Carol J. Post - Buried Memories

They shook their heads. There was no sense continuing his search. Nicki’s Peeping Tom was long gone. And she was probably inside wondering if he’d lost his mind. He hadn’t taken the time to explain.

When he got back, though, Nicki wasn’t in her house. She was standing at the edge of the sidewalk, face angled downward. She looked up as he approached.

“You were supposed to stay inside.” His tone was stern.

“I did, for a minute, anyway. What’s going on?”

Judging from the furrows in her brow and the concern in her eyes, he could have asked her the same thing. He cast a glance down. A wicked-looking knife lay in the flower bed, partially obscured by the daylilies planted there.

“Where did that come from?”

“It’s my chef’s knife. It’s been missing since my house was broken into. I thought I’d misplaced it.”

He frowned. “Someone was at your window. By the time I got around the side of the house, he was disappearing into the woods. I took off after him, but I didn’t get a good look at him.”

“Find anything?”

“’Fraid not. I ended up following a rabbit trail.” At the question in her eyes, he continued. “I heard something, which led me to a couple of teenagers.” He glanced back down at the knife. “We need to call the police and have that fingerprinted.”

Another gust swept through, the rain even closer, and Nicki moved toward the front door. “The intruder must have taken the knife, then dropped it the night he broke in. I’ve been in and out this way with Callie, but I wasn’t paying any attention to the flower bed at the time. So I didn’t notice it.”

He nodded. That was one explanation. Except he didn’t buy it. His own interpretation was much more sinister. He stepped onto the porch and opened the door for her, then followed her inside. “Maybe you’re right and he dropped it the night he broke in, or...”

“Or what?”

He turned her to face him and took her hands. He would do everything he could to protect her. But she needed to be armed with the facts.

“Maybe he took it with him the night he broke in, then brought it back tonight, fully intending to use it.”

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