Arcanum (Tales from the Tarot)

22. Greyson

Chapter twenty-two

Greyson

H oisting the paper bag of groceries against my hip, I thumbed through my keys in my other hand, unlocking the deadbolt with one and the bottom knob with another.

Pushing open the side door into the kitchen, the bag of groceries fell from my arm. The egg carton popped open, scattering broken shells and slimy yolk across the tile floor.

The lace curtains on the kitchen window danced lazily in the night breeze, a perfectly common sight in any other home—except mine. Horror bubbled inside of me and I was momentarily frozen in place.

The window over the sink was open. Not just open; the screen had been removed and the sash raised.

Backing out of the house as quickly and quietly as I could, I turned and sprinted for the house next door. I barreled up the front steps and pounded on the door while also ringing the doorbell, praying the lights I saw through the living room window meant Chris was home since the squad in the driveway meant nothing.

Nitro barked so loudly and viciously on the other side that it made me jump.

Chris jerked open the interior door, a pistol drawn and at the ready. His dark eyes widened and he dropped the gun to his side, pushing open the screen door quickly. He silenced the dog with a wave of his hand before turning to me again. “What’s wrong?”

“Someone is in my house.”

“What?” He leaned out the front door and peered around the side of his own house to look at mine, confusion as plain as day on his face.

“The kitchen window is open! Open open! You know I would never leave any window open, let alone take out the screen!”

“Did you see anyone?”

I shook my head. “No. Just the window. I turned around and left.”

“Did you touch anything?”

“No.”

“Ok. Let me grab my stuff. Do you want to come in?”

“No, I’ll wait here.” I wrapped my arms around myself and leaned against the metal porch railing, fixing my gaze on my house in case I could catch a glimpse of whoever was in there.

“I’ll just be a minute.” He turned to Nitro and started speaking in German, sounding far more excited at the thought of a potential intruder than he should be. I supposed it was for the dog’s benefit since I was sure the last thing Chris wanted to do on his night off was deal with me and my problems in a police capacity.

In no time at all, he and Nitro reappeared on the front steps. He hadn’t changed, but he’d thrown on his tactical vest and clipped a badge to one hip, his radio to the other. His gun was holstered on his thigh. Nitro also wore a vest with a tiny badge embroidered on the front.

“Which door did you go in?” Chris asked, sizing up the house. “Side door?”

I nodded.

“And you’re absolutely sure no one is supposed to be in there? Not a maintenance guy? An interior decorator? Cleaner? Your magic friend? No one? Because I’m going to let Nitro go and he will bite whoever he finds.”

“No,” I shook my head vehemently. “No one is supposed to be here. No one is supposed to be inside. You’re the only other person who’s even been inside the house since the movers.”

“Ok. Stay here.”

“Wait—what about Selene? Will he attack her?” I nodded to Nitro.

Chris shook his head. “No. They’re taught not to engage other animals. Even if another dog attacks them, our K9s aren’t supposed to fight back. The worst he’ll do is sniff her.”

“Ok.”

“Ok,” he reaffirmed. “Stay here?”

I wasn’t going to argue, which is what he seemed to be waiting for. He lingered for a moment before realizing I wasn’t going to insist on coming with him. That wouldn’t have been brave on my part, just stupid, and it would have been an unnecessary distraction for him and his partner.

Satisfied I was listening, he and Nitro jogged down the steps and made their way across the front yard, approaching my side door with caution.

Kneeling on the side of the door, out of the range of fire, Chris held onto Nitro’s collar and unclipped his lead. “Police department K9, make yourself known or you’re going to get bit!”

Nitro’s tail swished, waiting, just like his handler, for someone to acknowledge the command.

After a moment, Chris tried again. “Police department K9! Make yourself known or you’re going to get bit! This is your final warning! Come out now!”

With no answer, Chris released the dog.

Nitro bounded up the two steps into the house and disappeared into the darkness.

I held my breath, waiting. Even from a distance, I could sense Chris’s anxiety. It was masked by years of training and his face gave nothing away, but inside, his heart hammered against his ribs. It wasn’t the thrill of the hunt, waiting to see if there was a bad guy to catch. It was fear for his dog, the agony of waiting to hear Nitro’s cry for help, waiting to see if he’d even come out again.

