It was a good thing that Cort had recently finished a remodel to the downstairs of the house; so, if necessary, the siblings could make it their main living space until the front of the house was properly repaired.
Headlights appeared on the road, then slowed and turned into a neighbor’s driveway.
Bobbi came up alongside Pixie, grumbling, “There’s that interloper again.”
“Interloper?” Pixie asked.
Wade joined them. “I don’t know what’s going on over there, but that house has been vacant since Burton moved to a retirement home near his daughter. His son is planning to make some repairs and then sell it, but it’s been empty for a few weeks, and now some woman is living there. I’m thinking she must be a relative or something.”
Silent alarms went off in Pixie’s head. “What does she look like?”
“No idea,” Wade said. “She keeps to herself, coming and going mostly in the dark, although she catches a ride with old Floyd sometimes.”
“Old Floyd?”
“He lives in Lankton,” Gloria said from the kitchen. “Comes out here to fish and visit friends. I’ve seen him over there, too.”
“He’s stayed all night a time or two,” Bobbi said.
“Man’s got to be older than me,” Wade countered. “Get your mind out of the gutter.”
While the siblings squabbled, Pixie tried to catch sight of the mystery woman, but the kitchen window wasn’t angled right. Pixie had a driving need to see who was staying in the empty house, so she hurried out the back door, called up to the men, “Don’t drop anything on me,” and then raced past before either of them could acknowledge her.
She didn’t slow her pace as she hurried to the other house. Driven by sudden intuition, she rounded the front toward the garage—and came face-to-face with Ruthie.
She stood inside the garage in the dark, but the moonlight was sufficient for Pixie to see her surprise.
Neither of them said anything for the longest time, but inside Pixie, rage built.
She looked past Ruthie at the other car parked there. It was the same one Ruthie had been driving when she’d followed Pixie home. So this was how the woman had vanished. She’d moved into a vacant house and was using someone else’s car!
“What are you doing here?” Ruthie demanded. “You don’t live here.”
Pixie folded her arms over her chest. “Neither do you.”
“I can go wherever I want,” Ruthie stated with a scowl.
Calm personified, Pixie looked into her eyes. “No, you can’t.” She took a step forward. “Are you renting this house?”
“What I do is none of your damn business.”
Coolly, she stated, “I’m making it my business.”
“So am I,” Cort said as he came up behind her.
“And me.” Wade joined them.
Gloria sidled in next to him. “Same.”
Pixie turned and found Brogan in the midst of them all, his expression enigmatic, his attention locked on Ruthie.
Pixie hadn’t heard any of them approach. “The kids?”
“They’re with Bobbi,” Cort said.
Brogan stepped up alongside Pixie, but he didn’t take his gaze from Ruth. “Did you know Brian is in the ICU?”
“Of course I know. I’m his wife.” Her attitude cavalier, she said, “He’s been in there before. They work him over, fix him up, and then he comes back home. If he still has a home, that is.”
