26. Gabriella
Gabriella
“ W hat does it say?” I asked as a vein in Damien’s forehead pulsated.
His gaze came my way, the shade darker than I’d ever seen. “It wasn’t you.”
“Was it…?” I couldn’t bring myself to say her name.
She wouldn’t.
“Amber,” I finally said.
Damien nodded as he reached for my shoulders. “She’s a bitch, but she wouldn’t hurt Duchess. That’s psychopath level.” He looked around. “Why was she here?”
“Why?” My thoughts were racing. “What did Amber do? Did she take Duchess somewhere? Is Duchess abandoned on some country road or worse, by a busy street?”
“Wait, the humane society chipped her, right?” Damien asked.
“Yes, but it’s a chip that needs to be read. It’s not like she has an Apple watch that we can track.”
“Apple collars. We’re getting her one once she’s home.”
“Are those a thing?” My heart hurt. “What if we don’t find her?”
“Ella, look around. Amber didn’t want in your house for Duchess.”
Slowly, I turned, taking in my living room and kitchen, down the hall to my office and foyer. “Nothing seems wrong.”
“Let’s go back upstairs.”
I clung to Damien’s arm as we climbed the stairs. “I don’t know what I should be looking for.”
Nothing was out of place, nothing that I hadn’t disrupted while looking for Duchess. “Damien, I don’t see anything.” I frowned, my forehead furrowing and my eyebrows knitting together. “I hate that she was in here.”
“Call the police,” Damien said. “File a report. While you’re doing that, I’ll call local shelters and let them know Duchess is missing.”
“I saw Amber during your press conference. I tried to ignore her.” The memory came back. “She was smug. That’s why I thought she expected you two to mess up. But she was smug because she knew what she’d done—that she’d been in my house.”
As I pulled my phone from my purse, my hands trembled. “I don’t know what to say.” I searched for the non-emergency number and walked back toward my office. “Hello, I’d like to report a break-in...” I gave the dispatcher my address. When she asked if anything was missing, I choked on my answer. “My cat.”
“Are you alone? Are you in the house?”
“I’m in the house.” My gaze went to Damien. “I’m not alone.”
“Are you certain no one is in your house?”
“Yes, we searched everywhere for our cat. The back door was left open.”
“We’re sending a unit right away.”
My temples pounded as I disconnected the call.
Damien spoke, “The humane society is closed, but I left a message. Let’s send out a post on your neighborhood app.”
I handed Damien my phone. “You can do it.”
Taking my phone, he wrapped his arm around me and pulled me to his side. “I love you.”
Tears filled my eyes as I nodded against his suit coat. “What if she’s scared?”
“Duchess isn’t scared. Wherever she is, she’s in complete control of the situation. She’s probably bored.”
“After I left you,” I said, “she kept me sane. I know she’s a cat and it sounds stupid, but I talked to her.”
“You told her bad things about me?” Damien asked.
I sighed with a nod. “She was a safe listener.”
“I don’t know what Amber’s plan was, but I can’t believe it was to cause harm to Duchess.”
We both turned at the ringing of my doorbell.
“That was fast,” Damien said.
“The cameras,” I said, remembering they were out. “She disconnected my cameras.”
“Is there footage on your doorbell of her coming up the front stoop?”
The doorbell rang again.
Damien walked toward the door. After checking the sidelight, he opened the door. The policeman was in full uniform.
“We had a report of a break-in,” he said.
“Yes,” Damien replied. “Please come in.”
“I’m looking for a Gabriella Crystal.”
“That’s me,” I said from down the hallway. “It was my back door that was open.”
“Do you recall leaving it open?”
“No, sir. It was open when we got home.”
“Any signs of forced entry?”
There wasn’t.
Damien and I answered Officer Johnson’s questions. He even walked around the entire house with us, checking closets and looking under beds.
“You said your security cameras were turned off?” the policeman asked.
“Yes, they stopped working sometime this morning.”
“Did you lose feed from your nanny cam?” he questioned as he pointed to a nightlight. “My wife bought some just like these. You can’t even tell they’re damn cameras. They’re great with teenagers.”
“Nanny cam?” I looked at Damien and shook my head. “Did the security company install these? I didn’t, and I didn’t notice them earlier.”
“There were a few downstairs, too,” the officer said.
“Bitch,” Damien mumbled under his breath. “The company didn’t install them. They never were able to access the inside of your house.”
Together we went room to room. Officer Johnson collected all the cameras—seven in total.
