Page 17 of A Song for the Dead

Panting, she stared in disbelief at the clothes laid out on the bed. The order she’d placed them had been reversed. Shaking, she looked all around, making sure no one was in the room with her. Goosebumps rose on her flesh as the terrible feeling of being watched consumed her. Someone had been inside her room while she’d taken a shower. Heart pounding, she scanned the bedroom, noticing how her things had been rearranged. Her shoes had been neatly placed in the bottom of the closet. Her bottles of perfume in a line on her nightstand and the photograph of her and Susie Hartwig at the rodeo had been placed face down. The thought of someone touching her things made her skin crawl. She choked down a sob. Had they been watching her in the shower? What did they mean byI’m coming to get you? What kind of sick freak did something like that? Was it some type of creepy Halloween joke?

The floorboards creaked and panic gripped her by the throat. Someone was still inside the house. This time, her weapon was in her purse on the kitchen table ready to take with her when she left for work. That wouldn’t help her now and there was no way she’d set foot outside her room. She grabbed her phone from the nightstand and called Rio. He’d insisted she call him direct if anything strange happened again. Stumbling over her words and gripping the phone like a life jacket, she explained what had happened. “I’ve locked myself in my bedroom. I heard the floorboards creak and I’m too scared to go and look who’s out there.”

“Okay, we’re close by.”Rio’s voice was calm.“Stay where you are. I’ll be there with Deputy Rowley in a few minutes. Stay on the line.”

Heart pounding, Wendy put the phone on speaker and dragged on her clothes. She sat on the bed, phone in one hand and spray can of deodorant in the other. Her damp hair leaked water in rivulets down her cheeks but she ignored it, keeping her attention fixed on the door.

“We’re outside your house now. We’ll take a look around.”She heard doors slamming and footsteps.“There’s no sign of forced entry, ah, but your back door is open. We’re coming inside.”

Terrified, Wendy listened closely, hearing shouts of “Clear” coming through the speaker. Footsteps came closer and there was a knock on the door.

“It’s Deputy Rio. You can unlock the door now.”He disconnected.

Wendy swung open the door and, seeing Rio and Rowley in the hallway, tossed the deodorant onto the bed and jumped into Rio’s arms. “Am I glad to see you.” She clung to him and then looked from one puzzled face to the other. “Did you see anyone?”

“Nope, and you should really lock your doors when you take a shower.” Rio raised one dark eyebrow, straightened, and stood her away from him. “After seeing a prowler the other night, you can’t be too careful.”

Blinking, Wendy stared at him. “I locked all the doors before I came upstairs. With my neighbors away, I’m being extra careful.” From their expressions, she wondered if they believed her. “Come and see for yourselves. Someone wrote the wordsI’m coming to get youon my mirror.”

Leading the way into the bathroom she gaped at the mirror as nothing remained. The reflection was clear. Shaking her head, Wendy turned to the deputies. “Itwasthere and there are other things. My clothes had been rearranged, shoes placed in the closet, my perfume bottles all lined up.”

“Okay.” Rowley made notes and nodded. “Best you come take a look around the house and see if anything else is out of place.”

Wendy followed them through the house. As the smell of coffee reached her, she stopped midstride. “The coffee machine has been filled and switched on. I’m heading for work. I wouldn’t make coffee. Someone else did that.” She glanced around moving from one room to another. “And all the dishes are in the dishwasher. I didn’t do that.”

“So, you’re saying, that someone came into your house, tidied the place, put on a pot of coffee, wrote ‘I’m coming to get you’ on your bathroom mirror, and then left?” Rio gave her a long skeptical stare. “Don’t you figure that sounds a little sketchy, Wendy?” He sighed. “You sure you’re not allowing all this Halloween hoo-ha to get under your skin?”

Astounded, Wendy glared at him. “No, I am not. I don’t have an overactive imagination. Someone was here and I did see writing on my mirror. Explain that.”

“There’s no evidence.” Rowley glanced at Rio. “Best you call in our position, the sheriff is expecting us back at the office.” He waited for Rio to leave and turned to her. “We’ll always come by if you’re in trouble, but if this is a way of spending more time with Rio, he’s already taken.”

Outraged, Wendy’s cheeks burned with embarrassment. She hadn’t meant to jump into Rio’s arms, but she’d been so glad to see them. “I know that, but someone was here. You have to believe me. Trust me, I don’t have any designs on Rio. I have my own circle of admirers. You’ve known me for years, Jake. I’d never do such a thing.”

“Okay.” Rowley removed his hat and ran a hand through his thick hair, making it stick up in all directions. He pushed the hat back on his head and nodded. “If you have any more problems call 911. I figure someone is trying to spook you for a joke, is all. Usually when someone is out to do you harm, they don’t drop by first to warn you and, trust me, they never drop by to clean the house first.” He gave her a long look. “Does anyone have a set of keys? A close friend maybe just having some Halloween fun?”

Wendy folded her arms across her chest. “No. Everything I’ve told you is true. Someone was in my house.”

“I believe you.” Rowley nodded and his expression became serious. “Do you want me to report this to the sheriff? I can take a statement down at the office if you want to report it as a break-in.”

Shaking her head, Wendy stared at him. He didn’t believe her either. “No, what can you report? Wendy is imagining things? We found no evidence of a break-in? The stupid woman had left her back door open?” She sighed. “I’m sorry to have troubled you. I’ll go and lock the back door, and then I need to get ready for work. I’m running late.”

“I locked the door when we came inside.” Rowley smiled at her. “No one is here, and I’ll drive around the block to make sure no one is hanging around before we head back to the office. We’ll drive by a few times to make sure you’re safe as well. You’ll be fine.” He headed for the door.

Dismayed, Wendy stared after him. Why didn’t they believe her? She went into the kitchen and switched off the coffee pot, collected her purse, and headed back to her room to fix her hair. From now on, her weapon would be in reach, and if someone broke into her home again, she’d take them down. The idea the deputies actually believed she’d made a false report to get attention from Rio riled her. As if she needed him, when Chance had asked her to the Halloween Ball. When she arrived with the buff, handsome rodeo cowboy, she’d show them. A shiver of concern slid over her. The problem was someone had been inside her house. Everything she’d said had been the truth. Suddenly very afraid, she swallowed hard. Now if someone broke into her house again and she called for help, would anyone come running?

TWENTY-TWO

Jenna waited for her deputies to file into her office and sit down. “Okay, what do you have for me. Any updates?”

“Not on the suspects, although as we were in the area, we did a drive by of Wendy’s house.” Rio straightened in his chair. “Nothing to report. We drove around the block and made sure the house was secure. It’s all good.”

“Good follow-up.” Kane smiled at him. “Did you hunt down anything on any of the suspects? Priors?”

“Yeah, we did the usual checks but nothing of interest came up.” Rio frowned. “Stark has a sealed juvie file, so something happened. He sounds a little creepy to me. We’ve been hunting him down all day and keep missing him.”

Leaning on her desk, Jenna stared at him. “Did you discover anything else about him? Where he lives, his place of employment?”

“Yeah, he’s a postal worker.” Rowley looked at his notes. “He brings mail into our post office and takes mail out of town. This is why he’s hard to pin down. Some days he handles the mailbags, takes them to the train in Blackwater, other days he does pickups of parcels. He works a few different jobs.”

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