“I’m sorry about this, ma’am.” A female police officer with a sympathetic smile touched her arm before heading for the door. Kiersten nodded, not trusting herself to speak.
It was almost midnight. The detective had left a few minutes ago, and the other two officers were leaving now. They’d dusted for fingerprints but found nothing. The animal who’d done this had worn gloves.
Garrett put his hands on her shoulders and planted a gentle kiss on her forehead. “C’mon. We’re not sleeping here tonight.”
He led her outside. The crisp November air sent a shiver skittering along her skin as they crossed the street to Rosamund’s house.
The moment she’d heard about what happened, Rosamund scooped up the kids, bringing them all over to her house, preventing them from seeing any of the damage, from realizing that bad guys had been inside their home, ripping their things apart.
Now the boys were asleep in Rosamund’s basement while the girls slept in Guinevere’s room upstairs, an impromptu block-wide slumber party.
Garrett opened the front door without knocking. He and Kiersten made their way through the lamplit foyer to the kitchen on the backside of the house. Brendan and Piper sat with Valentina and Reggie at a kitchen table spread with a cheerful yellow tablecloth. Rosamund moved around the kitchen, putting food on a tray. And Miles stood at the island, pouring steaming tea into a line of mugs.
“Tea?” Brendan asked with a wry smile. “At a time like this? Maybe we need something a little stronger.”
“Tea wascreatedfor times like this,” Miles said as he handed Brendan a cup of chamomile.
“Sorry it’s not an elegant charcuterie board.” Rosamund leaned over to set a bowl of popcorn and a plate of brownies on the table, along with a bag of Hershey’s Kisses, a hunk of cheese, Ritz Crackers, pretzels, and a bunch of grapes. “This is all I have on hand at the moment.”
“You obviously haven’t been using yourTable of Sustenancemeal-planning workbook,” Piper said, her voice bitter.
Kiersten and Garrett squeezed around the backside of the kitchen table to sit on the banquette beside Piper and Brendan.
“Thank you, Rosamund. This is perfect.” Kiersten reached for a Ritz Cracker. “I’m starving.”
“We have some good news,” Reggie said, looking over at Kiersten and Garrett.
“About Lillian?” Garrett asked.
Reggie nodded. “Her son just called. She’s awake and alert. Her speech is slurred, but they think it’s temporary, and they expect her to make a full recovery. She could be back home by the end of the week.”
“Thank God.” Kiersten sagged against the banquette in relief.
“We’ve been talking”—Piper glanced at Garrett and Kiersten—“and we think they must have trashed our houses while we were at that stupid party.”
“I can confirm that,” Miles said, setting his mug on the table. “I checked my cameras, and one person entered each of your homes right after the kids walked down the street to meet Chip at the house under construction. Both of the intruders wore ball caps and hooded sweatshirts, but they each had a very different build. One was big, sort of hefty. The other skinny. They emerged about twenty minutes later.”
“Chip Davis and Trey Davis?” Piper asked.
Miles shook his head. “Chip and Trey were talking to the cops while the person who ransacked your house was still inside.”
“That doesn’t make sense.” Kiersten frowned. “Because the person who broke into our home only took one thing.”
“What’s missing?” Piper asked.
She lifted her gaze and met Piper’s eyes. “Dottie’s diaries.”
Piper inhaled sharply. “Did you—”
“Yes. I hid them both in the bag of birdseed. And now they’re gone.”
She watched as Piper exchanged a look with her husband.
“This rules out Hawkeye Slaughter,” Brendan said.
Piper nodded. “It had to be Chip and Trey Davis, or someone connected with them. Those diaries have no value for anyone else. And they had to tear our houses apart to find them because we hid them so well.”
Kiersten rubbed her hands over her face. “That’swhy he invited us to that stupid party. That’s why the waiter kept plying us with drinks. He wanted us to stay as long as possible to buy them time. Aspen didn’t even know we were coming.”
