the cool metal latch on the heavy gate and walked with purpose to the door. When she knocked, the sound echoed in the quiet street like a gunshot.
For a moment, she stood still, summoning an excuse, waiting for footsteps.
None came.
Just to be sure, she knocked again.
Still, nothing.
Pulling her phone from her pocket she called Miles.
He answered immediately.
‘I’m in,’ she said, hurrying down the steps toward the side of the house. ‘Do it now.’
There was a long silence.
‘You sure you want to do this?’ he asked.
‘I’m already doing it.’
Without waiting for his reply she hung up, setting the phone to silent before she shoved it into her pocket.
Back on Constance Street, Miles should now be going up to the officer standing guard and demanding to talk to a senior detective. He’d complain about the slow pace and lack of information. He’d get Natalie and Josh involved – it was never very hard to get them riled up about deadlines.
Hopefully, this would keep everyone busy out front, ensuring nobody wandered around to the back while she was there.
That was the plan, anyway.
The really terrible plan.
There was no gate between the front and back garden of number 3691. A narrow walkway led past a ginger hedge on the side of the house to the perfectly manicured back garden.
A patio table surrounded by six wicker chairs sat near the back door. A curving stone path led through lush daisies and climbing bougainvillea to where two pear trees bookended the yard right in front of the back fence.
Ducking behind one of the trees, Harper peered into the backyard of the murder house.
The garden across the fence wasn’t at all like the one in which she now stood. The lawn was neat, but unimaginative.
A purple bicycle leaned against the wall of the house near a rusted barbecue grill that looked like it hadn’t been used in quite a while.
This was the house of a single mom too busy to worry about gardening.
From here, Harper could see the murder house had big windows lining the rear wall and a back door with three steps leading down to the patio.
The fence between the two houses was about four-feet tall and chain link. That was normal around here – the summer humidity and heavy winter rains destroyed wood so quickly most people didn’t bother with it. Harper could make it over the fence easily.
The only problem was, now that she was here, all she could see was that she was about twenty long steps from getting arrested. There was no place to hide in that yard. And the hot sun reflected off the windows, making it impossible to see inside. There could have been fifty police looking out at her and she’d never know.
Biting her lip, she stood staring across the expanse of green grass.
She could turn around. Tell Miles she changed her mind. Go back to the crime tape and do her job.
But then she remembered that girl again – her achingly familiar look of despair.
She had to know what was in that house.
Taking a deep breath, she stepped on the raised roots of the nearest tree for a bit of height then, grasping the top of the fence, warm from the sun, she stuck the toe of one shoe into a chink in the fence and hoisted herself up, swinging a leg over the top and dropping down on the other side.
The jangle of the metal against the support poles seemed absolutely deafening. As soon as she landed, she crouched low and froze, eyes on the house, waiting to see if she’d been noticed.
There was no cover here. If she was going to be caught it would happen now.
Nothing moved. Nobody opened the back door. No one yelled a command.
Adrenaline gave her heart a kick. She had to run.
Keeping low, she sped across the grass.
It was no more than forty feet from the back of the garden to the house, but it seemed to take forever until she made it, pressing against the warm yellow siding between the door and the window.
There, she paused, breathing heavily.
It was strangely quiet. All the sounds of a normal afternoon were missing. No children laughed. No dogs barked. No cars rumbled by. She could hear her heart pounding, and her own rasping breaths.
It took a minute to steady her nerves enough to move again. Gritting her teeth, Harper inched along the wall to the window and stopped.
If this house was like the ones she knew, the kitchen would be here. All she needed to do was look into that window and she would know the truth. One way or another. If there was nothing there – if the murder scene were in the bedroom, or the living room – she was done here.
Steeling herself, she turned and took a sliding, sideways step to her left until she could see through the bottom sliver of window.
A uniformed policeman stood directly in front of her.
Harper jerked back, her heart pounding in her throat.
On the verge of panic, she stood stiffly, forehead pressing against the wall, nails digging into the yellow paint, breathing in the smell of dust and heat and her own fear.
It’s OK, she promised herself. It’s OK.
The cop’s back had been to her. There was no way he saw her.
Still, every muscle in her body tensed as she strained to hear what was happening.
There were no sounds of movement or alarm from inside the yellow house. Only the faint murmur of official voices, words too soft for her to make out.
Harper bit her lip hard, trying to decide what to do. A cop was right in front of the window. She was now at one hundred percent risk of getting caught.
But in that brief flashing view, she’d seen the kitchen. And something on the floor.
She couldn’t leave now. Not without knowing.
She took a strangled breath, hands clenching into fists against the sun-soaked wall. It took everything in her to slide back to the window and look again.
The policeman had shifted to the left. He was leaning back, his uniform dark against the glass. Harper could see past him on the right-hand side.
It took a moment for her eyes to adjust from the bright sunlight to the shadowy interior.
It was a more modern kitchen than the one she’d grown up with, but not dissimilar – square and spacious. Cupboards – modern and expensive.
