The ladies and Frank pitched in while the other guys searched the house and cleared it.Then they all watched the video of the two men.
“How did they get in this time?”Dan asked.
“I don’t know.”But then, as Florence was looking at the video again, she frowned.“They went through the front door.They must have used a lockpick.”
“You don’t have a key hidden out front?”Dan examined the door lock.
“No.I’ve never done that.You and a couple of others have keys to my house in the event of an emergency.”
“Whenever you’re both gone, we’ll need to put someone on the house then,” Dan said.
“Are we going to track them down?”Frank asked.
“Yeah.”
“I’m going too,” Florence said.
Shannon looked at Chase, her expression saying she didn’t think Florence should go.
Frank didn’t want Florence to go either.He wanted to, but he wanted to keep her safe even more.“I’m fine with staying here and protecting the tree.”
Florence smiled.“All right.I’ll stay here with you.”
“And me,” Addie said.
“I’ll be going home.”Shannon grabbed her purse to go.
“Thanks again for the beautiful ornaments.They’ll be perfect for when Lacy and Rory have kids,” Florence said.
Frank agreed.
Then Shannon hugged them and left.
The men all started their search outside while Frank and Florence started dinner.“Grilled ham and cheese sandwiches?”she asked.
“Yeah, that sounds good.”
“I can’t believe they were able to break into the house using a lockpick,” Florence said.
“I agree.Especially since they broke a second-story floor window the last time.”Frank brought out the bread.
Florence pulled the butter, cheese, mayonnaise, mustard, and ham out of the fridge.“Would you like one too, Addie?”
“No thanks.I’m going to have dinner with Dan once he returns.”
“Okay.”Florence buttered the bread slices, then put shredded cheese on one side of each, then coated the other slice with mayonnaise and mustard, and covered it with ham.Then she started cooking them.
Once the cheese started to melt, she flipped the ham side onto the cheese side to form the sandwich, then grilled it until both sides were browned.
She served them up while Frank poured mulled wine and added pickles and potato chips to each plate.
“Hmm, those look good,” Addie said.
“Are you sure you don’t want one?”
“No, really, I’m eating with the family when I leave here.”
They ate their meal and then cleaned up.Then they checked outside to see if they could spot any of the guys.There were all kinds of footprints in the snow.They couldn’t distinguish between Timothy and Manning’s boot prints and Dan and the others who came in after them.
