CHAPTER TEN
MATTHEW
Unbuckling my seatbelt, I slide out of the cruiser, my gaze scanning the street for anything out of the ordinary, only to come up with nothing.
Everything is quiet.
Too quiet, even.
Then again, this is Bluebonnet Creek, for fuck’s sake!
Yeah, tell that to your brother who recently got shot at a fucking town fair,my inner voice taunts.
Soft rustling has me snapping my head in the direction of the noise. My heart kicks up a notch as I place my hand on my gun, ready to disengage the holster retention, just as a black cat jumps from the bushes.
“Shit,” I mutter.
The animal glares at me, its bright-green eyes zeroing in on me as it hisses and runs away.
I inhale a slow breath, trying to calm my erratic heart as my gaze shifts to Nico, who’s watching me with an unreadable expression.
“Fucking cat,” I grumble, then tilt my head toward the door. “That’s the address.”
We were out on patrol, where I’d just finished writing up a ticket to a kid who was driving over the speed limit, when we got a call about a possible home break-in.
I scan my gaze over a small, single-story white house. There is nothing unusual about it. The front doors and windows are closed; no signs of disruption. I spot a little gate on the side that leads to the backyard, potentially giving another point of entry.
“I can go?—”
I don’t get to finish because the door bursts open, and an older woman pushing a walker comes out of the house.
“Oh, good, you’re here!” she croaks out, her bony fingers curling around the walker as she moves toward us.
I blink at her, trying to wrap my head around what the hell is going on. The woman has to be close to a hundred. Her silver hair is pulled into a low bun, her skin slightly ashen and wrinkled with age. The flower dress—or maybe pajamas?—she’s wearing is outdated, falling all the way to the ground.
“Something clattered out in the back,” she continues as she comes to a stop. “It was very loud, so I thought somebody must have been trying to break in.”
My mouth falls open, unsure if I heard her correctly, but her face is serious.
What in the ever-loving?—
“Mrs. Willow, you shouldn’t have come out like that,” Nico says gently, which is good because I’m pretty sure I’d yell at her stupidity.
She glances from Nico to me and back.
“But then how would you know what to check out?” She shakes her head decisively and clicks her tongue. “C’mon in. It’s this way.”
With her back to us, I run my hand over my face, cursing under my breath. “I should have stayed in the city.”
Nico chuckles softly. “Yeah, right. Where would be fun in that? Let’s just go check it out.”
Together we follow the older woman as she slowly makes her way inside the house and down the hallway. I make sure to check every room, just to be sure there are no intruders lurking around somewhere ready to attack, but the only intruder I find is a big orange cat that’s lounging on the table, glaring at us.
“You said you heard a noise?” I ask once we get into the kitchen.
Could it be that somebody wanted to pull a prank on this old lady? Or was it an actual intruder? She’s ancient and wears glasses, but I can still see her squinting at me through the thick lenses, so her vision can’t be that good.
“Yes! I was sitting in the kitchen, drinking my tea and eating my cookies, while watching my favorite show. It was just getting interesting too! And something clattered in the kitchen.”
