“That’s an interesting story. Do you ever incorporate your experiences into your books?”
“All the time, one of my first novels,
Midnight Visions
is based on this group of statues right here. Although in my book, they’re not statues, they’re the ghosts I originally thought them to be. It’s easier to write about something you know and are familiar with. It’s a lot more challenging to face the unknown.”
They walked under a bright three-quarter moon hand in hand. Both of them thinking about what unknowns the future had in store for them. “I should take you home. It’s getting late,” Todd said as they finished walking the museum.
“Yes, Brutus is probably on my couch again.” She laughed.
Todd went out the driveway of the Museum/Restaurant, drove for fifty yards and turned into Rachel’s drive. “Jeff will do a really good job on this for you,” he said, commenting on the shape of her driveway.
“I hope so. My dad has threatened not to return until he can drive up in his car.”
“Let me walk you to the door.”
“Okay, but it’s really not necessary. Brutus is inside waiting for me.”
“Speak of the devil. Why is he barking like that?”
Rachel looked closer and noticed the front door standing open. “Todd look, someone’s been in my house! The front door is standing wide open.” She opened the door and made to run inside. Todd stopped her before she could leave the cab of the truck.
“Don’t be foolish. He could still be inside.” He handed her his cell phone, “It’s already dialing, talk to Mike and tell him to get out here immediately.” He pulled his gun out of the glove box. “Now don’t argue with me on this. Stay down and in the truck. Do you understand?”
She nodded as she waited for Mike to answer the phone. Todd followed the tree line up to the cabin wall, darted across the patio and peered inside the house. From what he could see, the place had been turned upside down. Brutus was barking hysterically from somewhere in the house. He entered the house with his weapon drawn and ready. Finding the living room, kitchen, laundry room and garage all clear and trashed, he made his way down the hall to the bedrooms. Carefully and cautiously, he looked in each room. Finding bedroom number one clear, he heard Brutus clawing at the door and barking from bedroom number two, skipping that door, he checked the third bedroom and bathroom before opening the door to let the dog out.
Brutus dashed down the hall and in to the living room, sniffing everything along the way. Todd backtracked his way through the house and out to Rachel. Brutus raced past him and straight to his truck. Rachel opened the door when she saw him and Todd come outside.
“How bad is it?” she asked.
“It’s a mess. Someone was looking for something.”
“Like a necklace, maybe?
“Yeah, like a necklace. You wouldn’t happen to know where it is, would you?”
“No I don’t! You’ve got a lot of nerve to ask me something like that, Bradley! How can you honestly stand there and think I had something to do with all this. If you recall, Sheriff, I was with you most of the day today. I called you the minute I found all the paintings in the garage didn’t belong to my parents. How dare you!” she screamed at him.
Todd grabbed Rachel by the arm and glared back at her. “I’ve got nerve? We find your garage full of stolen goods, but a multi-million dollar necklace is conveniently still missing. You start remodeling the place, clean out the garage and don’t find anything else. But, obviously that something is still here because he or whoever it is came back to look for it!”
“Hey, Todd, I’m going in to look around,” Mike said. Rachel spun around at the sound of his voice. She and Todd had been so preoccupied by screaming at each other, they didn’t even know he had arrived.
“I’ll join you,” Rachel said as she jerked her arm out of Todd’s grip. She walked past him without giving him a second glance.
“Way to go, Bradley,” he muttered under his breath as he followed them both into the house. “Can you look around and tell me if anything is missing?”
“I don’t know yet. It’s hard to tell at this point. Most of my stuff was still in boxes. Now it’s scattered all over the floor. I don’t understand, why would he be looking for it inside the house? He had everything so nice and neat in the garage. What are the chances I threw it away when I cleaned out the garage?”
“Mrs. Riley would be really upset. We’ll dust for prints. If they match with what we have on the paintings, we’ll have more evidence against him once we catch this guy.”
