“How about these guys? Do they need anything while we’re here?”
“To leave,” she said bluntly. “This is not their favorite location.”
“Well, just like doctors and hospitals aren’t any place that most of us like,” he said, “Beowulf has taken it fairly well. But he’s sleeping solidly now.”
“And he needs that as much as anything,” she said. “It was a pretty rough ride home.”
“I know, and I need to go home and rest myself,” he admitted.
“Good enough,” she said.
They say goodbye to the receptionist, who was even now locking up the office. Laysha reloaded her dogs and they headed home again.
“I sure hope we have food at home for dinner,” she said, yawning. “We missed lunch.”
“Well, we had lunch or brunch or whatever,” he said, “but it’s well past dinnertime, and we need to get home and get another coat on that floor.”
She groaned. “God,” she said, “not sure I have the energy for that.”
“We’ll check it out when we get home,” he said, “but I suspect that it’ll be more than ready for the next coat.”
“Wouldn’t be so bad just putting down another coat,” she said, “but we got to sand it first.”
“And the sanding, as you well know, gives it such a perfect finish.”
“It doesn’t matter how much you’re trying to make me feel better about doing this,” she said, “it’s still a lot of work.”
He chuckled. “It is, indeed, and you love every minute of it.”
“Except when I’m exhausted,” she admitted.
He looked at her and asked, “Over the shock of being followed and alone?”
“I will be fine,” she said with a shrug. “It is what it is.”
“Maybe, but that isn’t necessarily an easy thing to go through.”
“No, it sure wasn’t.” Changing subjects, she said, “I’m sure we can find something to eat. If we find some energy, we will do the floor. If not,” she murmured, “I’m heading straight to bed.” And to emphasize her words, she yawned a huge noisy yawn. She collapsed against the seat.
“I think it’s more the stress than anything. That’s usually the killer,” he said in agreement.
As he drove back home carefully, she looked around. “Do you always now look behind you to see if we’re being followed?”
“Unfortunately, yes,” he said with a nod. “Not the way you want to live, but, after you’ve been followed once and gotten through a scary scenario, you always wonder, worry, if it’s happening.”
As he drove up to the house, she looked and said, “And you set it up so that we’d know if somebody was here while we were gone, right?”
He nodded. He helped her out of the vehicle and waited while she got all the animals and walked up to the front. He checked the front door and then held up a hand to stop.
She looked at him and whispered, “What’s the matter?”
“You’ve had an uninvited visitor.”
She stared at him, while he checked. Then he turned and looked at her and said, “I’ll take Graynor with me, but I want you and the other dogs to stay here, while I do a check of the house and bring my rifle inside.”
She nodded slowly. “You want to bring my shotgun back down when you come?” she murmured.
“Will do,” he said. And, with that, he disappeared inside. He checked the living room and made a quick pass through the entire downstairs, thinking he heard something upstairs. He looked down at Graynor. “What do you think, bud?” Graynor sat at the base of the stairs, staring upward. Caleb nodded. “Yeah, that’s my take too.”
He studied the stairs, the old handrails and banisters might squeak, but the base that they were on should be solid. He moved slowly toward the stairs and then climbed them. He motioned for Graynor to stay, but the dog wasn’t having anything to do with it, which meant there really was a threat upstairs.
Worried that Laysha would come in after him, he quickly sent her a text to stay outside and to stay hidden from sight. He moved slowly and steadily up the stairs. As soon as he could peek around the landing, he shuffled onto the railing, grabbed a hold of the upper railing on the second floor, and pulled himself up and over at the same time.
Graynor burst up onto the second floor. He stood and waited, his back against the wall between two doors. But nothing opened; all the doors upstairs were closed. Good move because it’d be easier to check exactly where somebody was as they moved through the house. He watched as Graynor sniffed from one door to the next, and, at the master, he stopped and growled.
Caleb tapped his nose to stop.
That was good enough for Caleb. He immediately opened the door silently on the left, checked it out, and then on the right. He knew Graynor was correct, but Caleb wanted to make sure he didn’t miss anything. He didn’t want to get a surprise attack from behind. A further check of the bathroom showed that it was equally empty. That meant everybody was waiting in the master. He thought about that for a long moment.
He had a good idea of the layout of the master. There was no way for her to get in or out, which is what had been the problem when redoing the floors. Casually he noted that the floors were ready for the next coat.
But now they had somebody hiding in her master. And that just pissed him right off. The fact that somebody had entered her house was one thing; the fact that somebody waited in her bedroom was an entirely different thing. Both were inexcusable, but this one just added to the injury.
Caleb thought about the windows outside, wondering if he could sneak in somewhere along the line. He remembered her comment about wanting to get one of those drop-down ladders, something he should have looked at a little earlier. But they were trying to get the floors finished first.
He studied the attic access above and realized
