Page 32 of Finding Silence
“Dad wanted to send in for a team from the Washington State Patrol’s crime lab, but they don’t generally roll out for what is at this point a break and enter, and vandalism. So he’s adamant about supervising evidence collection. He wants to make sure it’s done right.”
Despite the unsettling situation, that comment makes me smile. I haven’t known Brant long, but that sounds just like him.
“Now, Dad tells me you can access your alarm system from your phone?” she asks as we walk in to the main living area.
“Yeah, I have an app on my phone.”
“Can I see it?”
“Sure.”
I head to the bench in the hallway where I dropped my purse when we first walked in the door. Fishing out my phone, I access the app and show it to Savvy.
“So you can arm and disarm from here. Now, does it show a history? Can you see when it’s on or not?”
“It should.”
I look through my options until I find a log that shows the hour and date stamp for each time the alarm settings change. I’m shocked when I find there are no entries for today’s date. Not a single one.
“How is that even possible? I know I armed it this morning when we left. You can ask your father; I was in the truck with him when I did it from my phone. I don’t know why it doesn’t show up. I disarmed it when we drove up earlier, and that doesn’t show either.”
“Is it possible you have to be within a certain distance for it to work?” Savvy inquires.
I shake my head. “No, I should be able to do it from wherever I have a phone signal.”
“Weird. Let’s suppose for some reason the signal didn’t get to the alarm system, it might explain why there’s no time logged. But why would the signal suddenly not be received, when obviously it did prior to today?”
“Could there be a glitch in the system? Battaglia Security installed it, I could call them and ask?” I offer, but Savvy shakes her head.
“I’ll do it after. Now, your system has cameras, right? Are you able to access those on this app?”
“It’s easier to see on my laptop,” I suggest.
I move over to the couch and lift the foot end of the chaise, which hides a storage compartment where I keep and charge my electronics so they’re out of sight. Then I rejoin Savvy at the kitchen island and sign in to my account on the laptop.
“Are you almost done with her?” Brant’s voice pipes up from the doorway. His eyes scan me top to bottom. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” I lie.
I’m mentally exhausted but feel jittery as hell.
“If you don’t mind me hanging on to your laptop,” Savvy directs at me. “Scanning the camera feed is going to take some time, and we still have some finishing up to do here. Why don’t you go with Dad and get some rest? It’s already late.”
“Where am I going?”
“My place. Pack a bag,” Brant grunts, which his daughter apparently finds funny.
“I’m afraid Dad’s not known for his bedside manner,” she shares, before assuring me, “But it comes from a good place.”
If I didn’t know any better, I might think she was putting in a good word for him. Not that she needs to; I’m more than happy to pack a bag and eager to breathe in some fresh air.
Brant
* * *
I’m still wired when I lead Phil into my house.
It’s almost midnight and by all rights I should be tired—I’m usually in bed by now—but I doubt I could sleep. First, I’ll need to work out the logistics of our sleeping arrangement, which may be a challenge.
