Page 124 of I'm Watching You

‘Get your camera and come with me. We’ll wait out of sight. Five’ll get you ten the fireworks explode sooner than later.’

Lindsay wasn’t going to hide anymore, from anyone. She needed to reclaim her home, her life, and she needed to prove that she was in control.

It had been easy to be brave on the cab ride over. But now as she stood alone and stared at the yellow crime scene tape by her front door, she found herself searching the bushes and the surrounding terrain. He could be out there watching her.

No one lurked nearby and there were no grisly packages waiting for her. And still her nerves danced with tension. She had hoped the worry that had kept her up most of the night would vanish once she was back at her own place. But it didn’t.

Digging her keys out of her purse, she moved up the sidewalk, careful to step around the spot where she’d dropped the bloody hand wrapped in the newspaper.Sucking in a breath, she moved toward the front door. As she shoved her key in the lock, she realized the door wasn’t locked.

Immediately, she backed away, leaving her keys to dangle in the lock. Heart hammering, she dug in her purse for her cell phone.

Her hands trembled as she punched in Zack’s cell phone number. Her front door opened.

Steve, her maintenance man, came out. He was frowning.

Her thumb on the ‘send’ buttons, she paused. ‘Steve, what’s going on?’

He held a screwdriver in his hand. ‘I thought I’d check the place out for you. After what that creep left you yesterday, I wanted to make sure your place was secure. And then I figured I’d go ahead and fix yourAC.’

She noticed his white van across the street and felt foolish. She closed her phone and dropped it in her purse. ‘Oh. Sorry, I’m just a little on edge.’

‘Understandable.’ He smiled. ‘I was just on my way to the van to get a different screwdriver.’

‘Right.’ Lindsay waited as he retrieved a large flat-head screwdriver. ‘What do you think caused theACto go?’

He shrugged. ‘Part blew. Looked like an overload. And the power outage the other day sure couldn’t have helped.’

She followed him inside to the living room. The house was quiet and the drawn shades blocked out almost all of the morning sun. She moved into the kitchen to brew a pot of coffee. She’d left so early from the Kiers’ that she’dnot had any. And now she felt so exhausted. She needed something to get her moving.

Steve went to theACutility closet sandwiched between the living room and the kitchen. ‘Sorry it’s taken me so long to get to this.’

‘Believe me, I’ve got bigger problems than noAC.’

Steve unscrewed the front panel of the unit and then pulled out the filter. He clicked on his flashlight and stared into the comb of wires. He frowned. ‘Have a look at this.’

‘What?’

He reached inside the air conditioner and pulled out an electronic box with an antenna on top. ‘I didn’t see it before because it was tucked in the back.’

She frowned. ‘It looks like a transmitter.’

‘Why would there be a transmitter in your place?’

‘I’ve seen pieces like that before, at a security conference I attended last year. It can be used to boost the signal of a camera.’

He looked puzzled. ‘I service every unit in this complex and I’ve never seen this.’

‘Is there a wire attached to it?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Where does it go?’

He shined the flashlight into the unit. ‘The wire snakes out a small hole in the back of the unit and crosses to another hole drilled in the wall.’

Lindsay glanced behind the unit and saw the wire. ‘It vanishes into the wall between the closet and living room.’

Steve shined the flashlight into the hole in the wall. The wire rose up and vanished into the darkness. He movedout of the utility closet and into the living room. Above their heads was a grate. ‘That’s odd.’

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