The medics, with headlights on their hats, rushed down the lawn to see what they were dealing with. I waved hello, lit in their beams.

One of them asked, “Friend? What happened to him?”

“Not a friend, I have no idea. We had a storm, and then the door was banging on the house.” I pointed up there for no reason. “I looked out and saw him on the ground.”

A medic was kneeling beside the guy, peering in his eyes and checking his vitals. Then the medics conferred before one ran up the lawn to the driveway for the gurney and the backboard.

“Backboard? You think he’s hurt his back?”

“Could be, you didn’t move him?”

“No, he’s too big to move, I… how could he hurt his back?” I looked up in the tree, pointing my flashlight beam up. I hadn’t been wrong, there were broken limbs. “He might have fallen out of the tree?”

A medic followed my eyes up. “I don’t see why he would be up in a tree — this is your property, right?”

“Yeah, sure, why would he be in my tree? Plus it’s the middle of the night. If he needed sleep there’s ten better places to sleep.” I lowered the beam. “It makes no sense.”

The stretcher arrived, the backboard was maneuvered under his back, velcro around his head, lifted up, he had the sword beside him, his knees showing under his kilt, looking ancient, placed on the modern stretcher. He slept through the whole thing. Then the medics pushed the stretcher up the lawn to the driveway. I followed behind them, in case — in case of what, I had no idea.

At the waiting ambulance, the stretcher was pushed inside. A medic asked, “Will you be filing a police report?”

“Not sure, why would I… what hospital are you taking him to?” My eyes had drawn again to the tree, and then back to his handsome face. I felt dazed, kind of confused.

“We’re taking him to Regional. The reason for the police report is because he might be a stalker or staking out the house or something. He’s carrying a weapon.”

I raised my brow. “Oh good point, I didn’t think of that, yeah...” My eyes went back to the tree — could he have seen through my window? My open curtains in my bedroom window? I gulped. “Yeah, he was carrying a sword... maybe I should.”

They closed the door on the ambulance and I watched it ride away down the two lane country road.

I walkedinto the house and in the predawn made a big pot of coffee while my orange Maine Coon cat, Dude, made his trilling noise, pacing back and forth on the countertop.

He wasn’t as big as a full-size Maine Coon cat, only about sixteen pounds instead of growing to over twenty, so my guess was that he was a mix, but he had the personality, being crazy smart and wildly loyal almost like a dog. He had walked up a stray and moved in about two years ago.

I heard Coop turn on the shower upstairs.

I said to the cat, “Hey, Dude, you know Coop doesn’t like you up here.”

Dude ignored me, making his trilling noise, giving me a look, and with his paw, knocked over the salt shaker.

“Coop’s going to be grumpy, he hasn’t slept enough.”

Dude had so much fluff around his neck that it seemed like a mane, and gave him a dignified, kingly look, even with his torn ear, and the knotted fur. I tried to keep him untangled but he did not care to be combed unless I talked him into it. And that took almost as long as it did to detangle his coat.

He seemed unfazed by my concern about Coop’s mood.

I checked the clock — Cooper needed to leave in thirty-five minutes.

I stood at the kitchen sink, petting Dude, looking out the window, thinking about the strange man.What had he been doing out there?

I was interrupted when I heard the shower turn off and the thud of Cooper’s feet as he stepped out of the tub. He had a full day of travel and then high-stakes business meetings for the next few days.

He had needed his sleep — it was a terrible night to have had so much chaos.

4

LEXI

2004 - LAUREL RIDGE HOUSE