“Are you sure?” I pressed gently. “You won’t get in trouble.”
“I’m not lying. You bought me crayons, remember?”
My stomach turned to stone.
Someone had been inside my apartment.
I didn’t say anything. I forced myself to stay calm, to keep my breathing even, even though panic was already clawing at my ribs. I moved casually around the apartment while Lucas played with Caleb, pretending everything was normal. Entering Lucas’s room, I checked it thoroughly—his bed, his drawers, the closet. Nothing looked disturbed. That should have reassured me, but it didn’t.
Then I entered my room.
The drawer with my lingerie was wide open.
My chest knotted as I walked toward it. The neat rows I always kept were destroyed. My undergarments were strewn about as if someone had rifled through them with deliberate intent. I turned around slowly and saw it—a bra and underwear scrunched together and thrown onto my bed.
I didn’t touch them. My hands shook, but I kept myself under control. Using a pen, I lifted them carefully and placed them into a plastic bag. I shut the drawer and forced myself to search the rest of the room.
When I entered my closet, my eyes immediately went to the shoebox. I opened it.
The gun and its magazine were still there.
I didn’t mention anything to Caleb, but alarm pulsed through me relentlessly. After he left, I called Larry. “Did anyone enter my apartment?” I asked, biting my fingernails as I waited.
He said no.
“Did you notice anyone unusual or anything abnormal at all over the past couple of days?” I pressed.
Again, the answer was no.
I called Alex, and he came over immediately. I handed him the bag with the undergarments and asked him to have them tested at the lab. Then I sat Lucas down and went over the rules about strangers, my voice calm even though fear throbbed beneath every word.
“What will you do if someone you don’t know grabs you?”
“I’ll scream for help.”
“What do you do if someone says that I sent them to pick you up?”
“I’ll ask them for the code word.”
“Good boy. And what’s the code word?”
“Flores, Mama.”
I hugged him tightly and patted his back. I’d taught him well. I had to believe that.
At 5 a.m.,I woke up in a cold sweat. My dream had petrified me, leaving my heart pounding as if I were still trapped inside it. I went to the bathroom and splashed water on my face, staring at my reflection until my breathing slowed. Then I went to my laptop and pulled up the recordings from the previous few days.
That was when I saw him.
A man dressed in overalls with a cap had entered my apartment.
How did I miss that?
He looked like a maintenance worker.
My stomach dropped as the words repeated in my mind.Look up, look up.
I called Larry downstairs. “Did someone enter the apartment for maintenance work?”
