Page 31 of Dragon Detective

“She does. Per your suggestion, she hired me to look into the unusual things that have been happening here.”

“It escalated with this,” he said grimly, tucking his phone into his back pocket. “I’ll start a formal investigation. Keep me in the loop.”

“Will do.”

“Where is she?”

“She left a note saying she went to the library; she should be home soon.”

“I’ll wait for her, then.” He walked down the driveway and sat in his car parked at the curb.

Max started purring and kneading my thighs, the bite of his claws making me wince.

That’s when I saw Hannah coming down the sidewalk in this direction.

I put Max in the kitchen that thankfully didn’t have any broken windows and made sure both doors were shut to keep him inside. Until the glass was cleaned up, his paws were in danger.

Now my mate, the woman I was already starting to care for, looked like she was going to cry. Who could blame her?

I put her bag and paint on the porch floor and tugged her into my arms. “I’m sorry.”

“How did this happen?” she whimpered. “I was only gone a short time.” She pulled away from me. “I need to clean this up.” Her panic-stricken gaze met mine. “Max. Max! Did they hurt my baby?”

I snagged her arm before she could race inside. “I found him in the rat closet and put him in the kitchen.”

“Why the rat closet?”

“I assume whoever did this put him there or he somehow entered and got stuck. The door was shut, and he was trapped inside.”

“My poor baby.” She worried her lower lip. “He loves going into that closet to sniff around. Mice once set up housekeeping on the floor in the back, though it had been years since they’d lived there. When I was painting, I found an old nest.”

“He was scared at first, but he was purring when I put him in the kitchen.”

“Thank you for being here and for watching out for him.” Her eyes widened and shimmered with tears as she took in the broken windows. “How could someone do something like this?”

“That’s a very good question.” Detective Carter strode up the front stairs to join us on the porch. “Messing with gardens is one thing, but this is true vandalism.”

I didn’t point out that uprooting and shredding plants was also vandalism. I was grateful he was taking this seriously and would add to my investigation.

“I took pictures and Reylor said he looked around and didn’t see any other vandalism,” the detective said. “I’ll send you a copy of the report for your insurance company.”

“I need to call them,” Hannah said. “Thank you.”

He nodded. “I’ll let you know if I discover anything new.” His gaze scanned the building. “Please reconsider adding security cameras.”

“I will,” she said with a sigh.

With another nod, he left, returning to his car and driving slowly toward the downtown area.

“At least he’s taking this seriously,” Hannah said.

“Yup.”

After helping her clean up the glass and cover the window openings and speak with the neighbors in view of the B&B to find out if they’d seen or heard anything, I was going to install security cameras. No more being blind to someone creeping around outside her building.

“Call your insurance company,” I said. “I’ll get the shop vacuum and start cleaning up the glass.”

She rubbed her face with her palms. “They’re going to love hearing from me again. I hadn’t had the chance to call them about the water damage in my bedroom yet. That they’ll probably say came from rain even though it hasn’t rained yet this week and the metal roof is in great condition. Let alone the fact that my room is on the first level and there are three above it for the water to pass through first.” A shudder ripped through her body. “I’ll call them and then I’ll help you.”

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