Hidden Obsession

Maura sat behind her desk, staring past her open door and into the hall. Although his heated conversation with Stacey was mostly muffled behind his closed door, she’d heard enough of it.

Stacey and she stared at each another, neither prepared for the sudden face-off.

Maura lowered her eyes and waited for Stacey’s footsteps to cross the threshold of her office. Instead, they faded.

Maura looked up to see Andrew standing in her doorway.

“How much did you hear?”

She twisted her lips and shrugged. This was awkward.

“Um. Something about you taking her off the schedule, that she’d go to Stein, she didn’t need you to protect her, and that you needed to watch over Angel and me. Was that the gist of it?”

Andrew sighed and nodded.

“Yep.”

“She and I had a brief, unexpected staredown before she took off.”

“Sorry about that.”

“Not your fault. I hadn’t closed my door yet.” Maura grinned. “I was too busy enjoying your surprise.”

“Oh, good. You found the ticket.”

“Ticket? What ticket?”

Maura pointed to the box of truffles and the bottle of wine.

“These aren’t from you?”

“No. I put a post-it on your computer. Didn’t you read it?”

Andrew frowned. “It was here. It must have fallen on the floor.” He looked under her desk. “I don’t know what happened to it, but it said to look in the top drawer of your desk.”

Andrew slid open the drawer and took out a ticket. He held it up.

“It’s a ticket to a Miami Heat basketball game. I have courtside seats, and I thought given your lousy first day and a half, you would enjoy getting out.”

Maura took the ticket.

“Thank you.”

“Maybe I should have given you those.”

“No. The ticket is great.”

“Who gifted you all that?”

Maura shrugged.

“I don’t know. There was no tag or card.”

“I’ll call Jake. See if he’s around.”

Andrew took his cell from his lab coat pocket and tapped it.

“Hey, Jake. Glad I caught you. Did you send a box of chocolates and wine to Maura’s office?”

“Umm, huh. OK. Yeah. I didn’t either.”

Andrew ended the call.

“He didn’t send it.”

“I used my key in the door, but it was already open. You mentioned a surprise. I thought nothing of it. Then I read your text.”

“Maura, I closed the door. I heard it lock. Let me see your cell.”

She gave it to him.

His face registered panic.

“I did not send this text.”

The truffle suddenly left a bitter after taste in her mouth.

“Don’t touch anything. Someone is stalking you. I’m calling the police.”