The Good Neighbors

by Kiersten Modglin

  She closed her eyes as she offered a soft nod. “I’m okay. Honestly. Whoever was at the door is gone.”

  “They didn’t find you?”

  “Find me?” she asked, furrowing her brow. “What do you mean?”

  “The…front door was…open,” he said, studying her face. “I assumed…oh my god, I was so terrified.”

  “Wait,” she said pushing him away, “what do you mean the front door was open?”

  “When I came home, it was standing open.”

  “Like someone broke in?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know, it was just open. Like before. It doesn’t look broken into.”

  “What does that mean?” she asked. “How else could it have been open? Are they in the house?”

  That seemed not to have occurred to him as a possibility until that moment. He pressed a finger to his lips and whispered, “Shhh…” as he held her hand and led her from the room. One room at a time, they searched cautiously, trying to find out if they had an unwelcome intruder. As they tiptoed through each room, Harper’s heart thudded loudly in her chest, her body ice cold with adrenaline. What was the plan if he did happen to find someone? What would they do?

  Luckily, by the end of their search, no such intruder showed up, leaving them with only one conclusion. “Whoever was here,” Bryant said as they reached the living room, “is gone now.”

  “But they got in here somehow,” Harper said. It wasn’t a question, but Bryant’s expression gave her an answer. “I want to change the locks,” she said. “It could be whoever took your key before. The mugger.”

  He didn’t seem to agree, but he nodded anyway. “That seems far fetched, but it couldn’t hurt to change the locks.”

  “If not the kids, then who? I mean, do you think it’s…could it be Tori and Jason?”

  Bryant bit his lip. “I don’t know,” he whispered, as if the neighbors could be listening to their conversation. For all she knew, they were. “I really don’t.” He squeezed her hand. “But it’s going to be okay. We’ll get the locks changed and the house up for sale. As soon as possible, we’ll be out of here.”

  She nodded.

  “Harp, what was it you wanted to tell me?”

  “What?” she asked, her mind elsewhere.

  “When you called, you said there was something I needed to see.” He brushed a piece of hair from her eyes, his face full of worry.

  “Oh, right,” she said, thinking of the paper that lay upstairs. “I, um, I have something to show you.” She held his hand, leading him up the stairs cautiously. “I was doing some research earlier. Trying to find out more about Tori and Jason. And…well, I don’t really know how to say this.”

  “What is it?”

  “I don’t think they are who they claim to be,” she told him as they reached the top of the stairs.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean,” she opened the office door and gasped.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “The paper…” The desk was completely bare. The paper she’d printed with her evidence was missing.

  “What paper?”

  “I…I printed…” She stopped as she stared around the room. Someone had been in their house. Maybe two someones. Someone had taken the only evidence she had. But, the most chilling thing of all was that someone had known exactly where to find the evidence only seconds after she’d printed it.

  There was only one explanation, and as she stared at her husband, she had no idea how to tell him the terrifying truth she’d just discovered.

  They were being watched.

  Forty-Three

  Bryant

  Bryant stood on their front porch, watching the house next door with a sharp eye. It had a strange sense of foreboding, much less welcoming than it had originally seemed. Now that he knew the evil it held—potentially held—it was no longer a house that he dreamed of owning. Complete with a woman he had no idea why he’d ever found enticing.

  The lights had been off all day, both cars gone. He’d watched carefully, trying to catch a light flickering on, or a curtain moving, but he hadn’t. They weren’t home. Why weren’t they? Where were they?

  Ever since Harper had told him what she discovered, his mind had been reeling. What other secrets were the Fullers hiding? Who were they, anyway? Where was the real Jason Fuller? They’d searched the internet fully, but with such a common name, their search was endless. Luckily, they’d been able to find the articles Harper was searching for—the first picture after the fire of the Jason they knew, and then the other of a completely different Jason Fuller.

  Had the Jason they knew set the fire? Were they truly in danger? He couldn’t be sure, but he didn’t need to be. What he needed was to get his wife and child away from this place, away from these people—once and for all.

  Despite his fear of the neighbors, and what secrets they might be hiding, he couldn’t deny the overwhelming sense of curiosity. If they could get in that house somehow, prove that they were being watched…maybe the police could do something about it. Maybe they wouldn’t have to leave after all, if the neighbors left instead.

  With that idea looming in his head, he pulled open the front door and called to his wife. “Harper, come here!”

  She appeared within a few seconds, her worried eyes searching the room before they landed on him. “What? What is it?”

  “I need your help with something.”

  She placed a hand to her chest, exhaling. “Nothing’s wrong?”

  “What? Oh, no. No, sorry.”

  “Okay, well, what is it, then?”

  “Come here,” he told her, ushering her out to the porch and speaking in hushed tones. “I want to break into Tori and Jason’s house.”

  She scoffed, then, seeming to realize he was serious, shook her head. “No! No way. Why would you want to do that? Don’t you realize how bad of an idea that is?”

