"I will."
I told the Lieutenant about the
plan, and he instructed one of the deputies to escort me to Jimmy's veterinary practice. We got there after about 20 minutes, and then the cops went inside with me to make sure he was there and I was safe. Jimmy shuffled out of the back and smiled as he saw me, and I couldn't help but smile in return as he had a kind, friendly face.
"You must be, Vivienne," he said.
"I am. And you're Jimmy, right?"
"That's me. Look, I'm just seeing to this old lady's Scottish terrier in the back, but she's the last patient for the day. You can just wait out here in the waiting room, and I'll be out in 15 or 20 minutes."
"Sure thing. Thanks so much, Jimmy."
"Everett, he's a very old friend of mine, and any friend of his is a friend of mine. I'm very happy to help. I'll be done shortly."
I said my goodbyes to the cops, who had been very helpful, and then took a seat in the little waiting room. I picked up a pet magazine and started paging through it, remembering all the pets I had had when I had been a little girl. I had to say that I really did miss having a pet. Maybe it was time to get another dog.
I read a few articles, and then the old lady and her dog came shuffling out of the back room. Jimmy sorted out their bill at the front and then said goodbye to them.
"Don't you have a receptionist here?" I asked.
"I do, but she's been out sick the last few days. Got a bad stomach bug, so I've been trying to keep everything together on my own. It's been quite a task, I tell ya! She'll be back on Monday though, thankfully."
"I'm sorry to hear that. But you seem pretty organized; you do seem to be on top of everything here."
He laughed warmly and loudly.
"Oh, I'm glad it comes across that way! Truth is, I feel like everything is about to fall apart at the seams!"
"And now here I am putting extra pressure on you when you're already stressed out."
"No, no, don't feel like that. I was about to close anyway, and it turns out that you and Everett don't live very far from my place at all. I'm only a few miles away from your street."
"Ah good, well I'm glad that worked out."
"Yeah. Well, listen, Ev told me about this crazy psycho stalker guy, and I've come up with a little plan of action. So, the guy knows where you work; he's obviously got some detective skills under his belt, huh?"
"He does, and he's a very intelligent person – which means it's very hard to hide from him."
"Uh-huh. So, he most likely already knows where you live, and what car you drive. So, I don't want you to take your car back there."
"Well, what can I do with it then?"
"I'll get my car out of the underground parking here, and you can put yours in its place. That way it'll be off the street so if he's going around looking for it, he won't be able to find it. I'll drive you to Ev's place in my car. You can lay down in the back seat so you're not visible to anyone outside the vehicle. Then when we get to Ev's, we'll sneak you into the house after I've scouted out the street and made sure that he's not hiding somewhere, watching your house. Sound good?"
"Sounds very thorough, I must say. I didn't know veterinarians had this kinda knowledge on hand. How many spy movies have you watched?" I joked.
He chuckled. "More than my share, but I wasn't always a vet. I did some work for Uncle Sam before this. Work that involved weapons and foreign lands and that sometimes involved being covert."
"And did Everett also do this kind of work? Is that how you know him?"
He smiled. "I'm not sure how much Everett has told you, so I'm afraid I can't really say anything about that. But let's just say that he and I go back a long way. We'll leave it at that."
"Alright," I said, feeling a little disappointed that he wasn't willing to divulge any more detailed information.
"Well, are you ready to go?" he asked.
"I am. Are you?"