Teaberry Total Eclipse

by R A Wallace

  “I guess Mr. Jenkins is planning to keep a closer eye on her now,” Tyler said.

  “I can understand that.” Amos’s gaze never left Linda.

  “I hope they catch whoever did it soon.” Becca’s eyes were filled with worry. She lived alone too.

  ***

  Rhys nodded in agreement to Ian’s plan. “It was broad daylight. Someone might have seen something.”

  “You take that side of the street, I’ll work my way down this side.” Ian pointed as he spoke.

  “Make a note if you don’t catch anyone at home. We’ll do a second sweep at another time to try to catch the rest.” Rhys looked both ways up and down the street. It was a nice neighborhood. Caro Delacroix’s rental was a small Country French style home. He already knew from walking around the exterior that there was a fence around the back of the house. He assumed that’s how the burglar got in, by making their way to the back yard and concealing themselves behind the fence. According to what Ian had found, they’d entered through a rear set of French doors by breaking a pane of glass.

  “Ready?” Ian reached for the door and opened it. It was late afternoon. With any luck, they’d catch both the people who were typically at home during the day and those getting home from work at the end of it.

  Chapter Seven

  He stepped down from the school bus and walked toward the house thinking he couldn’t wait until he was old enough to have his driver’s license and no longer had to take the bus. At least he wasn’t having as much trouble at school with getting picked on. A lot of that had faded away after the last incident. Everyone involved in the incident had been taken to the principal’s office and their parents had to come to pick them up.

  Ethan had called Casey. The friendly veterinarian wasn’t technically his parent, but Ethan had felt better having his calm, understanding presence at the time. He knew his mom would have been upset. Bella, on the other hand, had called Officer Rhys Cunningham. A smile split his face as he remembered the frightened looks on the other kids’ faces when the huge man in uniform walked into the principal’s office. Ethan hoped the fear would remain with them for a long time. So far, everything at school had been going much easier for both him and Bella.

  Ethan went around to the rear of the house and entered through the back door. Cooper met him at the door, the joy evident in his behavior. Ethan dropped his bookbag and opened the door wide to let Cooper out. He followed the border collie out with a tennis ball in his hand. He lobbed the ball several times to give the dog some exercise before heading back into the house.

  “C’mon Coop. I have to change clothes before we can do chores.” Ethan toed off his shoes and hung his coat in the mudroom then lifted his bookbag and headed upstairs. A short time later, he was back down in the kitchen with the door to the fridge open. He grabbed the snack that was there for him and ate it while he added some water and food to Cooper’s bowls.

  “Ready to chase some cows?” Cooper’s ears perked. He didn’t really chase cows. He just made sure the massive animals went where he thought they should be going.

  Ethan geared up for outside and Cooper followed him to the barn. As Ethan went to work, Cooper explored every smell, new and old, since the last time he’d been outside by the barn. Once the chores were completed, Ethan spent a few minutes working with Cooper on their commands. He used his voice and hand signals so that the two of them were a team as they practiced moving the animals around.

  By the time they went back to the house, it was growing dark. Normally, Ethan’s mom, Marcy, would be arriving shortly from work. She would change her clothes and begin working on dinner. Tonight, she had plans because of some training session at work and wouldn’t be home for a couple more hours.

  Ethan pulled off his outer clothes and hung them on the pegs in the mud room. He sat and pulled his boots off, then wiped Cooper’s feet on the mat.

  “Time to eat, Coop.”

  Cooper knew what that meant. He easily beat Ethan to the kitchen. Ethan followed him in and returned to the fridge. His mom had left him a plate of food to heat up. He pulled it out and elbowed the fridge door closed. He nearly dropped the plate when he heard the first low growl.

  “Coop?”

  The dog’s head swiveled toward the doorway to the kitchen. His hackles were raised, the fur on his back and neck. He growled again, a low menacing sound.

  “Coop, what is it?” Ethan set the plate down on a counter and took a step toward the dog.

  Cooper inched forward, his head held low as the growls continued. The dog continued his slow movement out of the kitchen.

  Ethan grabbed the cordless handset from its receiver as he passed it. His fingers pressed the numbers that he knew by heart. Just as he heard Casey’s voice on the other end, Cooper erupted in a fury of barking and he lunged down the hall toward the back door. Ethan quickly followed him down the hall and could see a dark figure on the other side of the door through the window pane.

  “Ethan! Ethan, what’s wrong?” The panic in Casey’s voice was obvious. He was shouting to be heard about Cooper’s barking.

  “I think someone is trying to break in!” Ethan yelled.

  “Ethan, I’m on my way. Call nine one one! Ethan, do you hear me?”

  “Yes! I’ll call right now.”

  ***

  Rhys followed the tracks in the back yard with his flashlight. He could see where Ethan had played ball with the dog. Next, he followed the tracks to the barn. Just as Ethan had said, there were also tracks out in the field where he had gone with his dog. He walked back toward the house about halfway and then widened his perimeter. Using the beam of his flashlight, he methodically swept across looking for any traces of disturbance on the ground. The ground was frozen and there was a light dusting of new snow.

  “Over here!”