Rachel kicked off her heels and slipped into her sheepskin lined suede boots before walking outside to sit on the patio. The anger and frustration she felt by having her home violated was overwhelming. Having the blowup with Todd was the icing on the cake. Dropping her head on the table, she began to cry.
Maybe Dad was right. Maybe I should go back home and hide for a few weeks, let things cool off. It would be so easy to run away.
Run away was the key phrase that snapped her out of it. She sat up straight and wiped the tears from her face and eyes. “No…I’m not running anymore.”
Brutus jumped up and began to bark. Rachel saw Jessica running up the drive and calmed him down.
“Rachel, are you okay? What happened? Is Todd alright?”
Rachel nodded her head and gave a weak smile. “The Canyon Cat Burglar strikes again.”
Jessica sat down next to her. “He hit your house? But why? What could you possibly have that he… Ohhh. He came back for the necklace, didn’t he?”
“That seems to be the likely reason. Todd and Mike are in there now. My place is trashed, Jess,” she said, fighting back the tears she felt welling up again.
Jessica wrapped her arms around Rachel and tried to sooth her. “It’s only stuff, Rachel. You can go shopping and get new stuff. Just be thankful no one was hurt. Hey, where was Brutus when all this took place?”
“The bastard had him locked in one of the bedrooms or maybe the office, I don’t know for sure,” she said, chewing on her lip in concentration.
“Can I go in?” Jessica asked pensively.
Rachel nodded. “Go on in. It makes me sick to look at the mess. I’m going to stay out here for awhile,” she said as she stood to light the patio heater.
Jessica made her way through the debris in the living room and kitchen, down the hall and found Todd and Mike in Rachel’s bedroom. “Hey, guys, what’s going on?”
“Hey, Jess, is your date over already?” Todd asked as he dusted Rachel’s dresser for fingerprints.
“Yeah, I saw the all too familiar red and blue flashing lights, so I had him drop me off here. Almost broke my neck walking up her driveway.”
Mike turned around and looked her up, down and up again. “You shouldn’t be wearing shoes you can’t walk in,” he said roughly.
Jessica glared at him. “Back off, Deputy Dog! They happen to do incredible things for my legs and ass.”
Mike didn’t know how to respond. He opened his mouth to say something and decided against it. They most certainly did, so did the short black mini skirt and form hugging sweater. The five inch spiked stiletto heels she was referring to made her as tall as he was. Muttering to himself, he said, “Yeah, and they make you look like a hooker.”
Jessica walked over towards Mike. The look she gave him let him know she’d heard his comment.
Todd didn’t wait to find out what she planned to do. He quickly jumped in between them. “Enough fighting, kids. Jessica, I’m going to have to ask you to leave the room since you and Mike can’t play nice,” Todd said his voice taking on the tone normally reserved for small children.
“Fine. Just so you know, Deputy Dog, I’m not done with you,” she said, turning on her spiked heel. She stomped out of the room and down the hall.
“What was that all about?” Todd asked Mike when Jessica was out of ear shot.
“You let her leave the house dressed like that?” Mike snapped.
“I don’t pick her clothes out. She’s a big girl now.”
“I think she needs to be more careful, dressing that provocatively could get her in trouble,” Mike grumbled as he went back to working on the boxes on the floor.
Todd watched his friend and it dawned on him there was more here than concern for Jessica’s clothing and well-being. If he didn’t know any better, he would swear that Mike was jealous. “Why don’t you ask her out if you’ve got it that bad? But I recommend you stop insulting her like that. She’s liable to knock your teeth down your throat,” Todd said breaking the silence.
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Mike snapped again.
“Oh, I think you do. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t have a problem with the way she was dressed. Alright fine, okay, have it your way. Play possum, in the meantime, she’s going to go out with another man, fall in love, get married and have his children while you sit there and brood.”
Mike’s silence was enough for Todd to know he’d nailed it. “I’m done in here. I’ll be in the next room,” Todd said as he left Mike alone.
