Chapter 17 - Witness Protection
The police searched Piper and Leo's neighborhood and the neighborhood near where Dan was staying at. No one found any trace of him. Not being able to find Dan was harder on Leo than having him on parole. He was edgy, nervous, and ready for anything. He hardly let Piper out of his sight, except for when they went to work, and even then he went to the restaurant every few hours. Piper wasn't annoyed at all, she was scared. Leo was the one who could calm her down and make her feel better when Dan was a threat to them. When Leo was nervous now, Piper was terrified.
Leo didn't like leaving Piper alone at home when he was at work. He knew she locked the doors when she was home alone and that Yukon was always on guard, but a lock can be jimmied and a dog can only do so much. He was constantly calling her, and he tried to get hours off. He came home earlier, not long after dark. He still left early, but as long as he knew Piper was safe, he was calm.
"I want to catch him."
"I know you do," Jamie said, getting some coffee from the break room. She filled an extra cup for Leo and brought it to him. She sat down across from him at the round table. "We all do."
Leo nodded distantly. He looked at the coffee Jamie handed him and took it. "Thanks," he mumbled.
"Sure. You look tired anyway."
He nodded again. "I worry."
"I know you do," Jamie repeated.
"I think…Every time I leave the house I think he's there, waiting for me to leave…I think that when I leave Piper alone…" He shook his head. "I don't know."
"Why are you still at work, then, if you worry so much? What if it gets in the way of your job?"
Leo looked up. "It hasn't yet. It won't. It never has. I can handle it, I always do."
"I know you do."
Piper woke to sounds of the dog's feet skidding on the tile kitchen floor. She had been watching TV in the living room when she fell asleep on the couch. She looked up to see Yukon run into the living room. He ran to the window, pushed the curtain aside with his nose, and gazed out. After a moment he growled softly.
"What is it?" Piper asked the dog.
Yukon flipped his head out of the window and looked at Piper, mouth open and panting, eyes wide and brown.
She smiled. "What'd you see? A cat?"
Yukon immediately looked back out the window. His tail started flipping back and forth slowly, then his whole body was shaking. Piper stood up and looked out the window, pushing the curtain aside. She smiled.
"There's no one out there, you weirdo."
She patted the dog's head and went back to the couch. She sat down for a moment and watched TV, then got tired again. It was a little bright in the living room so she went to her bedroom and lay down.
She was asleep in a few moments, and woke again to Yukon making noises, only this time he was barking. He had been lying at the foot of the bed with Piper when he suddenly jumped up and ran outside the bedroom to the kitchen door, where he stood barking. Piper immediately jumped up, noticing that Yukon was growling loudly and his barks sounded different, more protective. She went to the kitchen door and stopped dead in her tracks. The doorknob was jiggling.
Frozen, Piper stared at the door while Yukon jumped up and grabbed the knob in his mouth, growling at it. The doorknob stopped jiggling and Piper heard faint footsteps run away. She heard a car start down the street and peel off down the road.
Yukon ran to the living room and howled and barked as the car drove away. Piper didn't even move to see. She had a very good idea as to who it was.
She stood in front of the door for a long time after Yukon calmed down. Cautiously, she reached out and touched the handle. She twisted it a little and opened the door slowly. She looked outside to the neighbor's yard. No one was home there, but the neighbor across the street was running up to the house, her seven-year-old daughter on the porch where she was told to stay.
"Oh my God, Piper, who was that?" the young woman asked when she reached Piper.
"I…don't know…What did you see?"
"I saw a black SUV drive up and a man get out. He went up to this door with some sort of tool in his hand and started messing with the doorknob. Was he trying to break in? Should we call the police?"
Piper was a little dazed, very scared. "I will, don't worry."
The woman nodded and went back to her daughter. Piper ran inside, locked the kitchen door behind her, and grabbed the phone from the kitchen counter. She dialed the number to the station.
Amy answered. "San Francisco Twelfth—"
"Amy, it's Piper. I need to talk to Leo—Now."
"Piper, what happened?"
"I don't know, I just need to talk to Leo!" Piper nearly shouted into the phone. The reality of what just happened or may have happened was hitting her, and she was very scared.
"Okay, hold on."
The line clicked over.
Leo's voice came seconds later. "Piper?"
"I think someone just tried to break in," Piper said, tripping over her words.
"What?"
"I—I was asleep and then Yukon started barking and growling—not like normal—and the kitchen door…The knob was jiggling and then Yukon bit it and it stopped and someone ran off and I heard a car…Julie, across the street, she said she saw someone…You don't think…?"
"Go over to Julie's, don't touch the kitchen door, I'll be right over, okay?"
