by Dale Mayer
She tried to talk, but her teeth were chattering, and out came a strangled explanation. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close against him. He moved her into the motel room and closed the door. He just held her for a long moment, rubbing her back and her shoulders, and she heard his soft words through the din of her teeth chattering.
“Easy, take it easy.”
Finally her teeth chattering and her shaking came to a stop, and she grabbed his upper arms and stepped back enough so that she could look up at him and said, “The door to my apartment was open. Not much. Not enough to cause any kind of notice, you know? Like you couldn’t see it was open. Yet I knew it wasn’t latched.”
He let out a slow, deep breath. His face searching hers, he asked, “Did anybody see you? Did you see anybody?”
She shook her head. “I just felt so much worse every mile away from here,” she said. “When I was in the parking lot, I wondered about turning around, but I didn’t have any reason to. It just felt wrong. I went up to my apartment, down the hallway, and, with every step I took, my instincts told me to turn around and leave. When I could see the door was actually unlocked, I didn’t even turn around. I just backed up all the way to the stairs, and then I bolted.”
Rowan said, “The last thing we need is for you to get in there and to surprise somebody in the act.”
“The act of what?”
“I don’t know, but I’m really glad you didn’t hang around to find out.”
She buried her face against his chest, gasping still for deep gulps of air. “But why?” she asked. “What is going on? I still have to go to work tomorrow. I don’t have my clothes. I don’t have anything!”
“We can both run out and get you some at the local mall,” he said. “Or I can go back with you, and we can check out the apartment.”
She said, “I guess we need to do something about it, whether we call the police or we just go take a look.”
“Exactly,” he said. “Actually we will change that plan. You will stay here and look after the puppies.”
She looked at him in surprise and then noted that the puppies had grabbed some newspapers and had shredded them all over the room. “You’re just saying look after the puppies so they don’t eat the furniture in here, is that the idea?”
“Or my boots, all my clothes, my entire jacket,” he said with a note of restraint. “Your turn to babysit them.”
She giggled, the feeling so foreign compared to the shock and fear she just been under that she started to laugh louder. Finally, when she calmed down, she wiped the tears from her eyes, and she said, “Dear God, I needed that.”
“You did,” he said. “And I’m glad you enjoyed it.” His tone became a little grim as he surveyed the two bundles of furry energy on the floor. “I’ll go back to your apartment with Hershey, and we will check it out, and then we will bring you some clothes back here.”
She looked at him, smiled, and said, “I would really appreciate it, if you did that. I have a suitcase in my closet, and honestly I don’t have much left because everything burned up in the house fire.”
“I’ll get it all,” he said. “I definitely will call you when I get there and will let you know what I find.”
She took a slow, deep breath. “I don’t know what I would have done if you weren’t here.”
“I like to help where I can,” he said. “Also, given that going to your place is something that you do not want to do and should not do right now, not until we know what we’re dealing with, it’s much better if I go. I will be there in about ten minutes.” He whistled for Hershey, who immediately bounded to his feet and came to his side. “I won’t be long. I promise.”
“What if you find somebody there?”
“Well, in a worst-case scenario, we will have a bit of a scuffle, which he’ll lose because I also have Hershey,” he said. “Then we’ll call the cops.” He nodded and walked to the door.
She called out, “Wait!”
He turned to look at her, and she raced to the door, threw herself into his arms, and hugged him tight. As she let him go, she whispered, “Thank you.”
“No problem,” he said, as he tucked her back into his arms for a brief hug. “Now look after those puppies.”
She chuckled as he headed out, watching them until he got into his vehicle and left the parking lot. With that, she locked the door and turned around, picked up one puppy, already piddling on the carpet. “Oh no, you don’t,” she said and quickly made a pile of newspapers on the floor off to the side for him to use as a piddle pad. While she scrubbed the carpet, she frowned, because, as soon as she turned around, the second puppy was at it too.
“We should have taken you both outside,” she said. “However, given the time frame, this will work too.” While she cleaned up everything, her mind was distracted from what Rowan might find at her place. She picked up the puppies and sat down on the couch. After their antics with her on the couch, they were tired. But then again, so was she. Brandi curled up in a corner, closed her eyes, feeling the tension coiling through her as she waited for Rowan to call—and then waited and waited.
Rowan drove into her apartment complex, hopped out, and walked into the building, up to the second floor, with Hershey beside him, and then down the hallway toward her door. He studied it as he approached because she was right. Coming from where he was, it looked like it was closed, but, when you got closer, you could see it wasn’t quite latched. Using his boot, he put it against the door, looked down at Hershey, and said, “On guard.”
Immediately Hershey’s ears went up, and he stood at attention. Neither of them knew what would be on the other side of that door, but both of them knew that it could get ugly. They had been in this situation before. Then, ever-so-slowly, Rowan pushed open the door. No sounds came from within. He listened intently and assumed that whoever had been here was gone, but he couldn’t prove that. He didn’t want to assume he was right. With the door wide open, he surveyed the mess in front of them. This entranceway and what he presumed was a kitchen and a bedroom were off to the left and ahead was a living room.
