“You’re on to something. If there is some madman running around shooting people, what are they going to do when more people die?”
“They’ll just take care of it like they did with the woman in the desert”
“So, even if it means they lose some of their own citizens, they’re willing to pretend there’s not a problem?”
“Angela. Let’s really think about it. What’s more likely? Some madman lurking the desolate streets shooting random people who live on the fringe of society, or a power-hungry group who make up their own rules, are fully equipped with ten times more weapons than every resident put together, and the intense desire to rid their town of who they believe are scum and eyesores?”
“The police?”
“The police” Milo nodded.
Chapter 26
Flipping through the limited channels we could get in Manere was becoming a bore, but I had an unsettled feeling I couldn’t shake and trying to focus on anything productive was becoming a far bigger task than I had imagined. The dog days of summer were fast approaching, but for mid-August, Manere had unseasonably overcast skies. There was the promise of a few light showers throughout the summer months each year, but rarely did they make an appearance. With the yearly wildfires in the surrounding mountains, the skies became shades of red and black. There was a threatening atmosphere hard to ignore.
Rarely did we have a problem with the surrounding fires passing over the mountains and valleys that separated us from them. The one fire that did manage to creep over in Manere happened years before I was born. The wind had swept the flames over to spread along the ridges of the hills only miles from homes. The four firetrucks that Manere had, and still have, could put them out before damaging too much of the town. Four houses and a bookstore were lost. Leanne Honeywell, the bookstore’s owner, succumbed along with her books. No one knows why she didn’t make it out even though there was time to escape. It could have been her poor health as she tended to take naps throughout the day in the storage room. Her meager hearing and a decreased sense of surrounding may have been what did her in. She could have stayed for the love of her books. She was old, her family was long dead, and never had children. Her books may have been the only thing she had left in the world to care about, and they were nothing more than kindling in those final moments. The possibility I found most tragic was that she had been trapped in the storage room. People said the store was a disorganized mess with stacks of books to the ceiling. It was more of a deathtrap than a store. I thought about Leanne Honeywell whenever the smoke from the fires got too intense. Even with so many things that worried me, the fires were one of the few things I found comforting.
The day fell into darkness, and I was home alone once again. My mom was going to be home by midnight, at least that’s what she promised me. I peered through the window to see if Milo was home. His bedroom light was off, but I could see someone moving around in the dark. The view from the family room wasn’t the best, but I could see just enough to not feel too prying.
Coldness shot through my veins. I had a strange feeling that someone was watching me. The overgrown bush a few feet away from my house’s picture window moved. There was a stillness outside that made the movement impossible to mistake for wind. I ducked down between the couch and wall and crawled across the family room to another window in hopes of getting a better view. An unmistakable crack from a twig outside was followed by another shake of the bush.
It wasn’t the first time I was left home alone with something moving through the bushes, those times were always met with a coyote or rabbit showing itself. Normally I would assume that the disturbance outside was nothing more than the same, but between two leaves near the top of the bush was an eyeball looking directly at me.
Pounding radiated from the thick maple front door. I considered whether I should turn the lights on throughout the house to give the appearance I was not alone in my home, but I had no idea how long the person outside had been watching me, and I had a sense that they were outside long enough to know that I was by myself. I worked up the nerve to look through the peephole. I wasn’t sure who was outside, and I knew it was probably someone who I didn’t want inside, but I thought I should know what the person looked like just in case it was my only chance.
My heart thrashing within my chest made it nearly impossible to stand up completely. I stood a few inches from the door to ensure that there was no weight pressed against the door on my side. I didn’t want the stranger on the other side to know where I was in the house. I took in a breath and made it as shallow as I could while I peeked through. At first, I could see nothing. I continued to look through until I realized it was the flesh of a finger blocking the hole. Again, there was pounding. The door shook violently. I ran down the hall to my bedroom and locked it.
My whereabouts must have been apparent to the intruder as I could hear movement outside near my bedroom window. I turned off the light, opened my bedroom door and crept across the hall to my mother’s room. Leaving the lights off, I crawled to her closet. I opened a hope chest she had wedged into the small space. I flung it open looking for the gun she and my dad had told me was in the house for an emergency. Only an emergency. It relieved me to find that under scarves and single shoes without a mate, there was a silver metal box. I busted it open to discover it was empty, my stomach dropped. I felt like I was going to be sick. There was a crash coming from my bedroom window, someone decided it was time to get in.
I ran to my mom’s bedroom door and locked it. I went into the master bathroom and locked that door too. I pushed open the tiny slider window and pushed myself through. I bit down a squeal of pain as my hips and backside scraped against the frame. I stopped to take a breath, there was a four-foot drop and was going out headfirst. I cursed myself for not thinking to go foot first. I thought I heard something coming from outside of the bathroom door. It was a faint knocking. I gave myself a final shove to the ground with my hands breaking my landing. I jumped over the brick wall that separated my house with Milo’s and crossed the driveway to bang on the front door. I looked over to see the light from the master bathroom of my house flipping on.