  Rhys followed Ian’s voice to the other side of the house. Whoever had been here had approached from the road.

  “Can you tell what kind of tire tracks they are?” Rhys asked as he approached Ian.

  “No, there’s too many other tracks on the road. No way of knowing which ones came from the car we’re interested in.” Ian shone his light up and down the road.

  “He parked right on the road,” Rhys said to himself. Out here, it was possible. Although the roads were travelled, it wasn’t like being inside the city limits. There wasn’t as much traffic.

  The two turned and began walking back to the house. They stopped as they neared it and watched as headlights came down the road they’d just been examining. The vehicle was moving quickly and pulled into the drive up to the house.

  Marcy ran to the front door, ignoring the two police officers as she passed them.

  “Ethan!” she called out as she opened the front door.

  “In here.” Casey stood and met Marcy at the entrance to the living room. He grabbed her to stop her, holding her loosely in his arms. “He’s okay. Marcy, look at me.”

  Ethan stood and walked over to join them. “Mom, I am. Honest. Cooper wouldn’t let anything happen.”

  Cooper’s tail thumped against the floor when he heard his name but he remained by the chair that Ethan had vacated.

  Marcy enveloped Ethan in a hug. She looked over his shoulder at Casey, only a few inches away.

  “What happened?”

  Casey turned toward Rhys and Ian as they joined them in the living room.

  “We found tracks. Whoever it was parked his vehicle on the road and walked to the house.” Rhys’s gaze fell on the dog. Intelligent eyes looked back at him.

  “Why? What did they want?” Marcy’s voice continued to grow louder as she thought about all of the things that could have happened.

  Ian and Rhys shared a look.

  “We had a report of another break-in yesterday,” Ian said.

  Casey’s eyes narrowed. “What are you telling us?”

  “It was at Caro Delacroix’s house,” Rhys answered.

  “Wait, what? Is she okay? Was Grandpa there
? Why didn’t they tell us?” Ethan looked at his mother. “Did you know about that?”

  Marcy shook her head. She hadn’t heard either.

  “She’s fine, they both are. They weren’t home at the time and as far as we can tell nothing was taken,” Ian explained. He didn’t know why they hadn’t told Marcy and Ethan. Maybe they just hadn’t wanted to worry them.

  “We’ll come back again tomorrow when it’s light out to look some more. For now, all we can say is keep your doors locked.” Rhys caught the look the veterinarian gave him. He nodded slightly then followed Ian to the front door. He wasn’t surprised when the vet stepped out onto the front porch with them.

  “Is Caro alright?” Casey asked quietly.

  “Yeah, but she was pretty shook up,” Ian said.

  Casey knew the feeling. He was pretty shook up himself at the moment. “If you find anything else out, let me know. I’ll be staying here tonight.”

  “That’s what Mr. Jenkins said yesterday about the other place. We checked with as many neighbors as we could over by Ms. Delacroix. No one saw anything.” Ian looked at Rhys.

  “We’ll keep trying,” Rhys said. “By the way, nice dog.”

  Casey closed his eyes briefly and imagined what might have happened if Cooper hadn’t been here.

  “Yeah, that he is.” He watched as the officers left then went back into the house. He found Marcy in the kitchen. Based on the noise she was making with the pots and pans, she hadn’t calmed down yet.

  He walked up behind her and reached for the pot she was currently slamming down on a counter. Gently taking it from her hand, he pushed it away from her on the counter and turned her around before enveloping her in a hug.

  “He could have been hurt.”

  “He wasn’t.”

  “I could have lost him.”

  “You didn’t.”

  “What if…?”

  “Won’t happen.” Casey pulled back and tilted her head up. “I’m staying here tonight and tomorrow night and probably all the nights after that. Don’t argue with me on this.”

  Marcy’s eyes met his. She nodded.

  Ethan stood outside of the kitchen door and smiled. It was about time.

  Chapter Eight

  He looked around the room and thought of the irony of it all. His mother, Lilith Henderson, had spent her entire adult life shut away inside this house without ever daring to dream about the world beyond its walls. She’d lived out her eighty one years inside a bubble, shielded from the ups and downs that most people ride with anticipation, fear, excitement, and, sometimes, disappointment.

  It wasn’t until after her death that something exciting had happened inside that bubble. Right here at her sanctuary from reality.

  “Why did she do it?” He turned to face his sister as she entered the sitting room.

  It was a conversation they’d had before. “It was safer.”

  Portia crossed the room but didn’t take a seat. She stood in the middle of the large room and looked around. The first day of the sale had gone well. Much of the contents of the house had been sold. There were holes in the room where cold memories once occupied space. An expensive figurine here, an ornately embroidered occasional chair there. As children, they had known not to touch most of the contents in the house. They weren’t to be played with. As adults, they were simply another chore to be dealt with as quickly as possible so that the two of them could return to their own lives. Lives they had chosen to live out in the world, not closed up and hidden inside a museum.

  Her eyes fell on the empty space in the center of the fireplace mantel where a clock had sat for decades until someone from the sale bought it.

  “Do you remember when we were little and you wanted to know how the clock worked?” Portia turned to her brother.

