“Someone broke into the house last night,” Ryan said before rushing through the door and directly across to the garage. The garage door was adjacent to the kitchen side door. Between the house and the detached garage was a concrete path about four feet wide. Exiting the kitchen and turning right led to the back of the house and the driveway. Exiting left led to the front of the house, which faced the lake.
The side door to the garage was ajar. Ryan pushed it open as Bailey slipped in next to him. The smell stopped her. She hated being in the garage. It reminded her so much of her father. She could almost see him standing at his workbench, hunched over with a tool. She flipped the light switch and gasped.
“Whoa! Shit,” Ryan said.
Bailey threw her hands up. “What the hell?” All the boxes she and Ryan had packed and stored in the corner were opened and the contents scattered. She stepped farther inside and stared at the mess. Broken trinkets, books, paperwork, even family photos were thrown everywhere.
“I’ll go call the police,” Vince said from the open door.
* * *
Ryan stared at the pile of photos in complete confusion. Why? Why would someone spend so much time going through Helen’s old photos? And there was no denying most of the intruder’s time was spent on the pictures. Everything else had been haphazardly gone through, but the photos had been dumped out.
Bailey bent to start picking them up, but Ryan stopped her. “Wait until the police have finished.”
“I can’t just leave them all on the ground.” Bailey cupped her face in her hands, obviously fighting tears. Ryan wanted to comfort her, but Dex had already engulfed her in his arms.
The sight pissed him off. Talk about a day late and a dollar short. The asshole should have been here days ago to help her. Ryan pulled out his cell phone and started taking pictures of everything. The mess, the open boxes, the photos scattered everywhere. Damn, he and Bailey had spent hours meticulously sorting those pictures. She planned to have them all scanned and placed on a drive so she would have electronic copies.
Ryan snapped several more photos of the mess, glancing up when Lucas poked his head in.
“I think I know how they got in,” Lucas said, pointing toward the kitchen door.
Ryan stepped out and saw it right away. The back door had an old divided-lite window, top to bottom with single-pane glass. The glass panel nearest the knob was broken. They didn’t see it when exiting because of the long curtain.
“Shit,” Ryan said, snapping more pictures. “What the hell?”
Bailey and Dex stepped out of the garage and stared at the broken window panel. Ryan looked at her pale face and felt so helpless.
“Bailey?” he said, placing a hand on her elbow. “I think you should look through the rest of the house to see if anything else is missing. Just because Dad didn’t see any other lights on doesn’t mean he didn’t go into every room.”
She met his eyes, and a frightened coldness stared back at him. She was obviously freaked out, and all he could think about was how glad he was that she wasn’t here alone when it happened. “It’s okay, Bay. We’ll figure it out.”
* * *
Bailey hated saying goodbye to Dex on Sunday afternoon. She didn’t get any time alone with him, and they fought most of the weekend. She thought he would volunteer to stay in town for a couple extra days considering what had happened, but he didn’t. Did he care about her at all? Ryan and her other friends barely gave her a moment of peace due to their worry and concern. Why didn’t her boyfriend react the same way? Of course, Bailey didn’t think she was in danger, so she understood why he didn’t worry about her physically, but couldn’t he see that she needed him there for emotional support? She thought about Ryan and Mae’s efforts to get her to end things with Dex. Maybe they were right. Maybe it was time to reevaluate their relationship.
If that wasn’t enough to keep them fighting, his not wanting to search for her biological family certainly was. No matter what he said, she wouldn’t change her mind. With or without his help, she would keep looking until she found something about where she came from.
“I can’t stand it when this place is so quiet,” Ryan said, coming up behind her.
She jumped and clutched her chest. “Oh!” she squeaked. “You scared me. I didn’t hear you coming.” She was sitting in the El Lago office, staring off into space when he’d snuck up behind her.
“Sorry.”
“If you hate the quiet, why did you come in so early?”
“I told Lucas I’d help him set up. His prep cook is coming in late.” He nodded to the ledger as he sat down across from her. His hair was pushed away from his face, and his eyes brilliant green from the green t-shirt he was wearing. His freshly shaven face glowed with a nice tan from spending so much time on the lake, and his hair was still a little damp from his morning shower. “How’s it looking?”
She had just finished with the El Lago payables. “Great.” She slid a personal check across the desk. “This is for replacing the backdoor at my mom’s house. Thank you…but I hope you know I could’ve done it myself.”
He slid the check back. “Yeah, I know, but you have a hundred other things on your mind.” He bobbed his head from side to side. “Replacing the windowpane wouldn’t have made the door more secure. I wanted to make sure it was done right.”
Bailey felt the heat rise in her cheeks at the subtle reminder of his argument with Dex. “I think Dex was only trying
