Page 54 of The Man Next Door
It looked like they would. Louise was in a good mood, and so was Zona when she checked the items she had for sale on eBay and saw how well they were doing.
“We should hit some more garage sales,” Louise said.
“For sure,” Zona agreed. “The faster I can bring in money the better I’ll feel.”
“Honey, you’re not in a race.”
“In a way I am. I only have so many earning years left.”
“I know. You’resoold,” Louise scoffed. “Like I said, you need to budget in some fun.”
“Okay, how about this for fun? Let’s eat out on the patio,” Zona suggested. Her mother was spending too much time holed up inside.
They dined al fresco on the back patio, eating a chicken curry salad Zona had thrown together and drinking chai iced tea. It was hot but not uncomfortably so. Darling was happily sitting at Louise’s feet, gnawing on his chew toy. All was calm and quiet.
Until the angry voices started. “Get in here,” commanded Alec James.
Darling stopped his gnawing and looked up.
“No!” shouted the now familiar female voice, and Darling growled.
“I’m done screwing around with you,” he snarled. “Get in here. Now!”
The fierceness of his words made the hairs on Zona’s neck rise.
It put Darling on his feet. He raced over to the fence and began to bark.
“This isn’t good,” said Louise, her voice low.
There was an understatement. Zona could feel her pulse rate going up.
“I don’t want to talk to you,” the woman wailed.
And Darling howled in sympathy.
“You’d better.”
“We need to call the police,” whispered Louise.
Should they? Zona wanted to. But, “All we’re hearing is raised voices. We don’t know what’s going on over there.”
“I know what goes on in that type of situation. One minute people are yelling, the next someone is getting hurt,” Louise said and reached for her phone, which was sitting on the table.
As if on cue, the neighbors went silent.
“I don’t hear anything over there now,” said Zona. “We can’t just call the police because we heard people arguing. My gosh, Mom, if my neighbors had called the police every time they’d heard Gary and me arguing, we’d have had a squad car pulling up at our house every night. And I’d have been mortified.”
Louise hesitated. Frowned. “But we can’t simply turn a deaf ear.”
Her mother was right. What could they do?
“Maybe I could just go over and ask if everything is all right,” said Zona.
“I don’t want you approaching that man,” Louise said firmly.
“I could stop by with some...” What? She hadn’t baked anything since her chocolate chip cookie therapy.
They heard a car starting.
