“Oh, how awful,” Caroline’s voice was laced with compassion. “It’s terrible to think someone has so little disregard for another’s personal property or space that they’d do these things.”
“How are you feeling?” Brad asked her, his eyes scanning her face worriedly.
“I’m fine,” Caroline assured him with a small smile. “Getting annoyed with everyone—“ Her eyes traveled toward Daniella, Tanner, and Finn, who were hovering near her. “Fussing around me like I’m going to break.”
“That’s a bad bump you have on your temple,” Brad pointed out. “They’re going to fuss in case you have a concussion or something more serious.”
“Thanks for making me feel better.” Caroline laughed, her head swiveling when there was a bang followed by exuberant barking from upstairs. Her eyes flew to Jennifer. “What on earth?”
“I’ll go!” Finn said, turning and rushing toward the sound.
“I’m going to talk to the officers with the dogs,” the officer told them, excusing himself and walking toward the kitchen,where they heard a yell and the officer shout. “My word. Are you alright?”
Brad, Caroline, Daniella, Harriet, Jennifer, Tanner, and Liam rushed to the kitchen to see the officer disappear through the backdoor. Curious, they went to see what was happening when there was a commotion, and the police dogs started barking.
“Stop it, get away!” A female voice echoed from outside.
As the group stepped through the back door, they found Clover clutching something muddy in her hand and looking like she’d just been dragged through the mud.
“Clover?” Harriet said in amazement. “What are you doing here?”
“I was on my way back to the party after going to the hotel to get changed into something more appropriate for a beach party when I saw you all leaving,” Clover explained, wiping mud from her face with the back of her hand. “I followed you here. As I got to this area, something ran in front of my car. So I stopped right there, and when I got out of the car.” She pointed to the one dog that was barking at her. “That dog came dashing through the hedges and scared me. I tried to run for the door but skidded on this.” She handed the item to the policeman, who picked her up from the mud. “It was lying in that patch of mud.”
“That’s my laptop,” Caroline blurted, pushing past the group to get to where Clover and the officer stood. Her eyes fell on Clover’s arm. “You’ve hurt yourself.” She turned and gestured to Daniella. “Can you come and have a look at Clover’s arm?”
Daniella nodded and headed over to help Clover. “Come into the kitchen, and we can get you cleaned up, and I can get a better look.”
Clover nodded and followed Daniella into the house. The policeman handed the laptop to Caroline, who wiped the mud from it and confirmed it was her laptop.
“We’re going to have to take it with us, I’m afraid,” the officer told Caroline, pulling an evidence bag from his pocket and dropping the laptop into it.
“For how long?” Caroline asked him. “That has all my writing on it.”
Brad stepped up next to Caroline. “Do you have a backup of your work? I can get you another laptop by tomorrow.”
“Yes, my daughter set it up to back up to the cloud every hour,” Caroline told him, smiling gratefully. “I can go to Newburyport tomorrow and get one.”
Brad nodded, not wanting to intrude or push his help on her.
“We’re going to wrap up here for now,” the police officer told them as the other three officers appeared, greeted them, and made their way to the police cars. “I’ll be by in the morning.”
“It is morning,” Jennifer pointed at the horizon to where the sun was starting to push through the night. “The sun is already lifting the blinds of the night.”
The officer smiled. “We’ll be back later today,” he corrected before taking his leave.
“Can I make everyone some coffee?” Jennifer offered. “I know I need some.”
“I’d love a cup,” Harriet said, following Jennifer.
“I’ll have a coffee,” Tanner said, walking after the women.
“I—“ Caroline stopped and pinched the bridge of her nose.
Brad’s eyes widened in alarm as he watched her face go gray.
“Caroline?” Brad’s hand reached out and circled the top of her arm as he looked at her.
“I—“ Caroline flinched. Squeezing her eyes tightly together. “Ow, my head.”
