“What’s wrong?”
“My house,” she said, pointing. “The lights are all on. I never leave them on.” A sense of dread came over her. Someone had been in her house while she was gone, and might still be there.
“Okay, let’s think this through,” Joe said calmly. “You’re sure you couldn’t have left them on by mistake? It was daylight when you left for work. Maybe they were on, but you didn’t realize it?”
“No.” She shook her head. “I’m really careful about not leaving lights on, and I always double-check before I leave. I’m a little compulsive about it, actually. I wouldn’t just forget. I never have before.”
“So you didn’t leave them on.” Joe’s voice was a balm for the knot in her stomach. “Does anyone else have the key? Maybe a neighbor who stopped in to drop off tomatoes from their garden or something?”
“The only spare key I have is at work hidden in my desk. No one else knows about it.” She gripped Joe’s arm more tightly.
He said, “Why don’t you wait here, and I’ll go take a look?”
“No!” she said frantically, not even caring if she sounded childish. “I don’t want to be alone out here. And what if you get attacked inside, and I’m out here and can’t help you? Don’t leave me.”
“I won’t leave you,” Joe said, and she almost fell to her knees on the sidewalk in gratitude. He made a suggestion: “Let’s just walk around the outside of the house together. We can check the windows and doors to see if anyone broke in.”
“And then we’ll call the police?”
“We’ll do whatever it is you want to do.”
The front door looked the same as always, as did the side of the house next to the driveway. When they got to the back door, they saw that one of the panes of glass in the door had been broken, making it easy for someone to reach in and unlock the door. Pieces of broken glass were on the stoop, but the door was closed shut.
“There’s our answer,” Joe said. “I’m sorry, Kathleen, but it looks like you’ve had a break-in, and it’s possible whoever did it might still be there. Let me go in and check it out.”
“No, no, don’t go in. Let’s call the police.” She was breathless and afraid, clutching his arm tightly, holding him in place.
“Okay, don’t panic. We’ll do whatever you want.”
“Just don’t leave me.”
“I’m not going anywhere until we know it’s safe. How about this? We can walk back to the main street and use a pay phone, or else we can wake up one of your neighbors and ask them to call the police.”
“Miss Whitt next door. She was a friend of my aunt Edna’s.”
They knocked on Miss Whitt’s door. After a long wait, the older woman answered in her housecoat, her hair in curlers. Initially Miss Whitt was confused, but once Kathleen explained what had happened, she was accommodating, going back inside to make the phone call for them.
Two officers, both middle-aged men, came fairly quickly. They asked Kathleen a series of questions before going into the house. Joe and Kathleen waited on the driveway.
When the officers came back out, Kathleen let out a sigh of relief. “What did you find?”
“We went through the whole house from the basement to the attic. Checked every cabinet and closet too. Whoever it was is gone,” Officer Rank said. “Besides the broken window, nothing looks disturbed, but only you can tell us if anything is missing, Miss Dinsmore.”
The officers suggested that they all go inside, and so Kathleen followed them, staying close to Joe’s side. The buzz of the alcohol was long gone, and now she had a sick feeling from the violation of someone having been in her home.
They walked through each room, with Kathleen doing a quick check to see if anything was moved or missing, but it was all just as she’d left it that morning. Her jewelry, Aunt Edna’s silver candlesticks, and other antiques—nothing of value had been touched.
“Why would someone break in and not take anything?” Joe wondered aloud.
Officer Rank said, “It could have been kids on a dare. Or someone who was going to rob you but was spooked and left.”
“Spooked?”
“We’ve seen it happen,” his partner said. “Maybe they heard a dog barking outside or a car go past.”
“Have you seen it happen where every light in the house is on?” Joe asked. “That seems odd to me.”
“No, that’s a new one,” the officer admitted. “It almost seems like someone is trying to scare you. Miss Dinsmore, has anyone given you trouble lately? Threatened you in any way?”
“No trouble, no threats,” she said. “Everyone in Pullman has been very welcoming.”
“Any disgruntled customers at the store? Any old boyfriends with a grudge?”
“No. I mean, my ex-husband had a terrible temper, but I haven’t seen or talked to him in over a year. And he lives hundreds of miles away and doesn’t know where I am.”
The officer frowned. “Is there some way he could find you? Is your phone number unlisted?”
“It’s still listed under Aunt Edna’s name in the phone book. I didn’t have the post office forward my mail or anything. The only ones who know I moved here are my parents, and they know not to tell anyone.”
Officer Rank said, “It sounds like it’s not likely to be him, but we’ll keep an eye out anyway. Can you give me a description of your ex and the kind of car he’s most likely driving?”
Kathleen filled him in, and Joe’s eyebrows rose when she mentioned Ricky’s massive size—six foot four and built like a football player. Was he jealous or just surprised that a woman as petite as she would wind up marrying such a large man? Well, it didn’t make a difference. She wasn’t dating Joe, and even if she were, or did so in the future, it was unlikely the two men would ever meet.
After the officer left, Joe suggested they cover the broken windowpane with cardboard. She found a box she hadn’t yet unpacked. Joe cut out a square, and they secured it with masking tape.
“I can go to the hardware store in the morning and get a piece of glass cut to size and fix it for you,” he offered.
“But if that person comes back tonight, they’ll still be able to get in,” she pointed out, putting the roll of tape on her wrist like a bracelet and nervously twisting it.
“The chances of them coming back are slim,” Joe said. “We can put a chair under the knob. That should help.”
“There’s something else, something I didn’t tell Officer Rank because I wasn’t sure, and I didn’t want to sound paranoid.” She took a moment to breathe, noticing how patiently Joe waited for her to finish her thought. “It’s about Ricky. I thought I saw him the other day, across from the Pine Cone when you and I were having lunch. Then a truck went by, and the man was gone. Just for a second, it looked just like him.”
“That was when you said you thought you saw someone you knew.”
“Yeah.” She nodded, her gaze dropping to the floor. How was it that Ricky, even just the thought of Ricky, still had power over her? She’d been so sure she’d moved beyond this. “I mean, it’s silly because I’m sure it wasn’t him . . .”