22
Julia stood aside, shocked. Uniformed police swarmed her room and began tearing it apart. It was the New Dover police, and they flashed her a search warrant and commanded her to stay out of their way. She couldn’t believe it was happening. It was so unreal it felt like a vision.
“Why are you doing this?” Julia backed against the wall, her heart hammering. She wrapped the sheet tighter around her body, feeling exposed in the Eagles shirt with no underwear. The door hung open on broken hinges. The cold night air blasted into the room.
The cops ignored her. One went through her purse and dumped her wallet and makeup on the rug. Her blusher rolled out, open. Another cop upended her suitcase. Her clothes and toiletries tumbled to the rug.
“What are you looking for?” Julia’s thoughts flew, panicked. “You don’t have any right to do this!”
The cops didn’t answer. Julia could hear cops next door in Courtney’s room, doing the same thing. Courtney would be terrified, too.
Julia watched appalled as cops pawed through her panties and bras.
They uncapped her shampoo, poured it out, and stuck their fingers inside.
They yanked the coverlet off the bed and dumped it on the rug.
They searched inside the pillowcases and tossed the pillows.
They pulled the mattress off the boxspring and left it askew.
They took out flashlights and shone them under the bed.
Her chest tightened with anger. Her mind raced to understand.
She figured that Glushenko had to know about this, or he had ordered it.
It had to be payback for her and Courtney pissing him off at the meeting and going into Samuel’s cabin.
Glushenko was telling them to back off. It was lawless and, worse, heartless to Courtney, on the night before her grandmother’s funeral.
Meanwhile the cops were opening every drawer and throwing them on the floor. They tore open the door to her empty closet, pulled out the spare blankets, and threw them on the rug. A cop went into the bathroom, and Julia could hear him pulling back the shower curtain.
Fifteen minutes later, they piled out of the room, leaving Julia furious and shaken. She picked her way to the door to see what was going on. Cruisers started their big engines and drove off, leaving a line of red taillights. She tried to close the door, but it wouldn’t close all the way.
“Courtney!” Julia headed to the door between their rooms. She opened it to find Courtney’s room torn apart. Her suitcase had been dumped, her sheets lay on the rug, and her mattress sagged against the wall.
But Courtney wasn’t there.
She hadn’t come back last night.