  “Yeah, I do,” he said honestly, “but what choice do we have? Even with the house up for sale, it could be months before it sells. I can’t live like this for months. I can’t worry about what we say and do in our house. We’ve already said we can’t afford both the house and an apartment in Chicago. Your parents don’t really have the room, and we can’t go without medical insurance for you and the baby while we both look for jobs there. It’s too risky. But if we can find proof that they’re spying on us…or that they’re doing all of this crazy stuff, maybe we can get them arrested, and then we wouldn’t have to worry about it. We could stay for as long as we had to.”

  “Okay, but what are you hoping to find? You think they have a secret lab with swabs of our hair and video camera feeds?” she asked with a half-laugh.

  “Is this funny to you?” he asked. “Because you’re the one who convinced me they’re dangerous, remember?”

  She swallowed. “Yes, of course I do. I just…this is crazy. It’s so crazy. We aren’t criminals, Bryant. Do you even know how to break into a house?”

  “How hard can it be?”

  “What if they have an alarm system? I’m pretty sure Tori said they do. Or cameras? What if they catch us?”

  He bit his lip, trying to think. He was trying to remember what he’d seen when they’d been invited into the Fullers’ home. They definitely seemed the type to have a security system, though there were no signs outside their home warning of one. “I don’t know,” he told his wife. “I guess it was a stupid idea.”

  “It wasn’t stupid,” Harper assured him—patronized him, more like it—quickly. “But it’s not something we’re capable of. Everything’s going to be okay, even if we have to move in with my parents for a while. They may not have room, but you know they won’t turn us away. I just want us to be safe.”

  “Me too,” he agreed, taking her hands in his and kissing her fingers. “Me too. We’re going to figure something out, I promise.”

  Forty-Four

  Harper

  When Harper arrived home from her doctor’s appointment
a week later, she knew something was up the moment she entered her house. The room was in disarray—pictures thrown everywhere, books pulled from bookshelves. Vents out of floors and walls, doors standing open.

  She knelt down, grabbing hold of a heavy picture frame and walking further into the room. Someone was in her home. She could hear them moving around, shuffling through things. And she had a picture frame to protect herself. She wanted to run from the house—to dart out to find the safety of her car, but she needed to find out who was tormenting her. She needed to know the truth once and for all.

  She walked up the stairs carefully, being extra cautious as she took each step. The office door was wide open, papers lying everywhere, but the room was empty. In the bedroom, the closet was open and she could hear the intruder breathing heavily. She walked slowly, raising the frame above her head—ready to strike should the moment call for it. As she eased herself around the corner of the closet, she took a half breath as the man turned to face her.

  “What the he—”

  “Bryant?” she cried, staring at her husband in disbelief.

  “Harper? What are you doing?” He stepped out of her line of fire, though she was lowering the frame anyway.

  “What am I doing? What are you doing? This house is a disaster! Were we robbed?”

  “What?” He glanced around. “No. Look,” he pulled her from the closet and toward the bed, “what I found.”

  Lying on the bed in a brown wicker basket, were three light switch covers. They were large and tan with screws threaded through them and drywall still stuck to the screws—as if they’d been ripped from the walls in an instant.

  “What are these?” she asked, reaching for them.

  “Don’t touch,” he insisted. “I did some research at school about finding hidden cameras in hotel rooms and stuff. Turns out it’s as simple as using your phone and listening for feedback when you’re on a call. So, I tried it today. The cameras are hidden in the ends of the screws. They sell this stuff on Amazon,” he said angrily. “I guess I got a little carried away searching the rest of the house after I found these. But all that matters is that I found out how they’ve been watching us. I’m going to take these to the police.”

  The words hit her hard, and she took a step back, her lips quivering. “You…found hidden cameras…in our house?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, in the office, the bedroom, and the living room. I’m still looking for more.”

  She sucked in a haggard breath. “What…why…are you sure?”

  “Of course I’m sure.”

  “Should you have touched these? We need to call the police now.”

  He stared at the box, his expression falling flat. “Shit. I didn’t even think. I was just so…freaked out. Should I put them back?”

  “No,” she said plainly. “No, just don’t touch them anymore. I’ll call them now.” She pulled her phone from her back pocket, searching for the non-emergency line, though this felt like somewhat of an emergency.

  “How was the doctor?” Bryant asked. “I wish I could’ve come.”

  “It’s okay,” she said. “These are mostly boring appointments, anyway. You’ll be at the ultrasound one.” She offered him a small smile as she located the number and hit the button to call. “Baby is perfect.”

  Once the police had searched the home for more video cameras—which they didn’t find—they met Harper and Bryant back in the living room. They were perched on the edge of the couch, hands locked together on their knees.

  The first officer—the one who’d introduced himself as Officer Riggs—cleared his throat. The couple stood quickly. Harper could feel her throat closing under his stern stares. “Everything looks clear. We searched the house for any type of video or audio feed, but it looks like the cameras you found must’ve been all that existed. We’re going to take these down to the station to try and pull some fingerprints.”

  “What about our neighbors? Can’t you go ahead and take them in?” Bryant asked.

