Page 22 of Deputy Brand Gets Her Man
“I was at work when it happened,” Richard said.
“And where’s that?” Willow asked.
“El Paso, I’m an attorney,” he said. “Michner and Reed.”
The way he said it made Willow think she should’ve heard of them.
He said, “I got home first and found it like this. Elena got here a few minutes later.”
Willow nodded, looking around the room. Nothing was out of place, other than the glass, but the pieces were as they had fallen, she thought. There were no crushed places where someone might’ve walked over them to enter the home. “Was anything missing?”
“Nothing that I could see,” Elena said. “And Richard didn’t notice anything either.”
She nodded, noticing an Apple laptop on a coffee table, and an iPad lying on a stand in the foyer. “Huh. And the front door was still locked?”
“Yeah,” Richard said. “Just like we left it.”
“And you didn’t notice anyone in the area, anyone unusual?”
“Not a thing,” Elena said.
“Well…” said her husband.
Willow and Elena both looked his way.
“I can’t be sure it meant anything, but I did see a vehicle coming down the road just as I was coming up. Doesn’t mean it was coming from here, of course, but there’s not a lot of traffic up here during the day.”
“Can you describe it?” Willow pulled out her phone to key it in.
He nodded. “Jeep, one of sporty ones. Copper-colored.”
Willow stopped tapping keys and tried to keep the frown off her face as Richard Montrose described Jeremiah’s Jeep. “I don’t suppose you got a plate number?”
“‘Fraid not.”
“Exactly what time was that?” she asked.
He looked at his watch, and it was a helluva watch. Big, gold, and expensive. “About ninety minutes ago,” he said.
“Are you sure on that?”
“I get home at the same time every ladies’ lunch day,” Elena said. “Three-fifteen.”
“And I got out of the office early, so I was here at three,” Richard said.
“Okay. All right.” Jeremiah was with her at that time. Not that she thought he’d be apt to throw a brick through the window of a stranger’s home to begin with. But something was tickling the back of her neck like a spider’s leg.
“All right, I guess call your homeowner’s insurance. I’m fixin’ to talk with your neighbors, see whether anyone saw anything. I’ll keep you posted. You give us a call if there’s any more trouble.”
“That’s it?” Elena asked. “There’s nothing more you can do? I don’t feel safe. Especially not knowing why someone did this.”
Willow felt for her. “Maybe get yourselves one of those doorbell cams, like most of your neighbors have. Get some plastic to staple up to protect your house until you can get the window replaced.”
Elena closed her dark eyes, nodded, opened them again. Richard’s phone rang, and he looked at it and said, “I have to take this. Excuse me.”
Elena rolled her eyes, but then walked Willow to the door.
“Be thinking about anyone who might be angry with you,” Willow told her. “This seems like busting the window was the entire goal. Could’ve been a random vandal like neighborhood kids on a dare, or someone who’s good and teed off at one or both of you. I think if you give that some thought, the answer might come to you.”
