloe. “That does sound a little menacing. But maybe it means something less terrible than it sounds.”

“Or maybe it’s worse.”

“Your overactive imagination is carrying you away again.”

She shrugged. “Perhaps.”

Josh got back up and made a pot of coffee. He was bringing Chloe a mug when the doorbell rang. After delivering Chloe her coffee, he joined Poirot at the door and opened it to Buck and Martinez.

He shook their hands. “Thanks for coming, guys. Coffee?”

After ushering them to the living room and getting them each a mug, Josh joined Chloe on the couch again.

She gave the detectives a rundown about what happened yesterday and handed them the journal, opened to the page with the suspicious passage.

Buck looked it over. “Hmm … this definitely gives me pause. And you haven’t had any bites on who the owner might be?”

“Nothing.”

“We’ll take it off your hands and see if we can discover anything more.”

Martinez said, “I checked the BOLO, and there haven’t been any signs of the person who confronted you yesterday.”

Buck said, “I wish there was more we could do to ensure your safety at this point, but—”

Chloe cut him off. “I understand. As much as the way the person grabbed my arm didn’t feel good, I didn’t get the sense they wanted to hurt me. They simply wanted whatever it was they were looking for, which I can only imagine is that journal.”

Buck and Martinez asked a few more questions. As they continued to talk, Josh couldn’t help but notice Chloe tense up. He wanted to ask if she was okay, but the opportunity didn’t present itself before he walked the guys to the door. They left with a promise to be in touch.