Her couch had been tossed, like somebody had searched for something. Slowly, with the dog at his heels, Rowan walked in. He stood at the entrance to the living room and slowly shot a video of everything that he could see; then he videotaped the kitchen. He found no sign of anyone here now, as he went toward the master bedroom. He stopped at the doorway and took another video, then headed to the bathroom, where he quickly picked the number out of his contacts for the detective who he’d spoken to earlier. “So Brandi’s apartment was just broken into and tossed. I’m sending you the videos of what I’m seeing.”
“You could let the police come in first,” the detective said in a monotone.
“I could do that,” he said. “But, by the time you guys actually get here and give a shit, it will be hours later.”
“We are a little busy,” the detective said. “It’s not like her case isn’t as important as others.”
“Well, if you connect her cases to your cop in the hospital, you might move hers up the priority list,” he said. “The fact is, this guy’s escalating. I’ll collect a bunch of clothing for her while I’m here, as she sure as hell can’t sleep here anymore.”
“Wait,” he said. “I’m coming over with a team as well.”
“You won’t be here soon enough for us,” he said. “She still needs to go to work tomorrow.”
“I’ll be there to make sure that you don’t take away anything that’s important.”
Rowan counted to ten in his head and then said, “You better be in the vehicle and on the way already.”
“I am,” he said. “We do know how to do our job.”
“Good,” he said. “But nothing is here. No message, nothing, just a rampage.”
“What do you think they were looking for?”
“Either the will or potentially this coin collection that she doesn’t know anything about.”
“H
ow well do you know her?” the detective asked.
“Not well,” he said. “Or at least not long at all, but I’m a pretty good judge of character.”
“So said all the men who married a black widow,” he said in a dry tone.
“Good point,” Rowan said, “but I’d stake my life on this one.”
“You probably already have,” the detective said. “If somebody is gunning for her, you know that you are just in the line of sight too, right?”
“I know,” he said. “You here yet?”
“I’m pulling into the apartment parking lot,” he said.
“I have the dog with me.”
“Is that wise?”
“If we had come here, and somebody was still here, I would have wanted the dog with me.”
“Good point. However, on the other hand, the dog can also cause trouble.”
“Not if you’re not into making trouble,” he said. He waited in the living room for the detective to head up the stairs and down the hallway. He heard the footsteps clumping toward him and tightened his hold on the leash on Hershey, who immediately curled up his lip and stared at the door with a growl.
When the detective appeared in the doorway, he hesitated, then stepped into the living room, and Hershey continued to growl at him in the back of his throat. The detective stopped, glared at the dog, and said, “Will he be a problem?”
“No,” Rowan said, and he immediately calmed the dog and ordered, “This is a friend.”
Hershey didn’t seem to believe Rowan, but the War Dog at least stepped back from being aggressive. Rowan motioned to the living room and said, “As you can see, it’s a mess.”
“Right.” He walked through the place, saying, “Somebody obviously was looking for something.”
“We might get lucky with the cameras inside and outside this building. But I suspect that whoever did this took enough care to wear gloves and didn’t want to get caught.”
“We will check anyway,” the detective said. “What is it you wanted to take from here?”
“Her clothes. She doesn’t have much anyway because of the fire that took her house. This is a furnished apartment, and she’s been leasing week by week.”
“Smart, I guess.”
“I don’t know how smart it feels, but it was an option, and she grabbed it because she needed someplace to live,” he said.
The detective watched as Rowan went through the drawers and put everything into a suitcase. The detective riffled carefully through the suitcase, ensuring nothing extra was packed, outside of underwear, bras, and socks and her laptop. By the time Rowan got to the T-shirts and jeans in the bottom drawers, the suitcase was half full. He walked to the closet and grabbed a few sweaters, a couple dresses, and some shoes. With all that packed up, he headed to the bathroom and said, “She didn’t have much in here either.”
The detective watched every move Rowan took, gathering the shampoo, electric toothbrush, toothpaste, a makeup bag. He checked all the bathroom drawers and found another little makeup bag. He loaded those into the suitcase. He checked out both night tables, finding a book and a small case—which he opened and realized contained birth control pills. He closed it and popped it into the suitcase too. He then dropped to his knees to check under the bed. When he stood up again, the detective looked at him, his brows raised in question. Rowan shrugged and said, “Nothing there.”
He walked into the kitchen and said, “I’m not even sure what to do with this stuff. The apartment was fully furnished, but the food’s hers.”
“But again not much is here,” the detective said.
Opening up all the cupboards, Rowan found a coffeemaker but no coffee. A quart of milk was in the fridge, but it was mostly gone. He dumped the rest into the sink and put the container in the garbage. A few eggs. A little bit of bacon which had a greenish look and an odd smell to it; he tossed it. “I have to talk to her about eating properly.”