How terrifying it must have been, to constantly send your partner into dangerous situations instead of going yourself, because society told you a human’s life was worth more than a dog’s. But Chris didn’t see a dog when he looked at Nitro—they were partners through and through.

When Nitro appeared in the doorway, Chris and I both exhaled relieved sighs.

Stiff as they were, I forced my legs to move, stumbling down the porch steps and hurrying to meet them.

Chris reattached Nitro’s leash and stood, offering him a thick rope from his back pocket. The dog seized the rope and tugged hard, nearly knocking Chris off balance before he planted his feet and gave the dog some resistance, speaking in German again.

“The house is clear,” Chris said as I approached. “But I’m going to take him back in, see if I can find anything else.”

“Ok. Should I stay outside?”

“No. I need you to come with me and tell me if anything is missing or out of place.”

I nodded, following them into the house.

Chris shoved the rope into his back pocket and used another hand signal to refocus his partner.

Nitro gave the broken eggs on the floor a tentative sniff and cruised by them, going for the open kitchen window. He stood on his back legs and put his paws on the counter, sniffing the air near the window before ultimately turning to the rest of the house.

We followed the dog from the kitchen to the living room, past the dining room, and up the stairs. Apparently the scent trail led into each room, but the intruder seemed to linger in the bedroom, since that’s where Nitro spent the most time sniffing. My bed, dresser, nightstand, closet, even the bathroom were all areas of interest.

“Anything missing?” Chris asked.

“Doesn’t appear to be,” I replied, closing my nightstand drawer after confirming the silver revolver was still hidden beneath a book.

“Electronics? Cash? Watches?”

I shook my head. “I don’t have anything, except my laptop, and that’s still in my car from work.”

Chris frowned and kept moving, his dark eyes narrowed as he scanned my bedroom from floor to ceiling. They seemed to zero in on the smoke detector. He gave Nitro a command to sit before he let go of his leash and climbed up onto the bed, squinting at the smoke detector.

“What’s wrong?” A renewed sense of panic welled up inside of me, made all the worse by Chris’s suspicions.

Not answering, he pressed the button on the device. Instead of the customary beep, we heard nothing.

“Can I have a candle or a match or something?” Chris asked.

“Sure.” I hurried over to my dresser and snagged the box of matches, handing it over with a sinking feeling.

The scrape of the match head against the side of the box sent a chill down my spine. Chris let the tiny flame consume the entire head and start to eat the wood before he blew it out and held it beneath the smoke detector, letting the gray wisps curl up into the device.

Just like the button, we heard nothing.

A wave of nausea hit me hard.

It was Don. He found me. Again.

Chris unscrewed the housing unit and looked inside, shining his flashlight into the various crevices before turning the beam onto the base plate. After what seemed like ages, he screwed it back into place and hopped off the bed. “I’ll go pick up a new one and—Grey?”

I lifted my gaze to his. “Yes?”

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost. Are you ok?”

“Just tired. Startled, too,” I replied with a tight smile.

“I’m going to go check the other detectors,” he said, hesitation lacing his words. “And the basement.”

I nodded. “I appreciate that.”

“Why don’t you pack a bag? Come stay with me for a little bit?”

“I couldn’t—”

“You can and you will. I’m not leaving you here with a busted smoke detector.” A pang of worry sliced through him and into me. He was thinking about my family, comparing what he knew of their case to what he was seeing. I wished I could tell him he was wrong, that it must have been a simple battery failure, but I think deep down, even he knew something else was going on.

“Alright. I have to find Selene first. Make sure she didn’t get out.”

He nodded and retrieved Nitro’s leash, leading him out of the bedroom and down the stairs.

I walked straight to the closet and pushed the lower row of shirts out of the way, revealing the fluffy cat crouched in the corner. She blinked up at me and meowed in greeting.

“Was it him?”

She blinked again and walked forward slowly, rubbing herself against my ankles. Unfortunately, the initial fear I sensed from her had more to do with Nitro than Don—or whoever had been in my house.

I scooped her up and buried my nose in her soft fur, scratching beneath her chin. “I’m sorry he scared you. Will you be alright for the night?”

