The thought that someone had been in my nightstand, let alone in my bedroom, was creepy as hell. The rational part of my brain insisted Devora’s killer was trying to frame me for her murder by planting evidence, while the irrational part of my brain conjured up more Tales from the Darkside than Glenda could ever come up with. Both scenarios were frightening.
“I can’t call Deputy Hickman,” I told Charlie. “He’ll think I’m making the whole thing up. No evidence of a break-in and yet Devora’s glasses wind up in my nightstand. He’ll think I concealed evidence and later regretted it so I came up with a ludicrous story to cover my butt.”
The dog lifted his head from the pillow on the opposite side of my bed and went back to sleep.
“Wake up, Charlie,” I said. “It’s time for a house inspection.”
This time I wasn’t as nervous as I was when I got home from Wegmans. Don, Theo, and I had already been through the place and no one was lurking about. Whoever left me that present was long gone. What I needed to find out was how they got into my house in the first place.
“Forget the second floor, dog. Our intruder isn’t Spiderman. And forget the basement. No one can fit through those narrow leaded windows. Heck, those windows were here before prohibition. That leaves the downstairs. What do you say we find out how someone got in?”
Had I been in the mood for a YouTube video, I would have filmed the dog as he got off the bed. He moved so slowly, as if to defy gravity.
“Come on, Charlie,” I whined. “This should only take a few minutes.”
The dog followed me downstairs, and even though I wasn’t exactly shaking in my boots, I still flipped on every light switch I passed. The front and kitchen doors weren’t tampered with and the dead-bolt locks were undisturbed. That left the windows. There were four of them in the living room and two in the kitchen. All were double hung with more than enough room for anyone in the “big and tall’ category to climb through.
None of the windows were opened and nothing around them had been disturbed. Still, someone found a way inside. I took a breath and began in the kitchen. My father had added sash locks to all of the windows when I was little. Apparently, whoever lived here before hadn’t felt the need to have locking windows. After finding Devora’s glasses, I wanted to replace those sash locks with the kind that are keyed. This isn’t Mayberry anymore.
Not only were the kitchen windows closed, they were firmly locked. Charlie and I walked into the living room and began our search clockwise from the left. Well, I began our search. Charlie hopped back on the couch and sprawled out.
The first two windows were sealed shut like the ones in the kitchen, but when I walked past the couch to the window facing the woods, the sash wasn’t secured in its place. It wasn’t obvious from a few feet away so it was no wonder Don, Theo, and I hadn’t noticed it at first. I stared at the window for what seemed like ages and then I remembered something. It was insignificant at the time but now, not so much.
It was at least two weeks ago. I was watching TV when Charlie cut loose with an odor that put a sewage processing plant to shame. I remembered getting off the couch and opening the window. What I didn’t remember was to lock it once I’d shut it after the odor dissipated. Whoever got into the house didn’t break and enter, they simply entered thanks to my carelessness. And Charlie’s penchant for passing gas.
To make matters worse, there were no obstructions in front of the window, unlike the others, which were behind small end tables or large ferns. That meant I had made it easier for whoever snuck in. Heck, I might as well have posted a sign that read Sneak in here.
I immediately locked the window sash, because whoever got inside had no need to touch the mechanism. Then I stared at the window, not sure of what to do next. Finally, I checked the last window and found it to be locked like the other two in the room.
“It’s too dark and too wet to go outside and look for a clue,” I said to Charlie. “But that’s the first thing I intend to do as soon as I get up.”
The dog trotted behind me as I made my way upstairs for the second time that night. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that someone was setting me up. After tossing around in bed for at least an hour, I came to the conclusion that it had to be Devora’s killer and that he or she needed someone else to take the blame. Or worse yet, it was someone trying to protect the killer. Someone who was willing to break into a house at all costs. Either way, it was as unsettling as all get-up-and-go and I was stymied as to what my next move should be.
It was no wonder I had a fitful night’s sleep. Every little creak in the house, combined with the wind from Neville’s precursor, gave me the willies. When I was little, my parents told me it was the house settling. But honestly, how many years does a house need to settle?
