Page 73 of The Night the Lights Went Out
It was Dan.
“Oh, my God. Are you all right? Don’t move—let me make sure you don’t have any serious injuries...”
But she was already struggling to sit up, moving each limb to make sure she could. “I’m fine. Just bruised a bit from the fall.” Or maybe both arms and legs were broken but the alcohol was blocking her pain. She blinked up at him. “What are you doing here? Is Heather with you?” She was embarrassed to hear her words slurring together.
“No. I’m assuming she’s at home, where she said she’d be.”
Merilee pressed her hands against her ears again. “Can you shut that off? I think my head might explode.”
“I tried—but the code’s been changed.”
She leaned her head against the sofa, trying to stop the pounding. “It’s one-one-one-one. Heather changed it for me.” She wanted to smile at her ability to remember but was afraid she might look like a lunatic.
He left her to go to the alarm panel as she closed her eyes, then immediately popped them open, not liking the way the room rocked. After a few seconds the house was blessedly silent—even the distant phone had stopped ringing. “Thank you,” she murmured.
Dan squatted down next to her. “Are you sure you’re all right? Did you hit your head? I don’t see any blood.”
“No. Thankfully, the sofa broke my fall. I think I’m just stunned. And a little drunk.”
He nodded, keeping his eyes focused above her neck. “I’ve been trying to reach Heather but haven’t had any luck. Neither has the security company.” He blinked at her, as if he thought she was a mirage. “What are you doing here?”
“Heather invited me for the weekend, and then Brooke got sick and she had to cancel.”
“Brooke’s sick? Heather didn’t tell me.”
Merilee pulled herself closer to the sofa, afraid to stand just in case she couldn’t, and searched for whatever sobriety she had left. The fall had at least shaken her awake. Dan was examining her head and looking into her eyes—to check for a concussion, she assumed—but his examination ended there.
“Brooke’s fine—just a little fever, but she was asking for her mom. And Heather didn’t want to bother you.” It was her turn to blink at him. “So why are you here?”
“The security company received a remote emergency call and they couldn’t identify the phone number or caller, so they called Heather to verify. When she didn’t answer, they called me. Heather insisted on getting me a satellite phone at the fishing cabin for emergencies, and I guess she gave them the number. Anyway, I had no idea what they were talking about, so then I asked them if they could see if there’d been any activity in the house and they said it appeared that both the front and back doors had been opened but the alarm wasn’t going off.”
Merilee groaned, rubbing her hands over her face as if that might help her think more clearly. “That was me. I opened up all the French doors as soon as I walked in. But I know I disarmed the alarm correctly because it gave me the green light and no alarms sounded.”
“You did it correctly—no alarm was going off until I got here and punched in what I thought was the right code. But when I first got the call, I just assumed we’d forgotten to set the alarm last time we left and the wind had blown open some of the doors, which would account for the activity and for the lack of an alarm sounding. Being on the ocean and having two little girls who don’t always remember to latch the doors means it happens a lot.”
He smiled and Merilee wondered why he’d only look at her face or around the room, and why he hadn’t offered to help her up. Which was fine, because her head had finally steadied itself and she wasn’t sure how it would do at another elevation.
“Anyway,” he continued, “I’m only an hour away, so I told the security company I would check it out and not to call the police yet. The alarm wasn’t going off, so I didn’t have to worry about annoying the neighbors, so I figured I had time to get here, close everything up securely, reset the alarm, and get back to my cabin.”
In the distance, the distinct sound of a police siren began to wail. Their eyes met in mutual understanding. “Damn it!” Dan quickly stood. “The alarm! The security company always calls here first when the alarm sounds. Did you hear a phone? That was probably them calling to see if everything’s okay before they call the police.”
“Oh, no,” Merilee said, rolling onto her front so she could use both hands to hoist herself up. She took a few tentative steps toward the front door, relieved to see that she still could. “I heard it but didn’t...”
She stopped, aware of two things at once: The first thing was that the sound of sirens was directly outside and she could see through the front-door windows two men climbing the front steps, silhouetted against the bright lights of their cruiser. The second thing was that she was standing there wearing only her bra and panties when Dan opened the door to greet the two officers. Behind them was a middle-aged woman wearing a bathrobe and slippers, her look of annoyance at being awakened at whatever hour of the night it might be changing to one of surprise once it alighted on Merilee. She looked vaguely familiar, and Merilee prayed she wasn’t from the school. But they’d definitely met before.
“Daniel?” the woman asked.
Merilee immediately grabbed two throw pillows from the sofa and held them in front of her, belatedly realizing that she most likely appeared nude from the visitors’ point of view.
“I’m sorry, Officers,” Dan began as he fished his wallet from his back pocket. “There’s been a mistake. The alarm code got changed and I wasn’t aware, so I set it off accidentally—and I was distracted and didn’t hear the phone ringing, nor did I think to call the security company to tell them you weren’t needed.”
He held out his ID and one of the officers inspected it. “Thank you, Dr. Blackford.” He turned to Merilee. “Mrs. Blackford?”
“Oh, no. I’m not his wife...” And then she stopped, realizing her mistake before the last word was uttered.
“Are you... all right?”
Dan must have seen Merilee’s look of acute embarrassment as she registered what the police—and the familiar-looking woman—thought they were seeing.
