Page 13 of Puppy Love & Snowflake Kisses
Still, he stepped through the doorway. The walls were… He stopped and stared at them for a moment. They were the lightest shade of pink.Weren’t they?
A white chest of drawers was over in the corner. There was a box on top of it, perhaps a jewelry box. The bedside tables had lamps on them. The queen-size bed frame matched the rest of the furniture. There was a white duvet with a red rose pattern.
The part that he hadn’t anticipated was the mess. There were discarded clothes tossed across the bottom of the bed, as though she’d gotten up that morning and hadn’t been sure what to wear. So she’d tried on and discarded outfit after outfit until she found the right one.
On the floor beneath the discarded clothes were various shades of high heels lying on their sides—again she couldn’t make up her mind about what to wear. Closer to the closet, he noticed a pair of black knee-high boots also discarded. It seemed that Belle wasn’t a decisive person—unless it came to him. She’d definitely made her mind up about him, and it was not positive.
“They’ve been through all of my drawers.” Belle’s voice drew him from his thoughts.
“Are you sure?” After all, the room wasn’t the neatest.
“Of course, I am.” She frowned at him.
“Don’t touch them. Let me see if they checked them for fingerprints.” He contacted his deputies who were still outside. They’d found footprints and tracks that looked like they belonged to an ATV as well as a partially open window with the latch broken.
After he finished his conversation with the deputies, he turned to Belle. “We should go downstairs.”
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“I’ll tell you downstairs.”
“No. I want you to tell me now.” She pressed her hands to her rounded hips.
“Fine. They found footprints and tracks that most likely belong to an ATV.” He didn’t know what sort of reaction to expect from her. To his surprise, she appeared to take it in stride.
“Any sign of Odie?”
He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m afraid not. Let’s go downstairs until they have a chance to print this room.”
He stood off to the side of the doorway in order for her to take the lead. However, he must not have stepped far enough out of the way because her shoulder brushed against him. And then he got another intoxicating whiff of her jasmine scent.
How had he ignored her beauty all of this time? Maybe it was that they’d been sparring with each other for so long he never took the time to see her in any other way.
And now wasn’t the time to see her as a beautiful, desirable woman. Right now, he needed to stay focused on this break-in and the dognapping. He never had a case quite like this one.
As they made their way downstairs, questions came to him. “Do you know who is overly fond of your dog?”
“No.”
“Maybe a family member? Or friend?”
At the bottom of the steps, she came to a halt and turned on him. Her fine brows were drawn together in a formidable look. “I don’t have any close family. And none of my friends would have done it either.”
Her frown didn’t intimidate him, but he was relieved to see the fire come back to her eyes. “So, you believe whoever broke in here is a stranger to you?”
“Yes, I do.”
He was willing to go along with this thinking to a certain point. Because his training dictated that he started with her inner circle and worked his way outward. However, he didn’t want the conversation to stop now that he’d gotten her to start talking.
“If it was a stranger, what do you think they wanted?”
She looked at him like he’d lost his mind. “My dog.”
He nodded. “I understand that, but they wanted something more. They wouldn’t have searched your house if all they wanted was the dog. Think. Is there something valuable you have?”
The stubborn frown remained on her face. “Trust me. There’s nothing valuable in this house.”
“There has to be something here for them to break in. What do you know about the dog?”
