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“Suzie saw him, and the security cameras will have picked up his arrival. I wasn’t there when he arrived, so Suzie asked him to wait in the office. But I was alone with him when he threatened me.” She wrinkled her nose. “I don’t know much about these things, but thugs don’t usually make threats in front of an audience, do they? Naturally, he made sure we were alone.”
How was he supposed to respond to that? He couldn’t tell her the truth. That he was hoping another person had overheard so that he could finally put to rest a nagging suspicion...
“Anyway, he told me his name,” Katrina continued.
“He did what?” Spencer frowned. Readily identifying themselves to a potential victim wasn’t generally in the criminal handbook.
“He told me his name was Aidan Hannant. He said he hadn’t planned to hit me with his car.” She shivered slightly. “Not this time.” Catching a glimpse of his expression, she frowned. “What is it? What have I said?”
“When did this happen?”
“Lunchtime. Just after I left you.”
Spencer’s mind was racing. None of this made sense. Why would Aidan Hannant threaten Katrina, then go to the police station and confess that he was the person driving the car? Unless Katrina wasn’t being honest. But even if she was making up the story of the threats, how could she have known Hannant’s name and that he was the driver of the car?
“When he threatened you, did this guy tell you he was from the AAG?” Spencer asked.
She paused, her expression thoughtful. “No. Now that I think about it, he didn’t. But why else would he give me that warning?”
“There could be any number of reasons. He could be working for a client you’ve angered. It could be something to do with Eliza.” Her eyes widened and he quickly hurried on. “Or maybe he’s a stranger who saw you in the store one day and didn’t like the way you looked at him. Sometimes these things don’t need a reason. For now, let’s go inside the house. We’ll come back to Hannant later.”
He turned his attention to the door, which looked like it had been given a few good, hard kicks. The wooden boards had splintered under the strain and the hinges had given way, leaving the door hanging from its frame. Katrina pointed to the note that was taped to the center panel.
“See? Another threat.”
“Did you touch anything?” Spencer asked.
She shook her head so hard her ponytail swung wildly from side to side. “No way. I got close enough to read what that said, then I backed away and called you.”
Instructing the dogs to stay, Spencer moved closer. What he saw when he looked inside the house made his blood run cold. Katrina’s neat living room had been trashed. Every item of furniture had been flipped over. Cushions and throws had been torn. Vases and mirrors had been smashed. Paint had been sprayed over her pastel walls. The place was an unrecognizable mess.
And yet, as Katrina placed a hand on his arm and peeked over his shoulder at the devastation, the doubts persisted. Could she have done this herself?
“Oh, no.” She lifted a hand to her lips, the tears that filled her eyes quickly brimming over. “What am I going to do?”
“You don’t need to do anything.” There was one obvious way to silence his suspicions and get her the protection she needed. Only time would tell whether that protection turned out to be from herself or an external force.
“I don’t understand.” A frown furrowed her smooth forehead.
“I’m moving in.”
* * *
Katrina faced Spencer with her hands on her hips. “You can’t just move yourself and your dog into my house. We need to talk about this.”
Although Katrina’s fiercely independent streak had kicked in, part of her was wondering why she was raising an objection. Surely, a handsome cop and his canine companion living with her while she was being threatened would be a good thing. Spencer had checked the rest of the house while she waited on the front doorstep. Although the intruders hadn’t touched any of the other rooms, the damage they’d done to her living room was bad enough. She crossed her arms over her body as she surveyed the scene, a sick feeling starting low in her stomach.
“You can stay at my place instead, if you want. But the yard isn’t really big enough for three dogs.” Without waiting for her reply, he stepped onto the porch with his cell phone in his hand. A few moments later, he was deep in a conversation about fingerprints and handwriting analysis.
Sighing, Katrina took another look at the destruction that had once been her living room. Since Spencer had told her not to touch anything, she backed away carefully from the door and collected the dogs, then led them around the side of the house to the yard.
After spending about ten minutes encouraging Holly and Dobby to use the training equipment, while Boris watched her with interest but declined to join in, she took a seat on her favorite bench and left the three of them to indulge in a little canine free play. As always, her fingers strayed to her cell phone. She’d restricted herself to three calls a day to Eliza’s number. Morning, midday and night. Anything else would be obsessive. Even though she had never gotten an answer, giving up on her sister would feel wrong.
Instead of calling Eliza, she sent a message to Suzie. She wanted to let her assistant know about the break-in. Doing it without causing Suzie to storm out of her date to come and check what was going on. It was a tricky balancing act. When her phone rang minutes after she’d sent the message, she wasn’t sure she’d succeeded.
“I’m on my way over.” Suzie sounded like a woman who wasn’t going to take “no” for an answer.
“You don’t need to do that. Sergeant Colton is here.”
