The door rattled again, and then opened, the woman I’d seen with Donovan earlier in the day laughing as she stepped into the house.
“Oh, hey,” she said, holding up her hands, as she realized how much gun power was focused on her. “I thought you knew we were here.”
Ash relaxed, sliding his gun into a holster strapped around his arms and pulled a cell phone out of his pocket.
What the…?
“Yep, here it is. Sorry, love.”
He kissed the woman’s cheek, as a tall, husky man came through the door behind her. I recognized him immediately as the police chief here in Santa Monica…Jack Warren.
The woman glanced at me, assessing me—did she think of me as competition?—then turned to Donovan. My heart twisted in my chest, as he grinned affectionately at her.
“Twice in one day,” she said with a big smile. “My lucky day.”
“Hey, Em,” he said, bending to kiss her cheek.
She slapped his cheek lightly, almost maternally, then marched into the room and held her hand out to me.
“I’m Detective Emily Warren. You must be Miss Thompson.”
I hesitated, but Donovan offered a slight nod, telling me it was okay.
“Nice to meet you,” I said politely, taking her hand, still so confused by what was going on here. Why was Donovan’s girlfriend here?
She squeezed my hand warmly as she looked me up and down, clearly assessing me for a reason I wasn’t quite clear on. Then she nodded as she stepped back.
“That’s my husband, by the way,” she said, gesturing to the chief. “Jack, come say hello.”
Husband?
He lumbered forward and joined his wife, sliding his hand almost provocatively down her back as he offered me his hand as well. So much affection. How stupid could I be to believe she and Donovan…there wasn’t anything going on between them, was there? A woman doesn’t look at her husband that way when she’s having an affair, especially when the object of that affair is standing, smiling, behind her.
“Nice to meet you, Miss Thompson.”
“Kate, please.”
He just nodded, squeezing my hand lightly and then letting go.
“Why don’t we take a seat,” Donovan announced, his gun once again gone to wherever it was he stowed it.
I hesitated, but Donovan came to my side and pulled me down next to him.
Detective Warren sat on the edge of the coffee table where Donovan had sat earlier and addressed me directly.
“I don’t know if they’ve had a chance to tell you, but fresh tool marks have been identified on the window ledge outside your bedroom window.”
I could feel the color draining from my face.
“Have you messed with those windows recently? Or had a workman do anything in your side yard in the last month or so?”
I shook my head.
She glanced at her husband, and he stepped away, tugging a phone out of his pocket.
“We have reason to believe that the alarm that alerted Gray Wolf to danger at your house was accurate. We have a team of investigators at your house right now, trying to figure out what they were after and if they succeeded in their intentions.”
“What do you mean? Do you think…?”
I looked at Donovan, and he simply, quietly, took my hand.
“We don’t know what to think right now, Miss Thompson,” the detective said. “But be assured that we’re working as quickly as we can to figure out who might be after you.”
I bit my lip, fear dancing through me, as I imagined someone standing outside my bedroom window, a window that was less than five feet from where I’d been laying. Who could want to get into my room? Could it have been a coincidence? But, who believes in coincidences like that?
“Have you begun to remember what happened that night?” the detective asked.
I shook my head. “No, nothing.”
I could see the disappointment in her eyes, but she just smiled. She was obviously quite skilled in attending to victims. Must come in handy in her line of work, but it only made me feel manipulated.
“Can I ask a question?”
No one said anything. No one even seemed to be paying attention to me. They were all too busy with their own thoughts.
“Why did this person leave? What frightened them off?” I studied the detective as her head came up and she regarded me with a little bit of surprise in her eyes. “The alarm that woke Donovan is silent, right?” I said, talking directly to her now. “What made this person leave? Was it us leaving the house? And, if that was it, did this person follow us?”
“I followed protocol,” Donovan said immediately. “Used a roundabout way of getting here, watched for a tail. No one followed us.”
“But she has a point,” Ash said. “If someone was there, and they didn’t finish what they were there to do, our team should have found them.”
Detective Warren nodded, shooting a look to her husband who was just coming back into the room.
The room was suddenly a web of activity. Ash and the chief of police were on the phone. Detective Warren was walking through the house, checking each room as she passed a door, closed or open. And Donovan was urging me off the couch.