Page 80 of Make No Mistake

He was quiet for a moment. “Are you looking at the screen?”

His calm voice soothed my nerves. “Yeah.”

“What does it say?”

“It says the signal has been interrupted, and the police are on their way.” I wish it told me how far away they were.

He mumbled something I couldn’t understand. “I’m heading home now. I’m about twenty minutes away though.”

“Okay.”

“Mac, hang up and call Detective Larson.” His words didn’t match his tone. I could tell he was trying to keep me calm, but why would I call Larson if there was nothing wrong?

“I will, but why?”

“I have a feeling this is connected to the case.”

My heart fell to my feet. I swallowed and concentrated on keeping calm. “Okay. I’ll call him now.”

“I’m hurrying. I’ll be there soon.”

“Bye.”

I didn’t wait for him to say it back before hanging up and calling the detective.

“Detective Larson.”

“Hi, it’s Mckayla Page.”

“Mckayla, is everything alright?”

I took a steadying breath. “No. I don’t think so.”

I could hear movement from his end. “What happened?”

“I’m staying at Jay’s house, and the alarm just went off.”

“Are you alone?”

“Yeah. Jay’s heading back now but he won’t be here for a while.”

“I’m on my way.”

He hung up, and I stared down at my phone. They were both taking this seriously. Part of me was relieved that I wasn’t freaking out for no reason, but the other part was even more panicked that they were so concerned.

I stayed next to the front door where I could also see through a window to the street. Minutes passed with each second feeling like days. Finally, a cop car parked in front of the house. Once the two officers were walking up, I opened the door and said hi.

The officer in the back placed his hand on his gun. As if I was the robber and decided to welcome them to the show. I fought the burning desire to roll my eyes.

“Hello, miss. I’m Officer King and this is Officer Nunez. We received a notification from your alarm company.”

“I’m Mckayla.” I nodded and waved them in and led them to the alarm’s screen. “I set the alarm when I got here, and it went off suddenly.”

The gun-happy officer leaned forward and read the message on the screen while Officer King started looking around the house.

“Are you the homeowner?” King stared at me like he was waiting for me to confess to a heinous crime. Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty? If I had done something wrong, would I really have waited patiently until they arrived?

“No, it’s my friend’s house.”