Chapter 2 #3
When she reached her bedroom, the bed looked mighty comforting.
She desperately wanted to crash, but there was no way to do that until she had things sorted.
This was her last day off. She had to appear at the office tomorrow, and she still had laundry to do and the French toast to prepare and God-only-knew what else.
She was exhausted when ready to retire later that night, yet still wore a smile on her face.
She crashed quickly, only to wake up a little bit later to the weird sound of a door opening.
She bolted out of her bed and checked that the twins were sound asleep in their rooms. They were, at least as far as she could see, with their heads buried under their blankets.
She tiptoed downstairs, wondering what she’d heard.
Even as she got to the front door, which she knew was locked because she had double-checked it, she heard a weird little snick, then it sounded as if it closed right in front of her. Yet she could see it was closed, and it had been closed.
Frowning, feeling as if her skin crawled with visions of other people having copies of the keys to her house, her mind raced as she tried to figure it out.
When she heard a voice behind her, she turned, and there, she swore to God, was the same person she had seen earlier.
However, this time it was only part of that person.
Floating in the middle of her hallway was just his head.
*
Early that next morning, Detective Camden Hartwell was on his way out to his car when he heard a shriek of frustration right beside him. He stepped back a little bit so he could take a look, and there was his new neighbor. She’d just moved in, and right now she stared down at her tire.
Uh-oh, he thought to himself, as his new neighbor and her kids, two of them at her side, stared at a flat tire.
“Wow,” the boy muttered. “That really sucks.”
The woman turned to him. “Really, Toby? … That’s all you’ve got to say?”
He shrugged. “I didn’t do it.”
“True,” the woman agreed, “but you may have to help me to change it.”
He stared at her, then snorted. “That’s not happening. I don’t know how.”
“It sounds to me as if it’s time for you to learn,” she replied, as she opened up her trunk.
“We’ll be late for school,” the girl declared, stomping her foot. “We can’t just wait for you to do this.”
She turned to her and asked, “What do you want to do?”
The kids shared a look and then grinned. Without missing a beat, they said in unison, “We’ll walk.” And, with that, the two of them picked up the pace and bolted down the street.
Camden watched as his neighbor lady stood for a long moment in disbelief, then shook her head and went to her trunk where she tried to pull out the spare tire.
He watched as she struggled, then walked over and introduced himself, “I’m Camden.”
She startled, then bolted to her feet awkwardly and stared at him.
“I live next door.” He pointed to the house beside her.
He was proud of his. It was larger than hers and with a double garage, it was more modern, but, hey, she’d just moved in and hadn’t had a moment to even assess any improvements to make on her new residence.
“Sorry. I’m Devon,” she finally replied.
“And those scallywags,” he quipped, with a laugh, “are presumably your children.”
She nodded. “Yes. I mean, sort of, but no.”
He frowned at her.
She winced. “Their mother was my best friend, and she passed away of breast cancer. So, I’m now in charge of those scallywags,” she added, with a sigh. “So, yeah. … They’re mine but not mine. The legal paperwork is still pending.”
He smiled. “The fact that you’re even doing that is huge.” He surveyed the tire and asked, “When did you last drive this?”
“Yesterday,” she stated, then shook her head. “No, it would have been the day before, but we walked right past it yesterday, and I certainly didn’t see this.”
“Sometimes we don’t look close enough at what we’re seeing.”
She nodded and stared. “I need to get to work. And that means I’ve got to do whatever I can to get this thing operational again,” she muttered.
As Camden looked at one of the new tiny spares they often put in cars these days, she stared at it and muttered, “It’s not much, is it?
When I bought the car, he told me the spare was here, but this won’t fit. ”
“These tiny spares actually fit and are a standard thing these days, but it really helps to have a full-size one,” he noted.
She closed her eyes and whispered, “I cannot afford a new tire right now.”
“Maybe you don’t have to,” he replied easily. “It could just be that you need a patch.”
She looked at him hopefully and asked, “Do you think so?”
“I have no idea.” He shrugged. “Any idea what happened?”
“No, none. I have no idea.” She looked around. “A tow truck would be expensive.”
“Yeah, it sure would,” he agreed, “but there is a tire shop beside me—where I work, I mean. If you want, I can drop it off and see if they can put a patch on it.”
She asked him, “Would you mind?”
“No, of course not.” He asked her, “Has it been a long time since people stepped up to offer to help you?” She frowned at that, and he could see her considering what to say. Then he shrugged and added, “Don’t worry about it. The thing is, you mostly need to get to work, right?”
“Yes.” She looked down at her watch and gasped. “And I won’t have a job if I don’t get there like … now. It’s the dental office on Cormer street.” She glanced around and then turned back to him, rattling off a street name. “I don’t suppose you work anywhere close to there, do you?”
He nodded. “I’m a cop,” he shared. “I work at the station, and your clinic is not far from it. Are you a dentist?” he asked.
“Hygienist,” she clarified.
“That at least should be a good-enough job to keep everybody fed.”
“That’s the hope,” she muttered. “I’ve been working there for a very long time. I just never really expected to be in this situation.”
He smiled. “Nobody ever expects to be in this situation. Still, you do what you can do, and you step up one day at a time.”
She smiled and nodded. “That’s all I’m trying to do.”
He quickly bent down and undid the lugs, took off the flat tire, and suggested, “I can give you a lift. I was just heading out. Let me toss this in the back of my car.”
She walked over with him and said, “I really, really appreciate this.”
He opened the passenger door for her, adding, “You’ll still have to figure out how to get home,” he told her, “because I can’t guarantee where I’ll be at any point in time in the day.” He dropped her flat tire in his trunk and got in the driver’s side.
“Yes, of course. I’ll figure that out later today,” she muttered. “Right now, I just need to get there.”
He nodded, reversing out of his driveway. Then asked, “How do you think you got a flat tire?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know how it could have happened. I guess that’s concerning me too.”
He nodded. “Are you from around here?”