I checked the recorded video from my doorbell. There wasn’t footage of Amber coming to the house before the cameras stopped working, but there was a nice one of her earlier this morning.
Officer Johnson looked at my phone. “And you believe this is who broke in and planted the cameras?”
“I do,” I answered. “And took my cat.” I hoped she took her and that Duchess wasn’t alone and scared.
“There was a security company that came by to check her security system,” Damien offered, “and they told me that Ella answered the door. She didn’t. She wasn’t home. The description matches this woman.” He pointed toward my phone. “Her name is Amber Wilmott.”
By the time Officer Johnson left, my head was throbbing, and my stomach was unsettled. “She wanted to spy on us. That’s sick.”
“There must be something she wants to learn.” He sighed. “Do you want to walk around the neighborhood?”
“I do.”
The spring temperatures were in a consistent warming pattern. As we walked up and down the neighborhood sidewalks, we met people walking their dogs and parents with children in yards. Each person we saw, we stopped and asked if they’d seen a black cat with a sparkling pink collar.
The answer was always the same.
No one had seen her.
When we returned to my place, I was overwhelmed with the emptiness that went along with Duchess’s absence. “I don’t want to go to your place. I want to be here in case she comes home.”
Damien nodded.
“Will you stay here?”
“Of course,” he said. “I need to pick up the dry cleaning that was dropped off at my place today. I’ll get us dinner on my way back. Keep the doors locked and only open them to a beautiful green-eyed black kitty.”
More tears came as I tried to breathe. “What if she’s gone?”
“I refuse to believe that.”
“I wish I were as stubborn as you.”
Damien cupped my cheek. “I refused to believe you were gone, and now you’re back. Duchess will come back too.”
“I don’t know. She listened to all those bad things about you.”
“And she welcomed me back with purrs and head rubs.”
After Damien left, I double-checked both doors. For a few minutes, I stood in my living room and cried. I’d like to say I was productive in some manner, but I wasn’t.
What kind of a monster harms a cat?
What did Amber hope to learn from spying?
They were the questions on repeat in my head. Beyond the glass door, night was beginning to fall in my backyard. Opening the sliding door, I sat on the step to the deck, looking out over the grass as lightning bugs began to blink in the dimming light.
“Duchess, come home.”
I remembered the neighborhood app and decided to check to see if we’d gotten any responses. My eyes blurred as I read the messages. No one had seen her, but they all wished me luck and offered their sympathies.
“She’s not gone,” I mumbled, hoping I was speaking life to the dream.
It was as I was pouring a glass of wine with the back door still open that my phone rang. It was a video call. It was Damien.
“Hi,” I said.
His image was pixelated, but I couldn’t believe my eyes.
“Duchess,” I screamed. “Where did you find her?”
“Asleep on my bed.”
“What the hell?” I smiled as she stretched her neck and rubbed her head across Damien’s cheek. “She’s not hurt?”
“She seems no worse for wear from her journey. Remember the security company?”
I nodded.
“They couldn’t get in my place. The deadbolt was locked.”
“Amber was at your place?”
“I have video proof and a gallon bag full of nanny cams to prove it. Do you want me to come back with Duchess, or do you want to come here?”
Amber had been in both houses. “We aren’t safe either place.”
“We are. The security company is on their way. My locks here are getting changed tonight.”
My headache was waning. “I’ll be there. I can drive myself,” I added before he mentioned a bodyguard.
“Text when you leave and if it takes longer than eleven minutes, I’m coming for you.”
Damien was waiting outside as I pulled into his driveway. His smile was almost the best thing I’d seen all day. Second to the silky black cat in his kitchen.
“I brought some of Duchess’s essentials,” I said as I scooped her into my arms. “Did that mean woman take you on a car ride? I hope you vomited all over her car.” I looked up at Damien. “She’s not a fan of car rides.”
He scratched between her ears. “I’ll get the things out of your car.”
It was almost nine at night by the time the security company had changed all of Damien’s locks and his garage-door codes. Duchess was loving the increased square footage, and I’d begun cooking one of the meals Damien had delivered when he came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me.
“This feels right.”
I laid my head back against his solid chest. “It does.” Setting down the spoon, I spun and looked up at him. “You make me feel safe.”
“You shouldn’t,” he said with a sly grin.
“I shouldn’t?”
“No, you’re not safe with me. I want to do bad things to you later tonight.”
I tipped my head to his chest. “I trust you.”