“Next was the dog. My run-in with him was … I don’t know, maybe two days after the incident with the car.” She described what had happened. “As soon as I was down on the ground and thoroughly frightened, he took off. Like he’d simply lost interest.”
“You said it was a Doberman?”
“I said itmighthave been a Doberman. It’s the same with the car. You’re so stunned when it happens that the details slip by you. And anyway, it was dark.”
“Was the dog wearing a collar?”
“That’s the last detail I’d have noticed.”
“Not if your hand had hit something when you tried to push him away.”
“My hands were busy protecting my face. I kicked out with my legs—pretty ineffectively, I’d guess. If that dog hadn’t wanted to leave, he wouldn’t have.”
Matt seemed about to say something, then stopped and took a breath. “Did you call the police?”
Lauren shook her head. “The dog was gone. It hasn’t been back since.”
Even in the fading light, the tension on Matt’s face was marked. “Then what?”
She took a drink of wine for fortification. On the one hand, Matt’s grim concern was reassuring. On the other, it seemed to make the situation all the more real and, therefore, ominous. “Then the garage door crashed down. It’s an old garage, an old door. I’d simply assumed it would hold.”
“I checked it out. There’s no apparent reason why it didn’t. The chains are strong. So are the coils.”
“Then what could explain it?”
He looked off toward the shadowed trees and didn’t speak for several minutes. “There are ways to rig a door like that.”
“But it worked perfectly the next day, and every day since!”
“There’s rigging—and unrigging.”
Apprehension made her gray eyes larger. “You’re suggesting that whoever might have tampered with it before it crashed down went back and fixed it again? But why would anyone do that?”
“What happened next?”
Lauren stared at him. He hadn’t attempted to answer her question. Not that he ought to have an answer when she didn’t, but at least he could have tried to soothe her. Brows lowered, she looked away. What had happened next? “I’m not sure about the next thing.Itwasn’t as obvious as the others … I mean, it could have been me.”
“What was it, Lauren?”
She took a short breath. “After we’d gone on the cruise that night, I came home and noticed that some things were out of place in my bedroom. At least, they seemed out of place to me, but it might have been my own carelessness.” When his silence demanded further explanation, she told him about the perfume, the shoes and the underwear.
“Nothing was taken? Money? Jewelry?”
“I don’t have much of either lying around, but no, nothing was taken.”
“And it was only the bedroom that was touched?”
“As far as I could tell.”
“Did you go through the other rooms?”
“Of course I did! And nothing was touched—as far as I could tell.Honestly, Matt! I mean, it’s possible that the spoons in the kitchen drawer were rearranged, but I don’t set them up in any special pattern, so how would I know?”
He held up a hand. “Okay, okay. Take it easy.”
Even the softening of his tone did little to calm her. “How can I take it easy? I feel like I’m at an inquisition, and the implication is that you think I’ve been irresponsible. Well, I haven’t! Taken separately, not one of these incidents is particularly unusual. People on the streets have close calls with cars all the time. Wild dogs get loose; they attack innocent victims. Garage doors malfunction. And as for my personal effects, that could just as well have been my own fault. I’m not perfect! I might have been distracted! Anddon’task me if I called the police, because I didn’t!”
“I didn’t ask,” he said. His words were gently spoken; his gaze was solicitous. “And I’m sorry if I sounded critical. It’s just that I’m concerned … and I’m a stickler for details. I like to know exactly what I’m facing.” He slanted her a lopsided smile. “You were supposed to know that already.”
