She nodded. “Yeah. It’s outside.”
He shook his head. “That means someone was outside your house, looking in.”
She narrowed her gaze. “You don’t think that’s a camera, do you?”
His lips thinned. “Actually, looking at it now, I think that’s exactly what it is. I think someone put a small camera outside your house, and they just placed it badly. Maybe you came home or woke up and scared them. Maybe they were coming back to reposition it.”
A shiver raced down her spine. “Who is doing this?”
“No clue, but with the new alarm, that should scare them away.” He stepped out of the laundry room and turned to the door before hugging her then going outside.
Elowen followed him to the side of the house. There were so many places he could have placed the camera that would have been much worse, much more intrusive.
Griz grabbed the animal figurine and dropped it to the ground then smashed it with his foot. Shock coursed through her when he picked up the remains of a tinycamera, the lens so small she would never have seen that it was a camera.
“I can’t believe someone did that.”
He raised his eyebrows. “People have the propensity to be terrible. There are some great people out there, but there are also some very awful people. That’s why there are alarms and people buy stuff for self-defense.”
“Who could be watching me?”
Griz shook his head. “I don’t know. But maybe you could make a list of people who worked on the cabin with you. Anyone you have any interactions with.”
“I don’t think it could be anyone who stayed here. None of them were local, and I don’t see any of them driving back up here to stick a camera in the window.”
“If you get us the list, we can eliminate the people fairly quickly.”
“How?”
Griz shrugged. “I have a friend. He is really good at finding people. He’ll be able to go through the names fast and figure out if someone from the list could be the one who placed the trail camera and the smaller camera.”
“How much does he charge?”
“He doesn’t. It’s free. He charges if a corporation wants information, and he’s done some background checks for companies in the past, but for people in trouble, he does it for free.”
“That’s amazing.”
“He’s a good guy. Was nearly killed on a mission and retired. He had to do something to keep from going crazy, and he found some people on the internet who were looking for missing women. He found a few of the missing people and got addicted to saving them.”
“I’m impressed. Is he in San Diego?”
Griz nodded. “He is.”
“I’d like to meet him when I come to visit.”
“Sure. He’d like that. He has a great dog, too. Though the dog is getting older.”
“Oh, dogs die way too early. They should live as long as their human companion.”
“It would be nice.”
“I think that’s why I’ve resisted getting one. My parents had an older dog when I was born. He died when I was eight. Devastated me. I didn’t understand how a loved member of the family could die and my parents just replaced him with another dog. There was no mourning, no sadness. Just gone one day, and a new puppy in hand soon after.”
“Oh, that would be bad.”
“The new dog was okay, but I never got over my first.”
He pulled her into a hug. “I understand.”
