He sat up. "Sal Kahane? Your Sal is having a baby?"
"I know. Imagine that. But she is and they're looking forward to it."
"When are they getting married?"
Polly sat down on the edge of the bed beside him. "Now, how old-fashioned are you? What if they don't want to be married?"
"You're right," he said. "So they aren't?"
"I didn't say that."
He creased his forehead. "What are you doing to me? You woke me up and now you're messing with my poor brain."
"I don't know what they're going to do. If they get married, they'll probably run away somewhere. But first they have to tell her parents." Polly rolled her eyes. "That is not a time I'd want to be a fly on the wall. Her mother is going to flip out. She'll want Sal to move back to Boston, with or without Mark."
"So she can raise Sal's baby?"
"Exactly. It won't be pretty. How were things around here this evening?"
"Quiet. Hayden had a pile of homework, Rebecca and Heath watched a stupid movie and I worked in my office."
"Hayden's in Heath's room?"
Henry nodded. "I hate that we only have three bedrooms."
"Me too. I need to get back into the Bell House so we can start working on it."
"Patience, dear Prudence. I told you it was going to take a long time."
"But this place didn't take that long." Polly poked his arm. "And it's much bigger."
Henry pulled her back to lie in his arms and kissed her lips. "Remember, you paid me to do the work on Sycamore House. You'd be amazed at how motivational that can be."
"I have other ways to motivate you now."
He chuckled and helped her sit back up. "Yes you do. However, Sturtz Construction has gotten busier these last few years. It's amazing what falling in love and wanting to build a life will do for a man."
"Would your dad build a crib for Sal?"
"He'd love to. He said something to me once about not getting to make baby room furniture for us. It would mean the world if you asked him."
Polly reached over, turned his light off and walked to the other side of the bed, slipping out of her clothes and dropping them on the floor. She felt around for her night shirt and pulled it over her head before climbing in under the covers.
"You're a slob, you know," Henry said, laughing.
"I feel guilty about it sometimes. Then there are those other times when I just can't put one more thing away because I ran out of cleaning mojo. But at least I try to contain it to our bedroom now." She snuggled up close to him. "With people in and out, I'm always having to tidy up. It's just easier to keep after it."
"It's a good thing you have Rebecca around."
"Have you seen her room?"
"But she helps you."
Polly nodded. "Most of the time, and so does Heath. Henry, what am I going to do in that big house? There's no way I'll be able to keep it clean."
"You'll hire someone."
She sputtered a laugh. "That will kill me."
"No it won't," he said. "You grew up with Mary in your house. She kept things clean and your Dad paid her."
"I suppose."
"And you're always good about finding people who need jobs and then putting them to work. I have confidence that you'll manage this."
"I have to talk to Heath tomorrow about the boys that beat him up," she said quietly. "I've put it off for two days, making the excuse that he wasn't healthy enough for the conversation."
"Do you want me to talk to him for you?"
"No. I told him I would. He's expecting it. Do I wait until Hayden's gone back to school?"
"See how it plays out in the morning," Henry said. "It might not be a terrible idea to have his brother involved in the conversation."
"Has Hayden said any more about where he wants to go to school?"
Henry chuckled. "No. Apparently our conversation stirred up more questions than answers. Now he isn't even sure that he wants to go to medical school."
"What?"
"If he goes straight research, he can stay at Iowa State."
"He shouldn't make life decisions based on staying close. He should feel like he has the option to do anything he wants."
"We'll keep talking. But if he wants to stay in the Midwest, that's his decision."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. His decision. Just so he makes it based on what he wants to do for his own life, not what he thinks he should do for Heath."
"Sometimes that's hard for people to separate."
"It kills me that young people let so many things press down on them. They have so much potential and so many possibilities. Grab them all."
He pulled her into a hug. "I love you."
"I love you too," she mumbled into his shoulder. "Are you shutting me up?"
"We need to get some sleep."
"I miss having hours to talk to you about things."
"When did we do that?"
"You know, back before we had kids."
He laughed. "I don't remember hours of conversation, but we did get more sleep."
Polly took a long, deep breath and slowly exhaled.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm relaxing so I'll go to sleep."
"Goodnight, sweet girl."
~~~
Polly woke with a start. It was still dark out and Henry was pulling on his jeans. Then she realized she was hearing an alarm.
"What in the hell is that?" she yelled.
"It's the house alarm. I don't know what's going on." He turned on the lights as he left the room.
She jumped out of bed, put her jeans on and pulled a sweatshirt over her head.
Hayden was standing in Heath's bedroom door and Rebecca had come out of her room.
"What's going on?" Rebecca asked.
"We don't know. It's the house alarm," Polly said. "Have you guys been in your rooms all night?"
Rebecca nodded.
"Yeah. We haven't moved," Hayden said. "I told Heath to stay put."
"Take Han." Henry grabbed the dog's collar, picked him up and handed him to Hayden. "Shut the door."
Rebecca picked up Leia and held her close. "Are the police coming?"
At that moment, Polly's phone rang. "Hello?"
"Is this Polly Giller?"
"Yes it is."
"Do you have an emergency?"
