Spring Forward

by Catherine Anderson

  A few minutes later, Barney reappeared on the porch and gave her an all-clear signal. Crystal got back out of the car.

  “Was somebody in there?” She pushed through the gate and hurried to the steps. “Or did I make a big fuss over nothing?”

  “Someone was in there before I got here, and you did exactly what you should have by locking yourself in the car. It appears to me it was the Lingerie Burglar.”

  “You’ve given him an actual name?”

  “That makes it simpler for us to communicate. When one of us sees a car abandoned along a road, we can use police codes and say only that name. So far he hasn’t harmed anyone, but you just never know with a guy like that. Lawmen have a saying: ‘Not all voyeurs are rapists, but all rapists were once voyeurs.’”

  Crystal gulped. “Did he . . .” Her voice trailed away. “I’m sorry. This is creeping me out. Did he rifle through my dresser drawers?”

  “Yes.” Barney sat down on the top step. She realized she was quivering like an aspen leaf in a brisk breeze. “Take a load off,” he said. “I know it’s upsetting. It’s understandable to feel violated when things like this happen.”

  Crystal sank onto the step beside him. She thought about having to spend the night here alone and was tempted to risk a huge confrontation with Patricia Flintlock in order to sleep over at her grandfather’s apartment. “Now I don’t want to stay here.”

  “We’ll be patrolling your house all night, so you won’t really be alone.”

  “Does that mean you think he’ll come back?”

  Barney rubbed his nose. “I don’t want to unnerve you, but this perp was active at the golf course for a while, and he returned to the same houses repeatedly.”

  “Marvelous.” She could hear Rip inside, still clawing at the door and growling. “Am I wrong to think that means he fixates on certain women?”

  “No. That’s pretty much my take on him, too.”

  “What’ll I do if he comes back tonight?”

  “Just lock up tight. You should be fine.” He sighed. “And, actually, Crystal, I’m hoping he will come back. I’d like to get him off the streets. We figure he’s from another community and driving here. That means he’s ditching his car near his targets so he can walk to them.”

  “So that’s why you’ll be watching this area all night. You’re hoping to find his car.”

  “Yes. And we’ll be keeping a close eye on your house.”

  Crystal sighed. “That’s good. I won’t be quite as nervous knowing that.”

  “You’ve also got backup.” Barney cocked an ear toward the front door. “Judging by that snarling, I think your grandpa’s dog will make hash of anyone who steps foot on this property.”

  “I can’t leave him outside. He runs away. I have to take him out on his leash.”

  Pushing to his feet, Barney said, “I’ll sit in my truck while you take him for a little walk. Just stay within my line of sight. Once you’re safely back inside, I’ll leave, but I’ll come back around ten so you can take him out again.”

  “Are you afraid of the dog? Is that why you’re going to stay in your truck?”

  He winked at her. “Actually, I was thinking my uniform might distract him from doing his business. But now that you ask, hell, yes, I’m afraid of him. He sounds like Cujo.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  After taking Rip for his walk around the yard, Crystal waved goodbye to Barney and hurried back into the house. Once off his leash, Rip raced to her bedroom and sniffed all over, emitting a continuous low growl from deep in his throat. She’d heard the dog growl many times, normally at her, but this was different. More menacing. Barney was right; Rip sounded like Cujo, and she had no doubt that he would draw blood for the first time in his life if that awful man returned. The dog’s propensity to guard and protect helped to soothe her nerves a bit.

  She checked to make sure all the doors were locked. Then she emptied all her drawers and washed every stitch of lingerie that she owned. Rip followed her around the house, something he had never done. Prior to this, he’d been her indifferent roommate, sleeping belly up on his cushion and mostly ignoring her.

  Each time she entered the laundry room and saw the damage done to the interior door, she cringed. He’d dug nearly all the way through the panel of solid wood. She didn’t know how long that fruitcake had been inside her bedroom, but judging by how deeply the dog had gouged the oak, the man had lingered for a while.

