I’d found some blankets in the upstairs linen closet. Gran’s water and electricity were still working, so I’d been able to wash them. I knew I’d freeze, sleeping in the car without something to keep me warm. I considered sleeping on the living room floor with Chaucer curled up next to me, but then I thought about all the creatures still hiding somewhere in the house, and me sleeping down where they’d have easy access to my face. Just nope.
Chaucer followed me outside. I moved the front seats as far forward as they would go. Chaucer took the back seat, as he had every time he got in. I felt bad making him sleep on the floor of the car, but I did put a blanket down first to cushion it. I lay across the back seat, one blanket cocooning me while another served as my pillow. I fell asleep with a hand on Chaucer’s head.
Sometime later, I was jolted out of sleep by a bark and a bang. Again, I might have shrieked. A flashlight beam cut through the pitch black. I sat up, plastered against the far door, the blanket pulled up to my nose. Chaucer’s deep bark boomed in the too-small car. The light spun and illuminated a hideous face. That time, I knew I shrieked—I was aware of it at the time in a huh-I-didn’t-realize-that-I-actually-made-that-sound kind of way.
He put his fingers over the top of the flashlight and then pointed it at himself again. Without the under glare, he wasn’t hideous, just really freaking annoying.
“What the hell, dude? Is this your thing? Do you sneak up on people in the middle of the night, peeking in windows, trying to scare the crap out of them?”
“Why are you sleeping in your car? It’s thirty degrees, and this back window has holes in it.” His voice was a rumble in the dark, clearly audible through the cracked and broken windows.
“It’s brisk. Chaucer and I sleep better with an open window.”
He grumbled something I didn’t hear. “Katie, why aren’t you sleeping in the house?”
“It’s infested. Rodents, bats, who knows what else. I cleaned all day and I’m not even close to done.” Wait a minute. “Why do you care? I’m on my own property.” I checked my watch. “And it’s four in the morning. Why are you even here, freaky stalker cop?”
More grumbling. I’m pretty sure I heard some cussing, too. “I’m not stalking you. I got into the habit of driving by Nellie’s house to keep an eye on it over the last few months. I forgot about you until I saw the car. Then I saw the mattresses and junk on the porch. I got out to investigate and saw you, sleeping in your beat-to-shit car.”
Humph. “A likely story.”
I think he was grinding his teeth now. Weird sound. “One more time. Why are you sleeping in your car? If the house isn’t habitable, why didn’t you go to a hotel?”
“Hotels are expensive, genius. I’m just going to go back to cleaning when I wake up, which is apparently now, fricking nosy jerk.” I pulled the blanket tighter around myself.
He turned, and his flashlight beam lit up the porch and house. “How did animals get in?”
I blew out a breath. “Three windows were left open. The screens were chewed through. From the looks of it, they had quite the kegger.”
“I didn’t think to check all the windows. When Nellie got sick, Pops moved her into his house so she wouldn’t have to climb stairs, and so he’d be there when she needed him. Her house has been empty for months.”
The night was becoming more gray than black, allowing me to see the annoyance written all over his face. “Do you want me to go in? Try to get rid of whatever’s taken roost?”
“No thanks. Bye now!” My stomach chose that moment to rumble. Chaucer shifted, putting his head in my lap to investigate the sound.
More swearing. “Have you eaten?”
“You bet. See ya!” The damn cop would not take a hint.
He started to back away, thank goodness, but then stopped. “I can come back with my pickup. Take all that stuff to the dump for you.”
I leaned forward again, trying to get a better look at his expression. “Why would you do that? You don’t like me, remember?”
“I don’t care enough to not like you. Anyway, it’s Nellie I’m thinking about.” He exhaled sharply. “I should have checked the windows. I’ve been driving by every day to check on her house and never once thought about the inside.”
He turned back to me. “Listen, don’t let Pops know, okay? He’s been killing himself tending the garden for her. Just...don’t tell him. Okay?”
“I won’t.”
“I’ll go get my pickup now. Can you pull out anything else that’s been destroyed? And I’ll haul it all away. He may stop by to check on the plants. I don’t want him seeing any of this.”
“Okay.”
He jogged back to his cruiser and left without another word.
“I guess we’re getting started early this morning,” I said to Chaucer.
I fed him with what was left in the bag of dog food. “We need to go shopping today, buddy.”