Piper nodded. "Okay. Hurry, please."
"I'm halfway there."
Leo and Mike arrived moments later, lights flashing and sirens wailing. They parked outside the driveway. Piper ran over from across the street on Julie's front porch up to Leo and Mike. She flung herself into Leo and threw her arms around him.
"Are you okay?" he whispered in her ear.
She nodded a little, pulling back.
Mike had already gone around to the kitchen door from the outside. He lifted the loose doorknob slightly. Piper and Leo walked up, his arm around her waist and her arm on his back.
"Definitely jimmied," Mike said.
Leo nodded. "Where's Yukon?"
"In the house. Hear him barking?"
Sure enough, Yukon's loud barking was clearly heard from inside the house.
"Where's Julie?" Leo asked.
Julie was already across the street and walking up to them. "Do you know who it was?"
They turned around. "What did you see?" Mike asked.
"I saw a man in a black SUV park down the street. He walked up here with some sort of tool in his hand—I couldn't see what—and started messing with the door on the side of the house. Then I saw him run off to his car and speed away."
"What did he look like?"
"Tall, blondish hair…It was kinda long, unkempt, down to his shoulders."
"Dan had a black SUV before he went to jail," Piper noted. "Maybe a friend kept it for him, or…"
Julie had been the Wyatts' neighbor for three years. She knew what happened with Dan a year ago. "You don't think it was him, do you?"
Piper sighed. She looked down, then looked up at Julie. "Honestly, I do." She turned to Leo. "Yukon doesn't bark like that. I knew something was wrong. He was…growling and…barking and it sounded so…evil. Angry."
"Protective," Leo summed up.
Piper nodded.
They put a patrol car up to guard the house while Leo was at work. No black SUV with a blonde man inside parked on Willow Street without being checked out. For two tense weeks, Piper and Leo tried to get back to normal.
Then the letters came.
No return address, but they were addressed to Piper.
"What's that?" Leo asked one day about three weeks after the incident with the kitchen door.
Piper shrugged. She opened the letter and took out a piece of folded printer paper. She unfolded it and read the clear pen cursive. She didn't recognize it as she scanned over the letter, but when she started to read it, she knew exactly who it was. At the top of the letter read the words:
Miss Halliwell
That was what Dan would call her. That's what he called her. "Oh my God," Piper muttered.
"What is it?"
Piper read the letter over before reading it to Leo.
Miss Halliwell,
So sorry I couldn't call. I hope you don't mind.
I miss you. A lot. Every day. I remember us, what we were. I remember that night…Do you? I remember it every day, when I wake up, when I go to sleep. You're the first thing on my mind in the morning and the last thing on my mind at night. Don't you see, Miss Halliwell?
I love you.
I've always loved you, I've just been afraid to tell you. Afraid of what you might say. Call me shy. I know you won't return my love. That's why I had to do what I did. I needed you to know. You need to know. You need to know that nothing—nothing—will stop us from being together.
I will find you.
Love Always.
"Maybe…Maybe you should go into Witness Protection," Adam suggested quietly later that night, after reading the letter. He, Leo, Leo's brothers, Rick, and Cortez had discussed earlier what to do, and now Leo and Adam were telling Piper.
"You're kidding, right?" Piper asked.
"Actually I don't think I've ever been more serious, as clichéd as that sounds..."
"Wha—What do you mean, Witness Protection?" Piper stuttered, looking back and forth from Adam sitting in front of her to Leo beside her.
"I mean we would temporarily move you out of the city, maybe out of the state, until we can arrest Dan for harassment, or if he actually makes contact with you—"
"Excuse me?"
Leo took Piper's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze to calm her down.
"If he makes physical contact with you, we would be able to arrest him with a higher charge. If we couldn't arrest him right away—"
"What do you mean 'right away'?"
"—we would have to move you out of the city, possibly out of the state."
"Out of the state?"
"Just temporarily."
"Oh. Well, then." Piper nodded sarcastically. She sat back in her chair and sighed. "Where would I go?"
"South to L.A., maybe north of here. A small town in Oregon, maybe."
"Oregon? Adam—"
"I'm sorry, Piper. You don't have to go, but it is a precaution. At least until we can arrest Dan."
Piper winced at hearing his name. Leo ran his hand down her shoulder. She sighed, but firmly said, "No."
Adam shook his head. "No? Piper—"
"Sorry Adam. I can't do it. I can't run from him."
"Piper—" Leo started.
She turned to face him. "No, Leo! No! I'm not running scared! I'm not running away from him!"
Leo closed his eyes briefly. "You may not have a choice."