  Rip’s constant presence near her was comforting. He had been generally destructive yesterday morning, scratching both doors and tearing up clothing, but tonight he’d focused all of his attention on the door that opened into the main part of the home. He’d clearly been intent on doing one thing: attacking the intruder.

  Chills ran down her spine when, as she was putting away the lacy garments, she realized that two pairs of her French-cut panties were gone. She was also missing a nightie. And even worse, her bed, made up before she’d left for work that morning, had been disturbed. Only slightly, but being a neat freak, she noticed. Blood began pounding in her temples as she drew back the comforter and saw that her uninvited visitor had ejaculated on her sheets. Bile rose up the back of her throat. She started to strip off the linens to wash them on a sterilizing cycle but then thought better of it.

  She called the sheriff’s department instead. Doreen was still on shift.

  “This is Crystal Malloy again,” Crystal told her. “Would it be possible for me to speak with Deputy Sterling?”

  “He’s out on his route. No can do.”

  Crystal wanted to reach over the airway and give the woman a good shake. “Can you get in touch and ask him to call me?”

  “Sure. What’s your number?”

  Despite the fact that Crystal knew the department kept a record of all incoming calls, she gave Doreen the information and ended the conversation. Sitting at the table, Crystal waited for her cell phone to ring. Rip sat beside her chair, his gaze fixed on her face. Her heart twisted with gratitude. “You know I’m upset, don’t you? And you’re worried about me.”

  The dog whined. Crystal bent to stroke his head. He rarely allowed her to touch him without growling, but this time he endured her attention without protest.

  “Will you protect me, Rip?”

  He whined again and licked her wrist. That small gesture told her a wealth of things that the dog couldn’t express with words. She nearly parted company with her skin when her phone finally rang. It was Barney, and Crystal struggled to explain what she’d found on her sheets without using an explicit description.

  “That’s fabulous,” he said. “I mean, I know you don’t see it as a good thing, Crystal, but I do. He finally screwed up. We’ve got a DNA sample. If he’s done this stuff before and his DNA is on record, we can ID him. I’ll pick up the sheets when I stop by at ten for you to take the dog out. Don’t mess with them. I’ll wear gloves and bag them as evidence.”

  An image of the evidence on her mauve sheets leaped back into her mind, and Crystal felt as if she might get sick. She and Tanner had made love on that linen. She felt as if something special and beautiful had been desecrated.

  “Do you have any spares?” Barney asked.

  Crystal forced herself to focus on the topic of conversation. “Sheets, you mean? Yes. Two more sets.”

  “Good. You may not see that pair for a while.”

  “I don’t want them back. I never want to see them again.”

  “I’m sorry this happened, Crystal. Just make sure the doors are locked and the windows are securely fastened.” He paused. “Would you like to talk with someone? Serena Paul, one of our deputies, could come out. Sometimes it helps to have a sounding board, and she’s a really nice gal.”

  “Thanks for offering, but I’ll be fine.”

  When the call ended, Crystal went to double-check every exterior do
or. Then she realized she hadn’t checked the windows, which she normally kept closed. While she was going from room to room, it occurred to her that the kitten hadn’t made an appearance. She searched the house and found him asleep in a laundry basket.

  “Hey, baby. That’s a good hiding place.” As she petted No Name, she heard coyotes howling in the adjacent woods. The sound made her skin crawl. “I’m sure glad you’re not out there,” she told the cat. “They’d polish you off in one bite.”

  Then she heard Rip bark. Carrying the kitten, she followed the sound to the doorway of what would one day be Tuck’s bedroom. Snarling, Rip stood in front of the closed and locked slider. The sound he emitted was vicious, indicating that the heeler sensed something dangerous outside. When the dog ran to the living room picture windows and did the same thing, Crystal felt certain he was trying to tell her something.

  “Is someone bad out there, Rip, or are you just worried about the coyotes?”

