not here for things, Casey.”
Oh, God, anything but that. Despair clouded around my heart and I squeezed my eyes shut. “Please don’t kill me.”
“No, I wouldn’t dream of destroying something as beautiful as you.”
“Casey!”
I jerked at the shout of my name and the man behind me yanked me back against his chest and covered my mouth with one gloved hand. “What happened to the old bitch who lived next door?”
It had dawned on me already that this man knew me, even if I didn’t recognize the voice.
“Casey!”
There was a loud snap of wood breaking and the man released me.
“Shawn, hurry!”
The intruder shoved me to the floor and darted out. The back door slammed behind him.
Strong hands were suddenly pulling me from the floor. “What’s wrong? I heard you scream!”
I pointed toward the door with shaking hands. “It was open. Someone was in here.”
“Stay here.” He released me and pulled a gun from the back of his jeans as he ran toward the back door. “Call 911, ask for a unit, and tell them there is an officer on the scene that needs assistance.”
3
“No, I’m positive that door was locked before I went on vacation.” I stared at the uniformed officer. “I took my dog to be boarded, arranged for him to be fixed while I was gone, and came back here. I checked all of the windows and the alleyway door before I left.”
“And you haven’t opened it since you’ve returned?”
“No.”
“Does anyone besides you have a key?”
“Not that I’m aware of. I don’t give out keys to my apartment.”
“How long have you lived here?”
“Nearly five years.” I glanced at Shawn, who was talking with a plainclothes cop who had arrived shortly after the uniformed officer.
“Was anything out of place when you returned?”
“No. I checked on my dog and came home.”
“And that was Saturday?”
“Yes. On Sunday, I slept in, did some laundry, and went to a formal event downtown at the gallery where I work. I came home.”
“And your ex-boyfriend showed up?” The detective asked as he came to stand near the cop who had been questioning me.
I pursed my lips and glared at Shawn, who had turned to hear the answer to that question. “Yes. He did. We talked and then he left.”
“Don’t look at me like that. They can’t help you with this if you don’t give them all of the details,” Shawn said evenly.
I glared one more second and then focused on the detective who had sat down on the couch in front of me. The uniformed officer slid away. “His name is Connor Grant. He’s the lead on the Holman Gallery’s security contract and it wasn’t him.”
“How can you be certain? You said yourself that you never even got a look at the man.” Detective Martin asked softly. I was pleased that I’d managed to remember his name in the twenty minutes that had passed since he’d introduced himself.
“I’ve known the man for over a year. It was not Connor.”
“I will be contacting him to ask him a few questions, just to cover my bases.”
I nodded. “Fine.”
“You said the intruder spoke to you.”
“Yes, he told me to shut up when I screamed and punched me in the side.” My hand went to my ribs briefly and then I straightened. “Then I tried to offer him money and my computer. I figured he was here to rob me.”
“His reaction?”
“He said, ‘I’m not here for things, Casey’.” I cleared my throat. Repeating the words hadn’t made them any less scary. “I asked him not to kill me and he said he wouldn’t.”
“Do you remember his words exactly?”
I snorted. “I couldn’t destroy something so pretty or something close to it. It all happened very fast.”
“So, you started down the hallway to check the back door as Detective Tranner had requested and you see that it’s ajar.”
“Yes.”
“And he comes at you from behind?”
“Yes.”
“He was in your bedroom?”
I scrunched up my nose. “Yes, apparently.”
“Do you remember if you went into your bedroom when you returned home?”
“Yeah, I went in and changed clothes.”
“You opened the closet?”
“No.” I swallowed hard. “He was in my closet?”
“Evidence seems to support that he spent some time in your closet. He could have been here when you got home.”
I wanted to throw up. This could not be happening. I just wasn’t the kind of woman who found herself in a situation like this. “He knows my name but he isn’t someone I’ve spent time with or anyone I work with.”
“How do you know that?”
“He was surprised by Shawn. I think he thought that Mrs. Tranner still lived next door to me.”
“Shawn, why did you suggest that Ms. Andrews check her back door?”
Shawn sat down on the loveseat with me and picked up one of my hands. Casually he rubbed warmth back into my fingers. “The front door doesn’t have security on it, the back doors on both apartments are in need of repair. When I was out in the alley earlier in the afternoon I noticed that people seem to use it a lot as a shortcut. It occurred to me that it would be easy for someone to come through the alley and into one of our apartments. I doubt anyone would consider someone walking into or out of that alley as suspicious activity.”
“The door wasn’t forced, was it?”
“No.” Shawn shook his head. “It wasn’t.”
“Did you get a look at the guy?”
“No, he was gone by the time I got into the alley. I checked the street. The traffic was pretty tight out front and everything looked normal. He either had a car waiting for him