As I ran around the McDonough house to get to Milo’s room, Mrs. McDonough’s headlights flashed in my eyes as she pulled up to her driveway.
“Angela? Is that you dear?” she asked through her halfway-down driver’s side window.
“Yes, there’s someone in my house. I need help. Someone was...” As I got closer to the car, I could see Milo was sitting in the passenger’s seat and his two sisters were sitting in the back.
“Your house too. There’s someone in your house too,”.
“Angie, get in the car.” Mrs. McDonough's voice whispered as she too could see that someone through her large picture window had walked across their living room. I jumped in the back seat just a moment after Lori McDonough scooted over. Mrs. McDonough threw her car in reverse. Ignoring the speed limit, Mrs. McDonough drove us directly to the police station while the car remained silent. Milo turned to look at me a few times but said nothing. He was frightened too. Mrs. McDonough parked at the front of the entrance.
“Who’s coming in with me?”
“Me” everyone in the car said at once. We all let out a chuckle to alleviate just how fearful we all were.
We entered the police station in a single file line and waited for Mrs. McDonough to ask for some assistance. The room was much smaller than I had expected. It was the first time I had ever been in the building. After seeing so many in the movies, I assumed there would be more going on, a rush of activity in an expansive room that led to an interrogation room with a two-sided mirror, or another room that was for the line-up. I envisioned offices for the superiors and a pink box of donuts halfway open on a desk near filing cabinets. None of these things were in Manere’s police station. It was just a room no bigger than a classroom that held desks only slightly larger than a classroom desk with stacks of papers and phone on each one. It suddenly m
ade sense why Manere PD was not the most efficient police force.
“Excuse me,” Mrs. McDonough said to the closest uniformed person she could find, a portly man, about ten years older than her. He looked confused and almost irritated by the bother.
“What is it?” he asked.
“There is someone in my house. Someone broke into my neighbor’s house too. This is my neighbor; she was home by herself,” she explained. The officer looked at her even more perplexed as if to say what do you expect me to do about it?
“We’re not sure how many people were in the houses, actually. Angela, could you tell how many people came into your home?” she asked.
“No. I was just home, and I saw someone watching me, and he, I mean I think he was a he, saw me too and started to pound on the door. He broke through my bedroom window and I think a few doors, but I got out of the bathroom window to ask for help. I thought Milo was home because I thought I saw him in his room earlier in the night, but it wasn’t him, obviously, and now we’re here.” I explained.
“Hey buddy” Milo’s sister, Leah shouted. We all looked at her.
“Are you going to do anything about this or are you just going to look at us like a useless dumbass?” she said
“Leah, watch your mouth. He’s a police officer,” Mrs. McDonough said.
“Mom, he’s just looking at us, he’s not going to help us. He’s waiting for us to leave,” Leah said.
“I don’t know what you expect me to do about this?” the officer finally said.
“Are you kidding me? Your damn job? Do your damn job,” Milo said.
“Excuse yourself, son,” the officer said.
“Excuse yourself, he is my son, and he’s right. Do your dam job,” Mrs. McDonough said.
“What’s going on over here?” another officer walked over to hear the ruckus. He was much younger and familiar enough to be someone a few years older than me in school. His svelte build, olive complexion, and toothy smile were in great contrast with the chunky, pale office with a permanent scowl on his face.
“If you want to help us. There were intruders in our homes,” Mrs. McDonough said.
“You have more than one home?” the officer asked
“No, I’m their neighbor. We live next door to each other. A few people were prowling around.” I said.
“Any other houses on the block seem to have a problem?” The officer asked.
“We don’t know. Our houses have land on both sides. The other neighbors aren’t as close,” I said.
“Okay. I’ll tell you what. I will come over and check out the situation. I’m Officer Montoya,” He said as he put his hand out to shake the hand of no one in particular. Milo stepped up and shook it.
“Can we go now? This has taken long enough that the criminals probably made off with everything and are out of there by now,” Milo asked.
“Sure thing,” Officer Montoya said.
We led the patrol car to the McDonough house, parking just off the street so that officer Montoya could park in the driveway. He kept the engine running, and the headlights illuminated the garage door.
“Should we pull in behind him, so we can hear what’s going on?” Lori asked.
“No, it’s safer if we’re here,” Mrs. McDonough said.
“Mom, this view sucks. We’re going to miss it if anything good happens,” Leah said.
I turned to see through the rear window to get a good look at my own house. It seemed undisturbed if someone wasn’t paying attention, but I could see my bedroom on the side of the house with a shattered window in the dark. The window looked so helpless, shattered without warning.
“Is that it? Is he done?” Leah asked. I turned to look in the direction of everyone else to see officer Montoya walking toward the McDonough car. Mrs. McDonough rolled down the window.
“The coast is clear ma’am. I’ll look next door, but I have a feeling whoever was here is long gone by now,” he said.