“I rather imagine she hasn’t eaten much or regularly in the last few weeks,” the detective said.
Rowan found bread, peanut butter, and a few things along that line. He looked around and said to the detective, “See if you can find a box for this stuff.” Then he picked up his phone and called Brandi. “Any of the kitchen utensils yours?”
“No,” she said. “Just the food in the cupboard and the fridge.”
“Not enough food here to keep a mouse alive,” he said. “I have been picking up most of my meals too, but I would rather buy some groceries and start cooking again. So should you.”
“The road to good intentions? Yeah,” she said, “it doesn’t matter anymore.”
“Well, I’m bringing what is here,” he said, “although there’s not enough to really worry about.”
“The bacon’s too old to bring. I think a bit of ham and cheese are in one of the drawers. I’m not sure about the eggs though,” she said.
“One can always cook those in the teakettle,” he said. “So we might as well bring them and the bread and peanut butter. I guess you’ve got jam and some honey and some tea somewhere.”
“That’s about it,” she said. “The last few weeks have been brutal. Remember?”
“One suitcase, one box coming up,” he said. “I’ll be leaving here soon.” He hung up.
The detective helped him carry it out to the car and said, “We will get forensics done now.”
Rowan stated, “You can get my fingerprints off the military database, for comparison.”
He quickly wrote down that information and asked, “What were you?”
“A Navy SEAL,” he said, his tone hard. He looked down at Hershey and said, “Hershey was my K9 partner when I moved from the SEALs into the K9 handlers’ group. I was with him for a year, until a mission went bad and sidelined me with some major injuries. Hershey was moved on. His life’s been pretty rough since then.”
“Well, looks like the two of you found each other again,” the detective said. “Shows in the first bit of a warning he gave me that maybe it’s a good thing for both of you.”
“Hopefully it’ll get calmer for both of us,” he said. “It’s just tough to get your feet back on the ground.”
“That’s probably why you found Brandi too,” he said, “because she’s got to do that now as well.”
Rowan asked him, “What about the compensation for the victims of that fire? Do you know anything about it or where to get more information?”
“I can email it to you,” the detective said. “I heard there would be a compensation package, but it would be assessed on a person-to-person basis.”
“Good enough,” he said. “Hopefully she can walk away from this with enough to rebuild her life.”
“All the properties in that area are pretty high-end. I don’t know how they’ll work it, but I’m sure there will be something to help them.”
“Good enough,” he said. He hopped into his vehicle. “Make sure you let us know if you find anything here.”
“Yeah,” he said. “And if you find anything out about the will, let us know too.”
“I have a copy, the newest version,” he said. He stopped, brought up his phone, and sent it to him. “It was changed a few months ago, leaving everything to her.”
“Interesting,” the detective said. “That same man, same attorney, did both wills?”
Rowan looked at it and nodded. “Seems so. It wasn’t much different than the old one. The previous will had two other beneficiaries—no, three other beneficiaries, I think. Two had passed on, so this was a cleaning up of the will.”
“And the third one?”
“I don’t know yet,” he said. “The lawyer, we can’t exactly ask.”
“Has she checked out the other bank accounts, the safe deposit box?”
“No, we are going together after work tomorrow.”
“Why doesn’t she call in? Stay home from work tomorrow? And I will meet you at the bank at nine.”
Rowan looked at the detective and then agreed. �
�That’s probably a good idea. We will see you at nine tomorrow.”
He knew he would get a bit of argument from her, but he wasn’t expecting outrage.
“Why do I have to stay at home?” she asked. “So much is going on in my life that work is my stability.”
“Right now we need to deal with a few other things, including the fact that the detective is looking at you as being behind all this.”
She sunk into his couch in shock. “Why?” she wailed.
“Mostly I think because you are the sole beneficiary of the will that’s just been changed,” he said in a direct tone. “And that tends to make people sit up and take notice. Not to mention the fact that you survived that fire and nobody else did.”
“My grandmother was murdered first. And I was out of town, and that’s been verified,” she said with a spike of anger in her voice.
He nodded. “I get that, and I’m happy to hear it because that helps a lot. But the detective wants to know what is in the safe deposit box.”
She said, “I will go to work, but I will go in late.”
“Good enough,” he said. “So we have one suitcase, and a box full of a few odds and ends and some food. It’s not enough for dinner tomorrow.”
“But, after the bank, after work, I can pick it up, so I can just order it ahead of time.”
“Why don’t you do that? Add in a couple extra burgers for Hershey here.”
“We didn’t get dog food, did we?”
“I stopped in and picked up a bag suitable for the puppies, plus got them each a collar and a leash, while you were at the bank,” Rowan said, “but Hershey could use some beef.” She just rolled her eyes at that, and he grinned and said, “I like to look after my animals.”
She glanced over at the puppies and said, “I don’t have a clue what they need.”