"I don't know. I'm assuming we do."
"Should we send the police?"
Polly looked at Henry. "Police?"
He nodded.
"Yes, please."
"Stay on the line while we contact them," the voice said. "Is someone in your house?"
"I don't know," she said. "This is a big building. They might be downstairs."
"Lock all of your doors and remain inside."
"Don't go out there, Henry," she said as he put his hand on the front door handle.
"I'll be fine."
Polly realized that the fear she felt as he opened the door was probably the same thing she'd put him through so many times and she held her breath.
He silently closed the door behind him and all of a sudden she couldn't breathe.
"Are you okay, Polly?" Rebecca asked.
It took a moment for her to regain her thoughts. "I'm fine," she whispered.
Hayden came back out of Heath's bedroom and shut the door. "I think it's safe now. Whoever was here is gone now."
"How do you know that?"
"I saw him run down the driveway. He had a car parked on the other side of the barn."
"Would you recognize him if you saw him again?"
Hayden shook his head. "He was in a dark hoodie and jeans and the car was parked too far away for me to see it. I'm sorry." He started for the front door.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
"To help Henry."
When had she become the weak female? "No. You stay here with your brother and Rebecca. I'll go. Come on, Obiwan."
The alarms switched off and Polly took a deep breath. "That's better.
"
Hayden stepped toward the door and opened his mouth as if to protest, but Polly put her hand up. "My house. My rules. When things settle out, I'll let you know."
She met Henry as he was coming in the front door. "He's gone," Henry said.
"Hayden watched him from the bedroom window."
"I'm sorry I couldn't see him very well," Hayden said.
Henry turned around to go back downstairs. "He broke the window into your office, Polly."
She chuckled as she followed him down the steps. "I didn't know those were all alarmed."
"Jeff and I had a conversation last year."
"And you didn't talk to me about it?"
"What would you have said?"
"That it was a waste of money. Who would want to break in?"
"Look at all that time we saved," Henry said with a smile.
"It's a good thing I'm thankful for the alarm tonight or you'd be in trouble. How bad is the mess?"
"Bad. He went ripping through the boxes of Beryl's things."
"I'm so glad we took her aunt's tote bag of papers over to her house." Her head shot up. "You don't suppose he'd try to break into her place, too, do you?"
"What was he looking for? If he found it here, probably not."
Polly patted around for her phone and realized she'd left it upstairs. "I'm calling the police back. They need to send someone by her house just in case."
"You don't know who did this," Henry said.
"I have a good idea and he knows where Beryl lives."
They looked up at flashing lights in the driveway and Henry headed for the main door.
"You folks have a lot of excitement in your lives," Bert Bradford said when he came in. "We've talked about adding new staff just to handle the Polly Giller wing."
"Stop it," Polly said.
Bert walked around outside and looked in the window. "He couldn’t have made any more of a mess of this. Did anyone see who it was?"
"Hayden saw him leave, but he was in the upstairs window and didn't get any details. The guy parked on the other side of the barn."
"Smart," Bert said. "Do you know what he was looking for?"
"It has to have something to do with the death of Ethan Carter," Polly replied.
"The boy you found down on the Des Moines river?"
"Yeah. And I'm worried that this person will go over to Beryl's house next if he didn't find what he was looking for."
"What's he looking for?"
"Evidence of buried gold from a hundred and fifty years ago."
Bert got a bemused look on his face. "Gold, eh. In Bellingwood. Well, I never."
"Is there anyone that can drive past Beryl's house and make sure that she's safe?"
He looked at his watch. "Misty's out on patrol. Let me contact her. She'll do a couple of drive-bys if you think it's a concern."
"That would make me feel better."
"I'll be right back." Bert went outside and Polly could hear him talking to someone. It made her feel better knowing that even in Bellingwood, people were awake at all hours to make sure they were safe.
He came back inside and pointed at the office. "Do you want to see if anything's missing?"
"I haven't been in there yet," Polly said.
Bert looked at Henry. "How'd you keep her out?"
"Stop it. Both of you," Polly said. "We only just got down here before you arrived." She opened the main office door and flipped the lights on, then went on into her office and let her head fall forward in disappointment. She looked up and turned to Bert. "If you weren't here, foul curses would come out of my mouth. Would you look at this mess?"
"At least it's not raining?" he said, trying to be helpful.
"At least. Why would he have felt the need to push all of the things off my shelves? He didn't hardly have time, especially if he was going to dig through boxes."
Bert stepped over glass and looked at the floor. "He brushed past them as he tried to get out, probably bumped the shelves pretty hard." He pointed at the boxes which had been opened, upended and spread across the floor. Several folders of things were spread out on Polly's desk. "I don't suppose you know what's missing."
"There's no way," she said. "Beryl picked these up from her brother this week and we were planning to sort through and catalog them, but we'd only begun. This is all just her family's history stuff."
"And it's important because of gold, right?" Bert asked.
