Footsteps thudded on Piper’s front porch and ran toward us. “What are you doing? Let him go!”
I turned my head to see her charging up to Bronski, her blond hair flying.
“Ms. Carmichael, go back inside. I’ll take your statement in a moment. I caught the culprit, and?—”
“What kind of idiot are you? I called Grayden and asked him to come here. Un-cuff him right now!”
It took a few more minutes to sort the mess out. Piper threatened to call Chief Nichols, and finally Bronski agreed to release me. I got up, brushing off my clothes. A few of her neighbors had stepped out of their homes, watching curiously.
Of course, there were no apologies from Bronski. He radioed to call off his backup.
“The intruder smashed the light on Piper’s garage,” I said. “Kicked in the side door and was messing around inside. I saw him. Shorter than me, dark clothing. Gloves too.”
Bronski’s eyes narrowed. “But you didn’t stop him?”
“I tried. He got free and took off. I can show you where he ran. It’s possible your people could still catch him.”
Yet Bronski didn’t ask for more details or call anyone else tojoin a search. Instead, he took Piper’s statement about what happened with his face pinched up, sending me hate-filled glances every few seconds.
My fists tightened, so I shoved them in my pockets. I wanted to put my arms around Piper, to comfort her and make sure she was alright. But I didn’t dare in front of Bronski. The guy didn’t need any more ammo about the two of us.
Maybe I should’ve also told Piper about my friendly little chat with Danny at the bar last night, but that seemed pointless right now.
“Let’s see the garage,” Bronski said.
“Oh, you want to investigate?” Piper snarked. “By all means.”
I decided to keep my mouth shut.
Piper’s garage had clearly been rifled through. When we walked in and switched on the lights, there were some plastic storage boxes on the ground with their lids off, contents half spilled. Mostly Christmas decorations and random household stuff. Some camping equipment.
“I don’t keep much out here,” she said. “But obviously Danny was looking for something. No surprise there.”
“Danny?” Bronski asked. “You know who did it? I thought O’Neal didn’t see the guy in your garage.”
“Grayden didn’t need to see the person for me to know it was my ex. Danny Carmichael. He’s in town. Go find him and ask what he was doing tonight.”
The officer snorted. “Yeah, I’ll get right on that.”
THIRTY
Grayden
Bronski finishedup and left a few minutes later. After taking some photos, just in case, I helped Piper fix the mess in her garage.
The door was damaged, but she said there wasn’t anything that valuable inside.
With an exasperated grunt, which was actually pretty cute, Piper stomped up her front porch steps and into the house. I followed after her.
She went into the living room and flopped onto the couch. “Once again, Danny gets away with his bullshit,” she said.
I stood a few feet away, my hand absently rubbing my jaw. “I assumed it would be Danny too. But before, you said he wouldn’t come here looking for your mom’s things. Since you didn’t keep anything of your mom’s here.”
“Who knows what’s in his head? Nothing he’s been doing makes sense.”
“The guy I saw. His shoulders were pretty broad. Bulky. Danny is thinner.”
“He was wearing heavy clothes, though. Right? That could’ve made him look bigger.”