  A ghost of a smile passed Henry’s lips. “It never did work quite right after that.”

  “You swore me to secrecy,” Portia reminded him.

  “A lot of good that did. You tattled the first chance you got.” Henry offered his sternest face.

  Portia grinned at him. “I did, didn’t I? But then, what are little sisters for?”

  Henry’s thoughts returned to their mother. “Do you think that’s why we turned out the way we did?”

  Portia knew what he meant. Both she and her brother had spread their wings as quickly as possible to fly away from the constraints of their youth. Neither one had opted to remain in the stifling atmosphere where chances were never taken and routine was always followed.

  “I guess I can’t complain. I rather like my life.” Portia thought of her own family. She had made it a point to travel with both her children and her grandchildren. She hoped fervently those happy memories were the ones they would hold of her after she was gone.

  The doorbell interrupted them. “I’ll get it.”

  Henry returned a moment later with two police officers following him.

  “This is my sister, Portia Ingram,” Henry said.

  “Officers Henley and Stevens.” Erica assessed the siblings. They both appeared to be in their fifties. She assumed the male was the elder. “Thank you for meeting us here. We understand that you don’t live local.”

  “No, we don’t. We had to extend our stay beyond what we had anticipated because of the death of that poor man.” Portia moved to stand near her brother. “Of course, we want to do whatever is necessary to help.”

  “Did you hire the security guard?” Erica asked her.

  “No, I handled that,” Henry said. “He came highly recommended though I understand he hasn’t been working as actively as he used to in the past.”

  Erica had noticed the same thing. She’d had Jerry run a history of his jobs for the past several years. There hadn’t been more than a handful and they were all short-term gigs. A wedding here, a house sitting there.

  “You contracted with him to spend the night?” Erica asked.

  “I did. My sister was concerned about the transient nature of the sale. There were literally dozens upon dozens of people in and out of the house on that first day,” Henry explained. “We expected the same on the second day.”

  “Where was he planning to sleep for the night?” Jerry asked.

  “I’ll show you,” Portia offered. She led them to the kitchen area and showed them the suite adjacent to it. “I left sandwiches, soup, coffee, and a few other things I thought might make him more comfortable while he was here.”

  Erica entered the suite and looked around. They’d already taken his bag as part of the evidence so the room no longer had any signs that Jimmy had been here. Although rather plain, it was a comfortable room and conveniently located. The bed was still made.

  “It doesn’t look like he slept in the bed,” Erica commented. Her eyes fell on the recliner. That’s where she would have rested. No doubt, he would have been tired after being on his feet all day. Still, he was awake before his death. Either he’d awakened on his own, or something had awakened him and drawn him outside.

  “He didn’t move very quickly but it appeared that he was trying to stay visible throughout the course of the day,” Portia commented with a quick glance at her brother for support.

  “Yes, I thought so too. I was feeling guilty by the end of the day that we’d asked someone his age to work such long hours. He definitely seemed tired from all of the activity. To be honest, we never expected any trouble. I mostly just hired him to have some sort of presence here. It just seemed to be a good idea at the time.” Henry stepped out of the room.

  Portia followed. “I had to insist that he eat. I was worried about his health if he didn’t.”

  Erica’s mind returned to the man who had been her partner in her early days at the department. He’d seemed old to her then. She hadn’t seen him in years and wondered why they’d fallen out of touch. Was it her fault? Did her life get so busy that she couldn’t reach out to him?

  “Were there any particular valuables in the home that a thief may have been interested in
?” Jerry had been checking out what remained of the contents in the home. What was there was of high quality. He had known people to steal far less valuable items.

  He listened to the descriptions they gave. He wondered how some of them had been acquired. “There are a lot of nice things here. I can see why you might be targeted. Were your parents collectors?”

  “Our father was, in his way. His work had him traveling on occasion and he would bring things back. Our mother never left the house,” Henry explained. “She preferred to remain here, inside these walls.”

  “She didn’t like to travel?” Jerry asked. Some people didn’t.

  “She didn’t like to do anything that involved taking chances or stepping out of her comfort zone. Exploring new things would have stressed her too much.” Henry had given up trying to change her mind about expanding her horizons long ago.

  Portia led them through the house at Erica’s request.

  “There is a safe in here where she kept her most valuable things, but the jewelry had sold earlier in the day.” Henry showed where the safe was located in the master bedroom.

  “Maybe the would-be thief didn’t know they’d been sold?” Erica pointed out.

  “We considered that also,” Henry acknowledged.

  At the end of the tour and several more questions, Erica and Jerry thanked the siblings for the information and left the house. They stood in the front where Jimmy had been killed and considered what they’d learned.

  “She seems nice,” Jerry commented. “Well, they both do, but she made it a point to feed Jimmy. That wasn’t required under the circumstances.”

  Erica had thought the same thing. Of course, they both knew that didn’t mean they weren’t somehow involved in the death of Jimmy. Stranger things had happened. “But we still don’t know what drew him outside.”

  “It may have just been the eclipse.”

  Erica shook her head. “I don’t see that. Jimmy never cared about things like that before. Not when I knew him. He would have been all about the job.”