  The heeler turned to look at her, snapped his teeth, and jerked his head. Then he barked again. Alarmed but convinced no one was inside the house, Crystal tried to collect her thoughts and reason her way through this. In the surrounding area, coyotes were prevalent, and Rip surely knew that. He had a keen sense of hearing and smell. He’d also covered the surrounding terrain on foot countless times when he ran away. If he hadn’t encountered coyotes, then he had undoubtedly heard them and smelled them. Yet he’d never growled at the windows in all the time that he’d lived here with her.

  Crystal deposited the purring kitten on the sofa and plucked her cell phone from its case. Better safe than sorry. Barney wouldn’t be back until ten, and it was now only nine. She looked at her recent call history to find the deputy’s number, selected it, and pressed CALL.

  Barney answered on the fifth ring. “Hello?”

  “Barney, this is Crystal Malloy.” She quickly described Rip’s odd behavior. “It’s as if he’s trying to tell me something dangerous is outside.”

  For just a moment, Barney didn’t speak. Then he said, “Blue heelers are incredibly smart dogs and fiercely protective, Crystal. Listen to him and to me. It’s been a half hour since I patrolled your house and the parallel roads. That’s enough time for that jerk to have parked somewhere and walked to your place.”

  Crystal turned in a circle. Rip was in her bedroom now, growling at her sliding glass door. Tingles of alarm moved over her scalp.

  “Do you have a bathroom door that locks?” Barney asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Good. How about a rolling pin?”

  “I, um—yes.” She never used it. She was horrible with pie dough. “I’ve got one.”

  “Grab it. Lock yourself in the bathroom. I’m calling for backup, and I’m on my way. Any deputy who comes to an exterior door will knock—five knocks, with a pause in between each one. Then they’ll wait a moment and do it again until you answer. Do not open the door until the person identifies himself.”

  “You’re scaring me.”

  “I intend to. Garrett Jones, one of our deputies, has desk duty tonight. After you called about your sheets, I contacted him and shared the information. It’s a new clue, so to speak, something more that we can run through the database to compare MOs that are on file. Deputy Jones found a match, a perp in Medford, Oregon. The police force there never caught the guy, but his DNA is on file. He repeatedly left a calling card on women’s sheets.”

  “So they know this man’s DNA, but they have no clue who he is?”

  “Do you have the rolling pin yet?”

  Crystal raced to the kitchen and grabbed the implement. “Got it.” Trying to calm herself down, she jokingly said, “Now what do I do? Roll him flat and crimp his edges?”

  “Now you go to the bathroom and lock the door. If anyone tries to come in, swing that rolling pin at his face with all your strength as he gains entry. Don’t hesitate and don’t hold anything back. Once you’ve injured him, keep swinging.”

  “Okay, I’m in the bathroom.” Crystal turned the little knob lock. “You do realize that a nail or hairpin will open this lock. Right?”

  “Yes, but you’ll hear it disengage. Be ready. Pretend you’re standing over home base and want to hit the ball clear out of the park.”

  “Do you understand what that will do to his face?” She could hear Rip’s claws clacking on the barnwood planks as he ran from room to room. His ferocious growls made her nerves leap. “I thought this man was weird but harmless.”

  “That’s what we thought, Crystal. And that may still be true. The calling card left on sheets is the only commonality so far, but—and it’s a big but—most men with lingerie fetishes get their jollies by doing that on pieces of sexy underwear, not on bed linens. I think Medford got too risky for him and he chose our town as a safer target.”

  Crystal tried to imagine destroying a man’s face with a rolling pin, and even though she was frightened, her stomach turned at the thought. “I—okay—I’m ready to bonk anyone who comes through the door.”

  “With all the strength you’ve got, right in the face,” he reminded her. “And then don’t stop swinging. The DNA collected from sheets in Medford was matched with DNA found on a corpse, Crystal. The woman was raped and strangled.”

  “Oh, dear God.” Crystal’s head went swimmy. “How far away are you?”

  “Ten minutes, tops. Erin De Laney is closer. If she gets there first, you can trust her. She’s a great cop. Is the dog still doing his Cujo thing?”