"Beryl's ancestor, Jedidiah, was one of the Bellingwood's founders. But he was also a gambler and apparently he robbed his brother's bank. There are letters from Cyrus Carter saying that Jedidiah died before he could spend the gold. Cyrus told his other brother, Lester, in those letters, that he thought Jedidiah had probably buried it somewhere. Ethan Carter found the letters and came up here to look for that gold."
"And Ethan Carter is..." Bert waited for Polly.
"A descendant of Lester, the brother who moved out west. Cyrus was the owner of the bank."
"So Miz Watson's ancestor robbed his brother's bank."
She giggled. "Uh huh."
"She comes from some prime stock," Bert said with a laugh. "You have descendants of Jedidiah and Lester in Bellingwood right now. What about some of Cyrus's? Surely they still live around here."
Polly shrugged. "I'd guess so, but Beryl doesn't know who they are. She and Ethan's sister, Tallie, were going to dig through genealogy information she'd picked up from an aunt of hers to see if they could find names."
"And the sheriff is dealing with this case?"
"Aren't you glad you don't have to?" Henry asked.
Bert's cell phone rang. "It's Misty. Just a minute. Yeah, Misty?" He nodded and grunted a few times and then hung up. "She says she saw taillights turn a corner when she pulled up in front of Miz Watson's house, but thought it might be smarter to check things out at the house instead of chasing down some poor soul who was getting up early to go to work. She drove around a few times and didn't see the car anywhere else. We'll run by there a few more times tonight, just to make sure."
"Thank you," Polly said.
"Do you need help boarding up this window tonight?" Bert asked Henry.
"I'll take care of it. I need to run over to Dad's and get some plywood."
"Your thief won't be back again tonight, I'm sure," Bert said. "We'll get the alarm re-set, though. Could I speak with the young man who saw this person?"
Henry headed for the door. "I'll send him down to you. If I'm leaving, I'd rather he was here with Polly." He stopped himself before he got too much further.
Polly grinned. "Because I'm a feak and weeble woman," she said.
"I didn't say that," Henry protested. "I didn't even think that. I swear. Tell her, Bert."
Bert put up his hands. "I don't even know what it was she said. I'm not involved in this conversation."
"Hayden will be right down." Henry left and Bert turned to Polly.
"Do you have a broom? I'll help you sweep up the glass."
"You don't need to check for fingerprints or anything?"
"Not on the glass, but we should get it swept up so nobody tracks it out of here. If you aren't in a real hurry, I'll send someone over in the morning to process the rest of the office."
"No footprints?" she asked.
Bert looked down at the floor and shook his head. "No, I'm not too worried about footprints. The ground outside is too hard and they wouldn't tell us enough anyway."
"I'll get a broom then," she said with a smile. "And I was messing with ya. I figure you know what you're doing."
"Most of the time, ma'am. But you do tend to bring crime to an entirely different level in this town."
Polly walked out of the office. "I don't even know what to say to that."
Hayden was coming down the steps as she turned to the basement door. "Hey Polly. Henry said I should come down."
"Do you know Officer Bradford?" she asked.
He swallowed. "Yeah. I do."
"Is something
wrong?"
"No. I haven't seen him since he ..."
"Since what?"
"He's the one who came over to find me in Ames to tell me that Mom and Dad had been killed. He's a good guy, but ..."
"Wait here a minute. Let me get a broom. I'll go in with you."
Eliseo kept an extra broom and dustpan just inside the basement door and Polly was able to put her hands on them without turning on the light. She came back out, hooked her arm through Hayden's and walked with him to the office.
Bert looked up when they came in and walked forward, his hand extended. "Hayden Harvey. It's good to see you. I've been paying attention to your game this year. You're doing a good job with those Cyclones."
"Thank you, sir."
"I'm glad you and Heath found a home with Polly and Henry. They're good people." Bert placed his hand on Hayden's back and Polly realized how young Hayden still was. He'd stepped back in time a few years at the sight of Bert.
"I just want to ask you a few questions about what you saw earlier, Hayden. Would you have a seat?" Bert gestured to the chairs in the front office and Hayden sat down, then leaned forward, his elbows on his knees.
"I didn't see much, sir. The man wore a dark hoodie and jeans and he never looked up."
Polly let them talk and went into the office with the broom. She picked up large pieces of glass and dropped them into her trashcan, then worked to sweep up as much broken glass as she could. What a mess he'd made.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
"You'd think people would rather sleep than traipse around terrorizing friendly folk like us in the middle of the night," Henry complained as they trudged back upstairs.
"This happens a lot?" Hayden asked.
"It's always something." Henry opened the front door to the apartment. "It looks like we have an audience waiting for us."
"Heath, what are you doing out of bed?" Polly asked. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. It aches a little. Rebecca wouldn't let me go downstairs."
"Good for her. At least someone up here has a little sense." Polly pointed at him. "Put him back in bed right now," she said to Henry and Hayden. "And you, little girl, to bed with you. Tomorrow morning will be here in a couple of hours."
"But we want to know what happened," Rebecca protested.
"You know what happened," Henry said, putting his arm out to help Heath up. "Somebody broke in, they got away. The police came, I boarded up the window and now I want to get some sleep before this week starts."
Unexpected Riches (Bellingwood Book 13) Page 21