She purred and rammed her head into mine, which I took as a “Yes.”

“I’ll be next door.”

Kissing her, I set her on the bed and packed a bag, as Chris instructed.

Heading downstairs, I looked at the broken eggs and sighed. I salvaged what I could of my groceries and deposited the rest into the trash as Chris came up from the basement.

“Everything looks ok down there,” were the words that came out of his mouth, completely contradicting the unease in his gut. If I didn’t have the abilities that I did, I wouldn’t have second-guessed him at all, his lie was so smooth.

“Are you sure?” I prompted.

“Mhmm.” He bypassed me and went to the window, sliding it shut and locking it. “I’m gonna go check out the outside.”

Grabbing my bag, I followed him and Nitro, locking the door behind me, like it would even matter at that point.

By the time I rounded the back of the house, Chris was in the bushes beneath the kitchen window, the beam from his flashlight jumping to and fro in the dark. The frame for the window screen was still in place, but the mesh itself was gone.

“Hardware store’s closed now,” he murmured as I approached, sifting through a pile of leaves with the toe of his boot. “But I’ll run over first thing in the morning and get a new screen, a new detector.”

“What aren’t you telling me?” Better to rip off the truth like a bandaid at that point.

He clicked off the flashlight and met my gaze head-on, the very same question dancing on his tongue. “There are pry marks on the window.”

“You didn’t believe me?”

“No, I did. But if there are pry marks, there might be prints. And I think we should call—”

Before he could finish the thought, I shook my head. “No. I’m not calling the police.”

“ I am the police, remember? You didn’t have a problem coming to me.”

“You’re different.”

“Grey, someone broke into your house. Who would do that?”

“I don’t know.”

“What about your stalker?”

I shook my head again, not wanting to admit the very real probability that Don had tracked me down thanks to that damned newspaper article. “There’s no point in involving your coworkers. Even if they come out with all of their equipment and spend hours turning my house, and my life, upside down, what will that solve? Nothing is missing. Nothing is damaged other than a screen. If this criminal has even half a brain cell, they wore gloves, so, no , there won’t be fingerprints to collect. And all I’ll have done is wasted everyone’s time and put myself even higher up the list of nuisance citizens your department has to deal with. It’s bad enough they’re involved with all of the nonsense at the store, I don’t need them here, either.”

“You’re not a nuisance.”

“Not yet! But if I go running to them every time something is amiss, I’ll be the boy who cried wolf.”

“This is what we’re paid to do!” He gestured at the window, his frustration mounting each time I shot him down. “This is a crime! We solve crimes! No, we can’t prevent them all, but maybe finding this guy, from this crime, stops him from hurting someone else down the road. And you know what would be an even bigger help? If you’d tell us who you think it is because random burglaries don’t happen in Mapleton. Ever. Not to say it can’t, but in all the years I’ve lived here and all the years I’ve been a cop, every single break-in has been related to drugs or some kind of domestic situation. Since you don’t look like a crackhead, what does that leave me with?”

I folded my arms over my chest and looked away, not wanting to fight with him, but not ready to give up Don’s name, either. If I labeled him as the suspect, inevitably someone at Mapleton PD would call to verify his whereabouts. If he didn’t know where I was before that phone call, he certainly would after.

“Be mad all you want,” Chris said, spreading his hands with a disinterested shrug. “But you’re still not staying in this fucking house.”

“You can’t hold me prisoner, officer, no matter how well-meaning your intentions may be,” I shot back with a scowl.

“If I have to handcuff you to the goddamn bed then I will.” He closed the distance between us, his worry and frustration mingling into a heated cloud that wafted through the air. “You came to me for help, so let me help you.”

I wanted to. More than anything. I wanted to lay everything out for him, but I knew I couldn’t. Because of his feelings for me, he was blind to reason and there was no way I would let him throw away his career by doing something reckless, like involving himself with Don. I’d already lost my family, I couldn’t lose Chris too. As dramatic as it sounded, I would rather kill myself before I let anything bad happen to him. Without a doubt. The world needed people like Chris Brandt.

“I’ll stay the night,” I said, chin lifting, my stubbornness matching his. “But I’m not filing a report.”

With a curt nod, he took the win.