  “Yes. I can hear him growling.”

  “Stay in that bathroom.”

  * * *

  Crystal climbed into the bathtub after Barney hung up. The bathroom was small, and doing so gave her more swinging area with the rolling pin. She could still hear Rip racing from room to room. What if that awful man broke into her house and hurt the dog? Or what if Rip attacked a county deputy? Not everyone understood the blue heeler’s hatred of uniforms, and right now the dog was beside himself. He might do a lot more than pinch with his teeth if someone came inside the house.

  She stepped out of the bathtub. Rip was out there, ready to protect her with his life. But she didn’t want him to pay that price. If he attacked a law officer, a judge might order him to be euthanized.

  Palms sweating and hands shaking, she unlocked the door and cracked it open. “Rip! Here, Rip!”

  Crystal couldn’t recall a single time that Rip had ever come when she called him, but an instant later he appeared outside the door. She drew it back and coaxed him inside the bathroom. Once she had reengaged the lock, she crouched to loop her spare arm around his sturdy neck.

  “Good boy. You’re such a good dog.”

  He rumbled at her for hugging him, but even as the sound came up from his throat, he licked her face. The gesture brought tears to her eyes. Somewhere along the line, he had come to at least like her, and against all her better judgment, she’d come to love him. How had that happened?

  Setting all sentiment aside, she stepped back into the tub and assumed a batting stance. A minute passed, only it seemed like ten. Her knees and thigh muscles began to ache. Finally, she sighed and relaxed, but she kept the rolling pin on her shoulder.

  Rip lay on the bathroom rug and gazed up at her with a bewildered frown. She couldn’t help but smile. “I know. Pretty crazy, huh? If a murderer comes through that door, he’ll probably take the rolling pin away from me. Then it will be up to you to save me. Will you do that, Rip?”

  He drew his tongue back into his mouth and whined.

  “Right. I know you will. Tuck always told me that you’d lay down your life for him. Now I think you’d die for me, too.” She heard something and went quiet. Listening, she heard it again, five spaced knocks and then silence. “A deputy,” she told the dog. She climbed from the tub. “You need to stay here,” she said as she cracked open the door and slipped from the room. “Be good
. Don’t scratch the door. I’ll be back.”

  As Crystal crossed the main living area, she heard the knock again and determined that it came from the front door. Her heart was pounding and she was still holding the rolling pin on her shoulder as she stepped closer. “Who’s there?” she called.

  A woman replied, “Deputy De Laney, Mystic County Sheriff’s Department.”

  Crystal hurried to open the door. De Laney stood on the porch, holding out her ID so Crystal could verify who she was. She needn’t have bothered. Crystal had seen the deputy around town and recognized her. A slender brunette with blue eyes, she filled out the county-issue khaki uniform in a way no man ever could. A chocolate brown Stetson sat on her head, the brim tipped slightly forward. She wore her shoulder-length hair pulled back with a clip.

  “Have they caught him?” Crystal asked.

  “May I come in?”

  “Oh, of course.” Crystal stepped back. “I’m sorry. Where are my manners?”

  The deputy came inside and immediately turned to relock the door. “No, they haven’t caught him. But I saw a man looking in one of your side windows when I pulled up. He ran. I called it in. Deputy Sterling and Deputy Tanger are hoping to find his vehicle parked on a parallel road and intercept him.”

  Crystal realized she still had a death grip on the rolling pin. Compared to the composed and self-confident woman who had just entered the house, she felt ridiculous. As she went to put the baking tool on the breakfast bar, she could hear Rip clawing at the bathroom door. “So you didn’t chase him. Wise decision. If he’s the Medford guy, he’s killed a woman.”

  A slight smile curved the deputy’s lips. “I’m perfectly capable of holding my own with a man,” she said. “But my assignment is to protect you while the guys do the fun stuff.”

  “Thank you.” Crystal gestured toward the sofa. “Even if protecting me isn’t as exciting, I’m relieved you’re here. Please, have a seat.”