Page 12 of Ambush

His mother’s eyes clouded. “I carry that blame too. We reported it together. We’ll do what we can to help her now. God can heal those hurting places.”

“It’s made her hate God even more.” He’d prayed for her occasionally over the years and had never really forgotten her.

“Then we just pray harder. He’s the only one who can help her.”

Blake nodded and opened the drawer with the cutting boards. They were a jumble inside. “The boys been playing in here?”

His mom glanced over to see what he was talking about, and she shook her head. “Not to my knowledge.”

Given the weirdness of everything that was going on, Blake opened the junk drawer. His mother always kept it organized in a tray. The tray was in backward and nothing was in its usual place. He exchanged a long glance with her. “I’m going to check the office.”

He strode past the boys, who had quit wrestling and were playing with Legos. The door to the office stood open, and he frowned. They usually kept it closed. His pulse quickened. When he flipped on the light, everything appeared in order. He pulled open the middle drawer and found papers askew, pens and pencils rolled to the other side. The alphabetized files in the side drawers were out of place.

From the doorway his mother’s anxious eyes locked with his. “Someone’s searched the house?”

“No doubt about it.”

“But why? What could they have been searching for?”

“Your guess is as good as mine. Much as I hate to, I’d better report it.”

She wrinkled her nose. “We’d better see if there’s anything missing first.”

“Good idea. I’ll check the safe while you go through your bedroom. Make sure your jewelry is all there.”

“On it. Oh, and dinner is ready,” she called on her way to the bedroom.

He grunted and moved to the safe in his closet. The door stood open, and he curled his hands into fists. The loss of their backup funds would be huge, but when he stooped to peer inside, he let out a relieved exhale. The stacks of hundred-dollar bills were still inside.

So why open the safe and not take the money? Who had been in the house and why? He checked the papers inside too. Their passports and birth certificates were there. None of this made any sense.

His mother reappeared. “Everything is there. Did they take the money?”

“Nope, not a dollar. The safe was open, but everything seems to still be there.”

“What on earth?”

He shrugged. “I’m going to report it anyway, but I doubt they’ll even send out a deputy. We don’t know who was here or why. Knowing Greene, he’s likely to say the kids were into things.”

“They wouldn’t know how to get into the safe.” She stared at the space in the closet. “How did the intruder manage to break into it?”

“The key was in it. I’m guessing they searched the kitchen and found the key, then checked the office before searching the closets.”

“They had something specific they were searching for.”

“I think so.” He followed her out of the office and scooped up a brother in each arm. The boys squealed and slung an arm around him as he carried them into the kitchen.

He loved his life here, but his thoughts went to the little cottage on the other side of the complex. Could Paradise’s return to town have anything to do with the events here? She had mentioned going to get food. Maybe they should invite her over for dinner. He deposited his brothers in their chairs at the table and glanced at the heaping plate of fish.

“You’ve cooked enough for an army,” he told his mother.

“Well, I wasn’t sure if we’d have company.”

The glint in her eye told him she’d read his mind. “I doubt she’d come over.”

“It can’t hurt to ask. She’s alone in a strange place, and she used to love fish.”

He wasn’t sure how much Paradise had changed over the past fifteen years, but he wanted to find out. “You text her. Maybe she won’t take it as out of line coming from you. I’ll call McShea.”

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