* * * *
Todd and Mike made quick work on the rest of the house. Todd walked outside to find Rachel and Jessica sitting on the patio talking quietly.
“We’re done in there. Mike and I need to go back to the station and file your report.”
“I’m going in to start cleaning up,” Rachel said, standing up.
“I’m staying with you,” Jessica said, standing up with her.
Rachel was too drained to argue. “Fine, you can keep me company while I clean.” She walked past Todd without looking at him.
Todd pulled Jessica aside after Rachel walked in the house. “I’m coming back here tonight. I don’t care if she argues and I have to sleep outside. She’s not staying here alone. Try and convince her I’m right about this, will you?”
Jessica smiled and put her hand on his cheek. “You’re in love with her, aren’t you? Don’t worry. I’ll talk to her.”
Todd hugged her without saying a word. He didn’t have to. For all her pain in the ass behavior, no one knew him or understood him better than Jessica. “Thanks, kid, I really stepped in it this time. I’ll be back as soon as I can. Here are the keys to my truck. I’ll ride with Mike.”
They arrived at the station to find a fax from Phoenix PD on the desk. Edward Roy Templeton’s face stared off the page at them. “Get a load of this,” Todd said, grabbing for the papers. “We have a ten point match on the prints we lifted. He’s used different parts of his name as an alias across the country. Edward Temple was charged with breaking and entering in Florida; Roy Edwards, was charged with cocaine possession in Texas. Call Judge Anderson, I want a search warrant, tonight.”
An hour later, they were on their way across town to Ed’s house. Pounding on the door got them no response. Mike went around back as Todd continued working on the front door. Mike came back and said, “No one’s in there. Do you think he skipped?”
“His car’s still in the driveway. I say we go in.”
Busting in the front door gave Todd a lot of personal satisfaction. A thorough search of the home proved it was indeed empty. “Well, well, well, look at this. Mr. Templeton is planning on going down unda for a little holiday,” Todd said, holding up the airline ticket to Australia. “This is the picture I saw on his desk earlier. Check this out, Mrs. Riley is circled and will you take a look at what she’s wearing around her neck.”
“
The Irish Star
,” Mike said. “He left in a hurry wherever he went; left his coke vial, wallet and house keys.”
“Keep searching. See what else we can find.”
“This guy has kept a list on every house he’s hit. He must have had access to Canyon Rentals computer files. Bingo. Here is a detailed list of every piece he took, and this looks like maybe a contact. All it says is Mr. Vee with a phone number.”
“It might be the person he was stealing this stuff for. Maybe your theory was right. Ed was given a shopping list. Let’s get an APB out on him. If he’s running, I want everyone in the state looking for him. Make sure you let them know to proceed with caution. We don’t know if he’s armed, but needs to be considered dangerous.”
* * * *
Across town in a luxurious hotel suite, Edward Templeton was cowering in a leather chair while Mr. Vee paced the floor in front of him. “I could tell by the tone of your voice you lost control of the situation here, Edward. I decided to come in tonight so you would not be tempted to run away. You were going to run, were you not, Edward? I saw your airline ticket on the table in the pathetic little dwelling you call your house. Australia is beautiful this time of year. Now, now, stop crying, Edward. It is so unbecoming for a grown man to cry. I have something to make you feel so much better,” he said, holding a small glass vial and a syringe.
“You like to get high don’t you, Edward? Well, this one will be on the house. First, I must insist you wear these lovely stainless steel bracelets,” he said as he handcuffed Ed to the leg of the bed. “Now then, how high do you want to fly?”
“Mr. V-v-v-vee, you sound very different, your voice isn’t the same,” Ed stammered.
“This is the real me, Edward. Do you like it?” he said and then produced a small silver instrument that looked like a mini recorder. “Or would you prefer this?” he said in the raspy voice Ed had heard over the phone. “It is a rather ingenious little device. Mostly used in recording studios and in the cinema. Now, where were we? Oh yes, it is time for you to fly, Edward,” he said as he shot the needle into Ed’s arm.