  The officer shook his head. “I’m sorry. I know you’re convinced this was them, but without proof we don’t even have enough to question them. Do you have anything else that would help support your claims?”

  “We…I don’t think they’re telling the truth about who they are,” Harper said, turning to walk into the kitchen. She grabbed the paper she’d printed for the second time off of the counter and walked back into the room, handing it over to the officer. “This is Jason Fuller. I believe our neighbor may have stolen his identity.”

  “That’s a pretty serious accusation. Can you tell me why you believe that?”

  “Because that’s not him,” she said firmly, pointing toward the paper. “Not the neighbor we know.”

  “It’s not that uncommon of a name, Mrs. Page.”

  “I know, but—”

  “Look, we’ll look into it, but without something more concrete, there just isn’t a whole lot we can do. Our best hope is that we find some prints on these cameras.” He sighed, seeing their fallen expressions. “Have they threatened you in any way?”

  “They may have broken in,” Bryant offered. “But we don’t know for sure.”

  “Someone was at our door the other day, and when Bryant got home, the door was open and that article was missing. And, once before, our phones were misplaced in the middle of the night,” Harper said, though she was sure they’d already lost the officer’s attention.

  “Plus we keep getting all of this junk mail…stuff we didn’t order,” Bryant said.

  “Bryant got mugged awhile back. We thought it was nothing, but they got a copy of our house key. It may be unrelated, but like he’s saying, strange things keep happening. I am getting calls about appointments I didn’t make. Bryant was even called for an interview for a position he didn’t apply for a few days ago,” Harper told him, recalling the strange phone call Bryant had received asking him to come in for an interview for a local garbage company. “It isn’t just us, either. The old owner of this house even said they freaked her out, too.”

  “Did you get your locks changed after the mugging?” the officer asked.

  “No,” Bryant answered. “We will.”

  “You need to. Now, about the old owner, did they threaten her?”

  “No,” Bryant said softly.

  “And you said they haven’t threatened either of you?”

  “No,” came his answer.

  “I’m sorry,” the officer said after a brief pause. “I know this must be incredibly frustrating. You have to understand that our job is to look at facts, and without anything more solid…it’s just your word against theirs. There’s nothing we can do unless you have concrete proof that your neighbors are the ones harassing you. If they threaten you, we can get an order of protection.”

  “What? Like a piece of paper? You can’t arrest them?”

  “Let’s take this one step at a time, okay?” he said, putting a hand on Bryant’s shoulder. “For now, just keep your doors locked. Get those locks changed. You’re safe here for the night. There are no more cameras. You aren’t being watched. Keep the curtains drawn and call us if anything happens. I’ll be in touch as soon as we get the prints back from the cameras.” He picked up the evidence bag of light switch covers and tucked them under his arm. “You guys take care.’

  As he disappeared through their doorway, Harper watched his car descend down their drive, the feeling of safety leaving with him.

  “I don’t want to stay here,” she said, turning to face her husband.

  He closed his eyes, exhaling. “We’ll be out of here soon.”

  “How can you be sure?” she asked.

  “I’ll call the realtor in the morning and ask if she’s had anyone call about it. Even if we have to give the house away, we just need it gone.” He kissed her forehead. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

  She jumped, letting out a scream as someone knocked on the door. As she turned around, she stared into the face that had been fill
ing her nightmares. Jason Fuller—or whoever he truly was.

  Forty-Five

  Harper

  Jason stood just beyond the screen door, his eyes burning into the couple. Just behind him stood Tori. Harper hadn’t seen her at first glance, her black jumpsuit blending in with the night around her, but soon enough she was able to make out her porcelain skin and high ponytail of blonde hair.

  Harper looked at Bryant, who was staring at Jason with a stern jaw. “What do you want?” he asked through the glass.

  “Are you guys okay?” Jason asked. “We saw the cop car. Wanted to check on you.”

  “Do you mean you wanted to spy on us again?” Bryant asked. “There’s no chance in hell we’re letting you in, so you can either go away or we’ll call the cops back.”

  “What are you talking about?” Jason asked. “Why would we be spying on you? We just happened to notice the cop car leaving the driveway, that’s not exactly spying.”

  “We know all about what you’ve been up to,” Bryant argued.

  “We found the cameras,” Harper added.

  Jason stared at her, his head cocked to the side in confusion.

  Tori pursed her lips, sneering. “If anyone’s been spying, Bryant, it’s you. But I had enough class to let that go. If you’re going to go around accusing us of such ridiculous things, I won’t be so polite.”

  “What is she talking about?” Harper asked, glancing over her shoulder at Bryant, whose face was turning bright red.

  “Now’s not the time,” he said firmly, but his eyes were locked on Tori. When Harper looked back to her, her face held a slight smirk.

  “What? You don’t want me to tell all your dirty little secrets?” she teased.

  Jason looked at her, his expression filled with fury. “Tori, not now.”

  “What is going on?” Harper asked, suddenly feeling like she was the only one not in on their collective secret.