front door opened and Hannah, Paul and the two officers entered. Hannah hugged the girls tightly. Lucky jumped all over them, wagging his tail.
“You poor kids! To think we were at a meeting about this horrible event and the man we’re looking for was here, trying to get in. I don’t even want to imagine what might’ve happened!”
“Hannah.” Paul’s voice was calm. “The police have told us not to jump to any conclusions. We don’t know that this is the same man. It might’ve been an attempted burglary.” He looked at the girls. “Are you two all right?”
Julia and Bird nodded. “I ... we ... didn’t know he was out there,” Julia said. “Lucky barked his head off for a bit, and then stopped. It was Bird who saw the footprints under the windows when she came back from ...” Julia stopped herself just in time.
“From checking it out. I went outside to see why Lucky was barking and I saw the footprints,” Bird jumped in. “I didn’t want Julia to be upset so I called 911 when she was busy making cookies.”
The female officer — her name tag read Beth Richardson — spoke. “That was the right thing to do. You were also very smart to have locked the windows, which he tried to open. There are hand smears all over them. Most people lock the doors and forget about the windows.” She took out her pencil and pad. “What time did the dog start barking?”
Bird looked at Julia. Julia hesitated. “Well, Aunt Hannah left around quarter to seven,so it was probably around eight o’clock?” She looked at Bird for support.
Bird nodded. “Probably.” So far, so good.
“Eight?” the officer asked. “Why did you wait until nine to call?”
Bird opened her mouth to answer, but nothing came out. Oh no, she thought. Not this again. She tried again. Nothing.
Julia answered for her. “She didn’t go out to look until then.”
Bird wanted to hug her sister but she didn’t dare make eye contact.
“Is that why?” Officer Richardson asked Bird pointedly.
Bird nodded.
The male officer, Lou Polito, addressed Bird. “Your Aunt Hannah told us that you’ve seen a ‘wild’ man around. Can you tell us more about that?”
They were on safer ground now, and Bird relaxed. Her vocal chords worked. She spoke rapidly in case they stopped cooperating again. “Yesterday after dinner, when my horse and I were out on the trails, a man jumped right out of nowhere. He wanted to talk, I could tell, but Sunny spooked and raced home. Later I realized that he looked like the police sketch. I was so glad that my horse ran away! And, today, I think someone was in the bushes when I was riding out there.” Bird gestured to the front paddock.
Hannah gasped. “You didn’t tell me that! I would never have left you girls alone!”
Bird felt another stab of guilt. She had known, and she’d left her little sister alone.
“What made you think that someone was here earlier today?” asked Officer Polito.
“My horse ... spooked.” She could hardly tell them that Sunny had told her.
Officer Richardson looked up from her pad.“Can you describe this man?”
“Yes. Well, he looked homeless. And lost. Wild. Dirty. Scruffy. Rough dark hair, dark eyes, dirty skin. He was mostly naked. Except for dark blue gym shorts and old white sneakers.”
Officer Richardson smiled at Bird kindly. “Thank you.”
Officer Polito finished the interview. “We’ll look around outside the house, take footprint casts and dust for fingerprints before we leave. We may bring a dog over to follow the scent, if it’s not too dry. Call if there’s any reason, big or small. We can be here in minutes. Here’s my card. Put it beside the phone. Call me directly at any hour.”
“Thanks, officers,” said Hannah as she walked them out. “We’ll stay inside and keep all the doors locked. And windows,” she added quickly.
Officers Polito and Richardson went to the car. They took their kits out of the trunk and began the careful work of retrieving evidence.
An hour later, the cruiser finally drove away. The family sat around the kitchen table with tall glasses of milk and Julia’s cooled, freshly made cookies.
“How was the meeting?” asked Bird innocently, steering the conversation away from the evening’s events at Saddle Creek.
Paul thought for a moment. “It may have done more harm than good. People got angry and upset.”
“They’re scared,” added Hannah. “They fear for their safety.”
“You were back sooner than we thought,” said Bird. “I called the police because I didn’t know when you’d be home.”
“It was the right thing to do. If there’s ever a problem, that’s who to call.” Hannah pointed at Officer Polito’s card, stuck on the bulletin board over the phone. She put the empty glasses in the dishwasher and wiped the counter. “I don’t know about you folks, but I’m beat. I’m ready for bed.”
“Me,too,”said Julia,yawning.“Bird,can I sleep in your room tonight?”
“Of course. I need the company.”
Hannah motioned to Julia. “Come on. I’ll help you with the futon.”
They headed up the stairs, Hannah’s arm around Julia’s shoulders, leaving Bird and Paul downstairs to lock up. They let Lucky out, and stood together at the kitchen door. The moon was large and bright in the clear night sky.
“You know, when the moon is full, its brightness obscures the stars, even though they’re up there, too,” said Paul. “We see them only after the moon begins to dim.”
“That’s totally poetic!”
“I try.” He smiled,then looked surprised. “Did you hear what I just said?”
“The brightness of the moon obscures the stars?”
“It just came to me! Sometimes what appears to be obvious obscures the actual truth.”
Bird thought about that. “You can’t see the forest for the trees?”
“Almost, but not quite.”
“Okay. What are you talking about?”
“The meeting tonight. It looks obvious to most people that Pierre Hall is the culprit. He’s got a violent reputation and it was his ex-wife who was the victim.”
“And to us it looks obvious that it’s the wild man. He’s so weird. He’s creeping me out.” Bird shivered.
Paul put his hand on her shoulder. “And yet, neither one has been proven guilty. We might have to look past the moon and examine the stars before we find the truth. Just a thought.”
Bird