• • •
The next morning I called Don and Theo, only to hear Don say, “You need to call Deputy Hickman. Explain about the window sash.”
Then Theo got on the phone. “Where are Devora’s glasses now?”
“In my nightstand. I may never open that drawer again. Let Francine deal with it when they come back from Costa Rica in June.”
“Ignoring something doesn’t make it go away.”
“Oh, yes, it does. Ask any of my old high school boyfriends.”
“Would you feel better if Don and I called him?”
“He’d only tell you it was secondhand information and if I had an issue, I should be the one to call the public safety building.”
“He’s right,” Theo said. “Call him. Someone was in your house planting evidence. Maybe the sheriff’s office can send a forensic team to dust for prints.”
“Okay, fine. But if Grizzly Gary brushes me off, Devora’s glasses stay right where they are.”
“He’s not going to give you the brush-off. Look, if that intruder was diabolical enough to plant Devora’s glasses in your nightstand, they’d have no qualms calling the sheriff’s office with a tip that you were concealing evidence. It could go as simple as them telling Hickman they overheard you talking about hiding the glasses until the transfer station opened for garbage drop-off.”
“Are you serious?”
Theo’s voice got louder. “Do the words search warrant mean anything to you?”
“Yeah. They’re right up there with the words bail money.”
“Call him. And let us know what happened.”
“Fine.”
In spite of the fact I had told Charlie I intended to check for clues when it got light out, I changed my mind. The snow had stopped but the ground was covered with enough of that thick, mushy stuff to make it impossible to find footprints in the once muddy area under the window. Ugh. I had no choice. It was Deputy Hickman or no one.
Gladys Pipp was off for the day, or at least I thought she was off when another woman answered the non-emergency line and connected me immediately to Deputy Hickman. Usually Gladys chitchats for a while and lets me know what kind of mood the deputy is in. The new woman threw me to the lions without a clue.
“There’s no easy way to explain this,” I said to Deputy Hickman, “but I seem to have come across the victim’s wingtip eyewear in my house.”
“You hadn’t mentioned Mrs. Dobrowski having been inside your house, Miss Ellington.”
“She wasn’t. Only her glasses.”
There was an inordinately long pause at the other end of the line, and for a minute I thought he’d hung up on me. “The glasses. Help me understand this. You found Mrs. Dobrowski’s glasses in your house.”
“Yes. In my nightstand. By the bed. Under some wadded-up tissues. I found them last night.”
“Let’s take a step back, Miss Ellington. Was there any sign of a break-in?”
“Not last night. I mean, I didn’t find a sign of a break-in last night and I had Don and Theo from the Grey Egret come over to check out the house with me.”
“I see. You called them when you discovered the glasses.”
“Um, no. At that point, I hadn’t discovered the glasses.”
“I’m quite confused. Why were the owners of the Grey Egret checking out your house if there was no sign of a break-in and you hadn’t yet found the glasses?”
“I went to Wegmans and took the dog with me. When I got back, it felt like someone had been in the house. The dog felt it, too. He sniffed the air.”
“Miss Ellington, dogs are constantly sniffing the air. And you said there was no sign of a forcible break-in?”
“Yes. No sign. Until late last night. After Don and Theo left, I rechecked the windows and one of them was unlocked. A living room window. Facing the back of the house. Maybe there are footprints under the snow. A good forensic team would know.”
“Miss Ellington, allow me to backtrack for a moment. Are you absolutely certain those glasses belonged to the victim? Maybe your sister owns a similar pair.”
“Francine? Bejeweled glasses? Not on your life. They’re Devora’s all right. She was wearing them when she came into our winery to complain about the noise during the first day of filming.”
“Hmm, according to my notes, that’s when you threatened her.”
“It wasn’t a threat. More like a retort. And I’m the one who’s feeling threatened. The dead woman’s eyewear was in my nightstand.”
“I have another call to make this morning. As soon as I’m done, I’ll stop by to pick up the glasses. Don’t touch them.”
“Will you be bringing a forensic team?”
“Miss Ellington, consider yourself lucky I’m not bringing a search warrant.”