It took several hours to process the scene, but in the end, the list of things missing was shorter than expected—clothes, food, and camping gear. As for the bathroom, it looked like someone had taken a shower but didn’t take anything.
“Here’s my contact information,” Detective McCoy said and handed a business card to Presley. “Please call me if you notice anything else missing or come across something else you think we should know about.”
“I will,” she said. “Thank you.”
After the police left, Presley sat down on the couch beside Ariel. “Do you have a preference on where we stay tonight?”
“Why do we have to stay somewhere else?” Ariel asked. “Do you think whoever did this will come back?”
“Probably not, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to stay here with the front door compromised.”
“But then anyone could come in and take our stuff,” Ariel said. “They could take Sir Pickles.”
“Ariel, can I talk to your mom for a minute?” I asked.
“Uh, sure. I’ll be in the kitchen,” she said awkwardly.
“She has a point. Someone could easily get into your house,” I said. “If you’re okay with it, you could stay here, and I can sleep on the couch.”
“I can’t ask you to do that.”
“You didn’t. I offered,” I said simply.
Presley exhaled heavily. “I don’t know what to do.”
“If you stay somewhere else, you’ll probably be worried about your house the entire time, right?”
“Yes.”
“And if you stay here, you’ll be worried about someone trying to break in again, right?”
“Again, yes.”
“Okay, how about this? Stay here. I’ll secure the front door for the night and sleep on the couch. Tomorrow, we’ll get the door replaced and make sure you two feel safe in your home.”
“Yeah, I think that will work,” she said. “I’ll go tell Ariel.”
While she went to the kitchen, I took a closer look at her door. It appeared to have been pried open with a crowbar or lever. The door wouldn’t close correctly due to the cracked doorjamb and bent hinges.
Walking into the kitchen, I found Presley and Ariel sitting at the table talking quietly. “Do you have any scrap wood I can use to brace the door?”
Presley’s forehead wrinkled as she thought. “There might be something in the garage.”
“What about the frames for the raised garden beds?” Ariel suggested.
“Oh, yeah, I guess we could use those. Would that work?”
“As long as the wood is long enough to go across the door. I just need two or three pieces to brace the door so no one can open it,” I said.
“Yeah, they’re long enough. I’ll show you where they are,” Presley said. When she got up to go outside, Ariel got up and went with her, clearly scared to stay in the house by herself.
The garden boxes were leaning against the fence in Presley’s backyard. “This is perfect,” I told her. “I can use two sides to secure the door, and then I can put your garden box back together once the door is fixed.”
“I’m not worried about the boxes. I mean, if you can put them back together, great, but if you can’t, that’s okay, too.”
“If you’ll point me in the direction of a screwdriver, hammer, and nails, I’ll get this taken care of.”
“I keep that stuff in the garage. I’ll show you where it is.”
