Page 70 of The Woman By the Lake

“Sure, sans the tequila. It’s barely eleven, Riggs.”

“Right,” he muttered, throwing an arm around her shoulders and guiding her inside.

He took her right to kitchen, sat her ass on the stool, rounded the counter and leaned into his forearms across from her.

“Want coffee or something else?” he offered.

“I’m good.”

“Okay, then, tell me. Did you see someone?”

“No, I came in the front and saw the back door open. There was a slash in the screen door. I didn’t leave the back door open, and I made sure the lock was hooked on the screen door when I left. Obviously, I can’t do that on the front door.”

It was good he got contractor rates on all sorts of shit, because not only was she going to get surveillance cameras on every side of her house and pointed toward where the stables used to be, she was getting security doors.

“And you locked the back door?”

She nodded. “I got home and headed that way, and I was feeling creeped out, Riggs. You know, like, it was weird, and I couldn’t put my finger on it.”

He felt his muscles get solid all over when he asked, “Again, did you see someone?”

“No. I’ve been thinking about it, and it was just a feeling. Like, I felt someone had been there who shouldn’t have been. I didn’t get very far before I saw that there was some damage around the doorframe. Like someone pried it open or kicked it in.”

And they could do that because they slashed her screen and unhooked the lock so they could get to the door.

“That’s when I ran to my car and came to your house,” she finished.

“What was the inside like?”

“That’s what’s weird, because, except for the back door, everything seemed like it was as I left it.”

Yeah.

That was weird.

“Did you notice anything taken?”

She shook her head. “That said, I didn’t get a good look.”

“Sure you don’t want a shot of tequila?”

She nodded her head.

“Anyone do any shit to you last night? Scratching. That rock bullshit?”

“I didn’t hear anything,” she replied as his phone vibrated in his pocket.

He pulled it out and looked at it.

“Harry,” he told her.

More nodding from Nadia as he took the call.

“Yo, Harry.”

“We’re here. It’s clear. Called the team in to see if we can get prints or anything. But the place looks perfect, except someone fucked up the back door in a big way in order to get in.”

“Yeah?” he prompted, without saying the words that would push Harry to give more because he didn’t want to tweak Nadia…or tweak her further.

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