Chapter 2
They hadn’t been sitting very long before Jimmy found them, breaking the awkward silence that had again descended between them. Marlene had always found Frank incredibly handsome and equally intimidating.
With a touch of premature silver at the temples in his dark hair, and a face that featured sharp angles and keen blue eyes, he emanated steely hardness with a touch of male elegance.
“Nothing on the door,” Jimmy said as he slid into the booth next to Frank. “It looks to me like whoever got in used his shoulder and just broke through the flimsy lock.” He smiled apologetically at Marlene. “It was a crappy lock. I noticed you have a dead bolt. Was it locked when you left the apartment earlier?”
“Not the dead bolt, just the other one. I normally don’t use the dead bolt unless I’m at home,” she explained.
“I tried to pull some prints from some of the bigger pieces of the broken dishes, but I got nada. Most of the pieces were too small to even try to pull up any prints. Sorry I couldn’t be any more help.”
“I appreciate you trying,” she replied.
“I did manage to get the door back on the frame so that the dead bolt still works okay, but if I were you I’d have Larry Samson come over and just put in a new door and locking system,” Jimmy said. “Anything else you need, partner?”
“No thanks, Jimmy. I’ll take it from here.”
Jimmy stood and grabbed his bag from the floor. “Good luck, Marlene. I’m sure we’ll be talking soon again, in any case.”
“Thank you, Jimmy.” She also stood, more than ready to get back to her place and start the cleanup. If she thought she was going to get rid of Frank that easily she was sadly mistaken.
He was instantly at her heels and fell into step with her as they crossed the street once again. “I’ll check out Michael Arello, but first I’ll help you with the cleanup.”
“That’s not necessary,” she protested.
“I insist,” he replied with a hint of toughness in his tone that instantly stiffened her back. “I still want to do a thorough sweep to make sure Jimmy didn’t overlook anything.”
She hated the invasion into her personal space. She hated that this had happened at all. The unexplained disappearance of her aunt Liz had already shaken her badly. This assault to her things, to her very sense of safety, was the last thing she needed. All she wanted to do for the remainder of the night was to dead-bolt her door and curl up into a ball in the middle of her pink bedspread and pretend that everything was all right.
But it was impossible to pretend that everything was all right with Detective Frank Delaney climbing the stairs just behind her.
Stepping into the apartment, she was again struck by how senseless the crime had been. “Do you have a broom?” Frank asked.
She looked at him in surprise.
He offered her a small smile that lit his eyes with unexpected warmth. “I figured I could sweep up in here and you could go into the bedroom and check out your clothing situation...see if anything has been damaged.”
“Okay, if that’s the way you want to do it.” She pulled a broom and dustpan from the small pantry closet. She handed him both. “Knock yourself out.”
She turned and went into her bedroom, where an array of clothing was cast about the top of the bed and the floor like a designer gone mad. She began checking each item as she placed it back in the drawers and hung things back in the closet. No damage, but an outrage built inside her at the fact that somebody had come into her home and touched her things.
She tamped down the outrage, instead reaching for the numbness of emotions that had held her in good stead for the past year of her life.
As she worked in the bedroom, she heard the sound of Frank sweeping up the shattered dishes and then dumping them into the trash bag.
She was grateful to discover that nothing had been cut or slit or otherwise destroyed. It did, indeed, appear to be a crime of mischief rather than the vicious attack of a brutal man.
For an entire year she’d been afraid...so afraid that he would decide they weren’t finished, that somehow she still belonged to him.
But there was no way she believed this damage was done by Matt McGraw. If it had been Matt, the damage would have been devastating.
Nobody knew the details of her two-year marriage and subsequent divorce from Matt, and that was how she intended to keep it. Not even her sisters or her aunt had any real details about her marriage or why she had left to return home as a single woman.
Matt was a monster from a bad dream, and she was only grateful that she didn’t believe that a monster had been in her home at some point while she’d been gone today.
By the time she had her bedroom back in order, she returned to the kitchen to find the place clean and Frank seated at her small table.
“Thank you,” she said as she looked around the room and then sat at the chair across from him, her internal defenses automatically kicking in.
“Are you sure there’s nobody else I need to look at for this?” Frank asked.
“Not that I can think of off the top of my head,” she replied. There was no point in bringing Matt into this, especially when they already had a viable suspect to investigate.
“Then I’ll check out Michael Arello and get back to you. If we find out he’s responsible for this, I’m assuming you want to press charges.”
Marlene frowned. Did she really want to go there? “Can’t you just give him a stern talking-to?”
Frank raised a dark eyebrow. “Really? Is that the way you want to handle this? He’s stolen twice that we know of and now this. Maybe it’s time for more than a stern talking-to.”
Marlene shook her head. “Maybe so, but it isn’t coming from me. If Michael is the one who broke in here, then he’ll figure we’re even. I fired him and he messed up my house. I don’t want to press charges. I just want to forget the whole thing.”
Since he was a man of the law, she knew it was difficult for him to understand why she wouldn’t want to press charges, but she just wanted it all to go away as simply and quickly as possible.
“Marlene Marie!” The familiar voice came from outside and was followed by the stomping of feet that belonged to Marlene’s older sister, Roxy.
There was no knock on the door, but it flew open, and Roxy stood there, her dark eyes filled with worry. “Are you okay?” she asked Marlene.
“I’m fine. Everything is fine, so you can get that fire out of your eyes,” Marlene exclaimed.
Roxy released a sigh of relief, raked a hand through her riotous curls and then smiled at Frank. “Jimmy told Steve and Steve told me that there had been a break-in here and I freaked out.”
“Does Steve know you’re out running the streets alone?” Marlene asked. As much as she adored her older sister, there were times when Roxy drove her crazy with her need to mother both Marlene and Sheri.
Roxy didn’t answer and instead focused her attention on Frank. “So, what have we got here?”
“We have nothing. It’s all taken care of,” Marlene said firmly.
“We think maybe Michael Arello did a little payback today,” Frank said.
“Payback for what?” Roxy asked.
“I fired him from the store last night for stealing,” Marlene explained.
“That little creep. He needs a good butt-kicking and I know just the man to do it,” Roxy said. “I’ll make sure