“You don’t say? We only gave them forever to make an escape. Manure’s slow-ass police.” Milo grumbled.
“Sorry about that. We don’t get a lot of crime around here so when someone needs help, a lot of the guys just freeze up,” officer Montoya said.
“Um, excuse me, but that’s bullshit. This place is crawling with criminals, you just all want to ignore it,” Leah said after pulling herself from her seat to get closer to the driver’s open window.
“Leah don’t be rude. We appreciate your help officer,” Mrs. McDonough said.
“Just sit tight,” the officer said. Officer Montoya flipped on his flashlight to check the perimeter of my house.
“It doesn’t seem like he’s really looking for anyone. It looks like he’s just going through the motions in front of us to shut us up,” Milo said.
“Why do you think that?” Mrs. McDonough asked.
“He keeps looking back at us to see if we’re watching. Why isn’t he going inside? Shouldn’t he go inside?” Milo asked.
“He’s coming back. Let’s see what happens,” Mrs. McDonough said. Officer Montoya rushed to the open window of the car again, bent down and smiled. “I think both houses are fine. We can go inside and check it out if you would like” he said.
We all agreed that it would be best if he went inside with us just to be sure no one was hiding. We also filed a report. There didn’t seem to be anything stolen. After Milo helped me board up the house and my mother pulled in just a few minutes after midnight, I was exhausted. I didn’t even respond to my mom when she asked me how the window broke, or what had been going on. I went straight to my room, closed the door, and went to bed.
Chapter 27
“How are you doing in that Geometry class of yours?”
“It’s okay, I guess,”
“I know you were having a hard time,”
“Maybe math isn’t my thing. I thought it was, but maybe it’s not,”
“I think you have lots of things that can be your thing. You’re a talented girl. Don’t give up on that class.
“Math used to be so easy.”
“For you, Angie girl, math is easy for you. Maybe you just need to work a little harder for this class but once you do, I’m sure you’ll have it down,”
“Thanks, dad. I’ll try,”
“That’s all anyone can ask of you and that’s all you can do. You’re something special anyway, Angie, don’t you worry about that. Even if you feel down, just remember that you can’t have a rainbow without rain and without darkness, the stars wouldn’t shine as bright.”
“Okay, okay, dad. I got it. You are so cheesy sometimes,”
“You love your cheesy dad. Admit it,”
“Never,”
The voice of my dad persisted long after I opened my eyes. The dreams should have been something I was thankful for, a way for me to remember the way we were together, but it felt like a cruel reminder of happier times that I would never have again. A part of me believed that if I left Manere, I would be leaving my father behind too. If my dad was some soul watching over my mom and me, maybe he would like for me to leave so he could go with me like some otherworldly hitchhiker.
The next morning, I went to the kitchen to get a quick bite before heading out to work. My mom was standing near the sink looking out the kitchen window while nursing a mug of coffee in her hand. “What happened last night? Are you going to tell me or is this some sort of silent treatment you’re giving me?” she asked.
“Sorry, I was just tired last night. It was a rough night,” I said.
“I would like to know about it. I would like to know the reason I’m going to have to buy a new window.”
“That’s why you care? You don’t care if anything happens to me, you just don’t want to have to pay for a window.”
“Angela, what are you talking about? Why would you say something like that? You know that you are the most important thing to me in this world,”.
“Sure. I’m so important that you find every reason to be somewhere
else.”
“Look, Angela. I know I have been gone a lot lately but I,” she stopped to look around as if we were in a crowded room and she didn’t want to make a scene, “There’s something I’m working on, and I think you’ll be happy but I, this is just how it must be for now. It will be good for us.” she smiled into her cup of coffee.
“Fine. Keep it to yourself. More secrets. Someone came into the house last night. They were watching me, and they broke in. I don’t know if they took anything. I didn’t see anything missing but I’m not sure.” I explained.
“What? Someone was in this house with you?”
“Yes, but I got out before I saw them. I hid in the bathroom and climbed out of the window to get help.”
“Smart girl. You are a brave thing too. I can’t believe all of this,”
“Well believe it, that’s what happened. They hit Milo’s house too.”
My mom bit her lip and paced from the kitchen to the dining room. “Nothing was taken?”
“Uh, no. I don’t think so. Except. Um, where’s the gun?”
“The gun?”
“The gun you and dad got. You used to keep it in your hope chest for emergencies and well, it was a bit of an emergency, and it wasn’t there.”
“Had they gone through the chest?”
“I don’t think so. This was before they got in. I looked for it when they were outside. What is going on? Why are you being so secretive?”
“I’m not. The gun is with Peter. He borrowed it a few weeks ago. He was going shooting with some friends from work out in the desert. I guess I just forgot to get it back from him,”. She explained timidly like she was the teenager talking to her own mother.
“Well, that’s not very smart, mom. You need to keep better track of the thing. It’s a freaking gun mom, it’s not something you can just forget to get back from someone,”. I said.
All That Remains (Manere Book 1) Page 15