That was the reason she’d cried out in shock when Everett had shown up at lunchtime. She’d known about the half day of school at some point, but she’d entirely forgotten it by the time he’d raced into the office at noon, bursting through the door like a banshee. Thank God she’d finished with burning the cards early.
After Everett had lunch and set off for an adventure with Josephine, Lily had found two dead rats in traps behind one of the buildings, and one had been crawling with maggots. Still shuddering at having to clean up that squirming death, she’d locked up the office and taken a quick shower to regain her composure.
She felt better once she was back in her office chair, cleansed of both grill smoke and the rat incident. The third cup of coffee she’d brought to her desk helped too.
She got through messages and mail within five minutes, then moved on to her spreadsheet of overdue notices. For once there was good news. None of the renters would reach auction status this week. Most were one month behind, with a few two-month notices in there. She merged the file with her letter form and began printing them out. She would print out the labels too, but she always handwrote the envelopes for the two-month notices so they wouldn’t get overlooked as junk mail.
The printing window sprang to life, but movement attracted her eye just as the printer alert covered it: something in the security camera window.
Curious, she opened the full screen and scanned the nine images. As she slowly reversed, she found what had caught her attention. A man passed by one of the cameras in the middle of the complex. The cheap system made for jerky video, but she could clearly see a white man in a pale baseball cap walk along one of the buildings.
She kept backing up until she saw that a car had entered when she was in the shower, but it had disappeared off camera at some point. To where?
A grinding clank sprang to life behind her, and Lily spun around with a gasp, but when the printer whirred more softly, she realized it was just starting to spit out letters. Despite having been the one to prompt the printing job, she cursed out the machine.
It would take a good five minutes to finish, so she grabbed her keys and walked outside. There was nothing wrong with a tenant walking around, but it was her job to keep an eye on everything, no matter how small.
Heading toward the camera that had caught the picture, Lily relaxed at the faint scent of sawdust that rode the breeze from Nour’s shop. It was a soothing smell that brought to mind Nour’s kind eyes.
Sometimes on slow winter days, she would burn wood scraps in a metal drum and invite Everett over for cocoa. Lily would always beg off with too much work, but she sometimes spied through her bedroom window, and it had looked as cozy as any campfire. Not quite the same as a neighbor with a backyard firepit, but close, right? He certainly seemed to love it every time.
When she got to the end of the building the man had walked past, Lily found no one. She moved on to the building next to it, walking more slowly as the sun dipped behind the roof.
When a rustling tickled her ears, she paused to listen. Raccoons? Mice? Sometimes the wind made all the doors tremble like metal ghosts, but this had been much more subtle. Like someone sneaking around.
She thought immediately of that cop and whatever suspicious activity had brought him out the first time. Pill fiends, Sharon had proposed. But if anyone was sneaking around, it was more likely to be someone with a bolt cutter, looking for Grandpa’s coin collection.
The rustling floated back to her ears, so she moved toward the sound, tugging her phone from her pocket in case she needed help.
A few spaces down she spotted a rolling door that wasn’t quite closed. Six inches of space gaped at the bottom. Kneeling, she held her breath and squinted into the strip of darkness that suddenly looked like an open mouth waiting for prey.
And then a shadow moved, casting midnight in a space she’d already thought black.
Fuck, she mouthed silently, easing her body up as carefully as she could. What the hell had made that cop so nervous the other night? Did she really have a damn ring of thieves around?
Or maybe it was just a renter in their own locker. It wouldn’t be great customer service to sic the cops on them.
She glanced toward the office, searching out help or the sight of a car or any sign she wouldn’t be attacked and left for dead with no clues to follow. But that was stupid. Armed robbers hit up stores or pharmacies or banks, not storage units. This was more petty thief territory.
Closing her eyes, she shook her head. She’d always been a little impulsive, and now she was tired of waiting, so she cleared her throat, pushed back her shoulders, and spoke as forcefully as she could.
“Who’s in there?”
The rustle bloomed into a scuffle of fabric and grit, then the slap of something hitting cement. A bare foot? A limp body? Lily cursed and unlocked her phone, ready to call for help.
The ridiculous thing that stopped her panic was a sneeze. A remarkably small sneeze, squeaking out with all the gravitas of a sick mouse.
Her frown eased a little, and she dared to step forward. “Hello?”
“It’s okay,” a man’s thin voice said, bouncing off the metal door and echoing back. “It’s my unit.”
The door rose to reveal running shoes followed by thin, hairy legs that seemed to pose no threat to anyone. She dipped her head a little to catch a quicker glimpse of the man as the door slid past running shorts and up to expose a windbreaker.
His narrow face popped into view with a scowl.
Lily scowled back. “Dr. Ross?”
“Yes. Hello.”
She’d used his office a few times after Everett’s original doctor moved. Then she’d stopped after the charges against Jones. Dr. Ross hadn’t been personally involved, but he’d commented snidely to her about the money Jones had stolen from the county hospital system. Lily had found a new doctor.
If he hadn’t stood there so awkwardly, she might have apologized for disturbing him and been on her way, but his stiff posture forced her eyes to the space beyond him. A burgundy Turkish rug spread across the floor. Two beige recliners faced a large oak china cabinet. A sturdy end table lurked between the two chairs and held a large electric lantern that glowed weakly in the gray space.
An “oh” of surprise escaped her lips when she spotted the paperback novel on the cold cement next to one of the chairs. That had been the slap she’d heard. His book falling to the ground.
“I . . . I was out for a run, and I thought I’d check on things,” he explained, clearly lying. His voice had gone breathy. One of his hands shook at his side.
“Of course,” Lily said immediately. “No worries, Dr. Ross. I was only concerned you were a thief.”
He nodded but otherwise didn’t move, his eyes hard on her, his cheeks reddening with embarrassment. Or was it anger?
“It’s your space,” she assured him again. That wasn’t quite the truth. There was no “occupancy” allowed in a unit, but he was obviously only there momentarily. “Let me know if you need anything.”
When he didn’t respond, she spun on her heel and marched away. She wasn’t moving toward the office, but she didn’t care. She just needed to escape the awkwardness.
He was a busy doctor, and his first spouse, Francesca, had been the type of wife who’d done everything else for the family, at least according to Sharon. She’d raised the kids, kept the house, planned the vacations, cooked the meals, and scheduled every appointment. Lily imagined he’d been lost without her, a restless widower, wandering the rooms of his big house alone.