Chapter 10
Not daring to peek, even a little, Christie stayed as still as she could, hoping that the thumping of her heart didn’t give away the fact she was awake.
The intruder moved to her dresser and opened a drawer. The telltale sound of the drawer scraping as he pulled it open told her what was going on. She tried to control her breathing; sure that he could hear her.
Rummaging in the drawer, he then moved on to the next one, doing the same.
Then the sounds stopped. She heard nothing but silence and her own breathing.
Oh my God. Where was he?
Her heart thumped doubly loud in her chest, and she prayed he didn’t hear it and guess she was awake.
Then she heard him breathing. He was standing at the foot of her bed, breathing. Not moving.
Oh my God. He’s looking at me.
She felt it. Pinpricks of fear spread across her body, raising goose bumps.
He stood watching and listening for what felt like forever. And then he moved toward the door.
Still praying, she waited. And waited. Until her bladder felt like it would burst.
She dared to look at her phone. Thirty minutes had gone by. His voice mailbox had cut her off at some point. He hadn’t called her back or texted. She laid the phone down again and waited, listening for sounds of the intruder.
When the house seemed as if it had been silent long enough, and she couldn’t wait any longer, she quietly got up and moved through her house, tiptoeing as she went.
The house was empty.
She ran to the bathroom, feeling like she might burst, and once inside, locked the door before she could pee. Shaking, she did her business and then wrapped her arms around herself, feeling much like she had the night of the theater shooting.
A bad guy was in my house. How did he get in?
She needed to find out, but she didn’t want to leave the safety of the bathroom. Dialing 911, she decided to wait until the police arrived before coming out.
Soon, the police arrived and she came out of the bathroom to answer the door. No bad guy would stick around if the police were there. She let the officers in, and a kind officer took her statement.
They found an open window, with the lock and the glass broken. “I don’t know how I slept through that,” she said.
“From the pattern of the break and the glass, it may not have made much noise,” the officer said. “Don’t beat yourself up over this. Can you look around and see what’s missing?”
“Oh, yes,” she said. They went into her bedroom and looked through the drawers. All of her jewelry was gone. It appeared he’d grabbed everything in the jewelry box, costume jewelry and good jewelry.
She made a list of everything she could remember being in there, and then once the police were done taking her statement and writing down everything she’d told them, they left.
She went back to bed and tried to sleep, but it was impossible.
By morning, she’d already looked up places that could come out and repair the glass, and she started calling them as soon as they opened. The sooner she could get the window repaired the better. After she’d found a man who could come out that day to fix it, she hung up and called her best friend.
“Hey, you’re up early,” Tanya said.
“Yes. Well, I may never sleep again.”
“Oh no. Why not?”
“A burglar broke in last night and stole all my jewelry while I was in bed.”
“Oh, my God. You’ve got to be kidding.”
