I flipped one of the pictures over and read the back.
I desperately separated all the pictures from the pile of mail. Ryan’s eyes grew wider and his face turned white. Each picture had a handwritten message:
And the picture of me with the bullseye had three words written on the back… Ryan’s face still showed his horror and his fingers were unsteady as he started to open up one of the boxes addressed to him. I heard him gasp in shock again. Inside the box was a brown plush teddy bear that had a big gash down the front of its chest and some of the white stuffing was sticking out. There was tape across the opening. The note inside the box read “I’m broken-hearted without you.”
The other boxes had the same handwriting on them. Ryan didn’t touch them. He shoved it all back into the garbage bag.
I was shaking but I still had my mental faculties. “Ryan, don’t throw any of that away. We’ll need all of that for court.”
In total there were four packages, seventeen pictures, three threatening letters, and nine greeting cards from her. She even included what appeared to be drops of blood in one of the cards.
Ryan quickly called his manager. “David, I want private security immediately for Taryn. I want someone posted inside her business during working hours and I want someone to escort her anywhere she has to go when I’m not with her. I’ll also be hiring a lawyer out here in Rhode Island.”
The only thing preventing us from both screaming was the knowledge that she was in police custody at that very moment.
The next morning, our schedule quickly shifted back to our normal routine, and I promised Ryan that I wouldn’t leave the building. I handed him a to-go cup of coffee and kissed him goodbye in the hallway. Mike shielded Ryan as he climbed into the back seat of the car sent to deliver him safely to the set, and the paparazzi were waiting to take his picture the minute he stepped out the door.
I was mentally preparing to open the pub back up for business and reviewing the precautions I needed to get in place before I unlocked the front door. Despite all the terrifying circumstances from yesterday, I also had a top-secret birthday party to plan.
“Hi, is this Matt?” I asked hesitantly, staring at the piece of paper that contained the phone number I stole from Ryan’s cell.
“Yeah? Who’s this?” he replied.
“My name is Taryn. Taryn Mitchell. Do you know who I am?” I didn’t know if Ryan’s friends kept tabs on the news.
“No. Should I?” he asked defensively.
“How can I say this without you hanging up on me. Are you near a computer?”
“What?” Matt questioned.
“Do you have access to a computer?” I asked again.“Yeah. I’m sitting in front of one. Why?” he asked.
“Please go on the Internet and search my name.” I spelled my full name for him so he’d get it right.
“Awe, come on! Can’t you people just leave him alone?” Matt groaned.
I knew by his response that he found me.
“Matt, please, just listen to me. It’s really Taryn Mitchell calling you. Your long time friend Ryan is living with me in Rhode Island.”
“Bullshit!” he replied.
“No, for real. I am telling you the truth.”
“I’m not convinced, but I’m glad to see Ry’s got a smoking-hot girlfriend.”
“Thanks. I’ll take that as a compliment.”
I remembered a funny story Ryan told me about Matt. “Okay, how is this for convincing? Sitting under a car cover in his dad’s garage is a 2008
Shelby GT500, blue with silver stripes. You beg him every time you see him to let you drive it but he won’t let you because you have a habit of flipping cars. You’re the only guy he knows that could flip their mom’s station wagon.”
“Hah!” He laughed out loud. “Is he there? Let me talk to him!”
“You believe me now?” I chuckled. “No, he’s not. He is on set.” I explained that I wanted him and Scott to come to the surprise party.
I called Kelly next. I needed a devious plan to get the entire cast to my place for Ryan’s birthday. She said she’d get word to the director through Cal.
The last call I made, which I purposely saved for last, was to a lawyer in Providence.
“I have to be on set at that time, Honey, so you’ll have to go to the lawyer without me,” Ryan said when he called me at lunchtime. “Unless you can change the appointment to another time when I can go?”
“No, that’s okay. I can go by myself. I’ll take care of it. The lawyer said that both of us don’t need to be there.”