Husband and Wife Reunion

YOU CROSSED THE LINE. You're going to regret it."Julianna Chevalair listened to the distorted digitalized voice, heard a click and then the dial tone droned in her ear.She swallowed around the tightness in her throat, closed her eyes and waited for the next message. The recorder had indicated there were three."If you don't stop, I'm going to stop you." Her heart raced. She'd ignored the caller's earlier e-mails warning her to stop writing the story, and the second installment was about to run in the magazine's next issue.A moment later, the next call started.As she listened, the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end.A chill ran up her spine. Hands shaking, she clicked off in the middle of the message.How had he gotten her number?The Achilles'Heelreceived dozens of crank calls, letters and even more e-mail messages from readers who didn't like some of its stories. But this was new. She'd never received a phone call at home before.And the two e-mails she'd gotten prior to leaving San Francisco had definite threatening under-tones.It creeped her out and she'd jumped at Abe's kind invitation to stay at his ranch outside Santa Fe. Now the decision seemed even more right. No one knew where she was, not even her editor. Her ex-father-inlaw's ranch was the last place anyone would expect her to go.She heaved a sigh, fell into Abe's recliner, its leather soft and cracked with age, and switched on her laptop. When she finished the piece she was working on right now, she'd be done with the series about a little girl's abduction and murder in Southern California.It was only one of many she'd written about missing children who'd met the same fate. And someone wanted her to stop. She bristled at the thought. If anything, he'd made her even more determined to complete the series. She'd never give in to a coward who made anonymous threats. She'd finish the story even if she had to go somewhere else to do it. But shewouldfinish.She pulled up Word on her laptop, went to the last page of the story and typed in, "If you recognize anything about the individual profiled in this article -- if you knowanythingabout this case, call the LAPD, your local FBI office or 1-800-CRIME TV. Help us take this killer off the streets before he harms anoth -- "A noise outside made her sit up straight as a soldier. She stopped typing. She was used to city sounds, but here in the desert, in the stillness of the night, every small noise seemed magnified.Listening, she heard nothing more. Okay, she was jumpy because of the messages, but that really was silly; the calls had gone to her condo in San Francisco two thousand miles away.Abe had complained about a family of javelina disturbing his chickens; maybe that's what she'd heard. He'd had trouble with coyotes, too. It certainly wouldn't be a visitor at two in the morning -- Abe didn't have visitors any time.She smiled, thinking of the old man sleeping in the back wing of the sprawling adobe ranch house. Besides being her ex-father-in-law, he was a friend, a surrogate father who'd taken her in, no questions asked. Abe might be cranky and more stubborn than a donkey, but she loved him dearly.Except for the soft light of an old faux oil lamp across the room and the glow from the laptop screen, the rest of the house was dark. No lights were on outside either since Abe insisted on conserving energy. He called himself thrifty. Others called him cheap.A coyote bayed in the distance, its lonely howl a faint echo in the vastness of the high desert, reminding her how far they were from Sante Fe. Yet, here, she felt a peace she never enjoyed at home. The air was so pure that sounds traveled for miles, the sky so clear, she could see the Milky Way, like a road of sparkling light against a velvet black backdrop. She hadn't seen the stars like that since she was a kid and had taken a trip with her mother in their VW bus to Arizona.Julianna hauled in a deepStyle, Linda is the author of 'Husband and Wife Reunion', published 2006 under ISBN 9780373713615 and ISBN 0373713614.