and Samson.”
“I was thinking I needed to rescue her from my daughter’s endless questions.”
“You kidding? Harriet is loving this.” He gestured toward the woman with short brown hair and a huge smile on her face.
“Yep, every ornament was on the ground. It took me and some others most of the morning to redecorate the tree. I think Caleb should post guards around it.” Harriet peered at Annie as she stopped at the side of the desk near her daughter. “You must be Sara’s cousin, Annie.” The woman took Annie’s hand and pumped her arm.
“I’ll see you tonight,” Caleb whispered close to Annie’s ear. “I have to pay a visit to one of the boys I think is responsible for the mess in the town square. But first I’ll have to deal with the mayor again. He just came in.”
Caleb strode toward the middle-aged, stocky man whose dark gaze lit upon Caleb. The town leader’s beet-red face attested that his anger was still present. But Caleb’s calm demeanor slowly eroded the man’s wrath until he let out a deep breath and followed Caleb into his office.
Maybe she could tell Caleb what happened in Florida. Maybe he could help her figure out what was going on and what to do about it.
But as she, Sara and Jayden left to finish their errands, another police officer entered the station. Annie almost ran into him when she opened the door. She quickly sidled away. Although dressed in the same blue uniform as Caleb, this man brought to mind Bryan’s warning not to trust the police. As much as she wanted to trust Caleb, she couldn’t.
While Sara was reading to Jayden in the living room and the stew was in the Crock-Pot, Annie stepped outside onto the back stoop. Although the temperature was a little above freezing, she relished the crisp air, the perfectly still wind. The sun sank below the tree line, a rosy hue tinting the few clouds in the sky.
The line of fir trees along the back of Sara’s property caught her attention. She strode across the yard to get away from the house. She didn’t want anyone to overhear her as she made a call. She withdrew her cell from her pocket and called information to find out the police department number in Crystal Creek.
When someone answered, she said to the woman on the other end, “I’m calling about a break-in at my apartment a few days ago.”
“Just a moment please.”
“Can I help you?” a deep, baritone voice asked a minute later.
“This is Annie Coleman.”
Before she could continue, the man said, “We’ve been looking for you. Where are you?”
“I’m on vacation. Have you found out who broke in?”
“No. Do you have anyone angry at you? Your valuables seemed to still be there, but they were destroyed. Television smashed to pieces, pearl necklace broken and scattered all over the floor. It was more vandalism than a robbery.”
Because Bryan’s killer was looking for something. “When I return I’ll come see you. Thanks.” She clicked off quickly, praying she hadn’t made a mistake by calling them. She’d kept hoping they might have a clue to who had trashed her apartment. Now she realized that that was wishful thinking.
She turned at the sound of the back door slamming closed and a yelping dog. A big, black mutt bounded toward her with Jayden not far behind. Annie braced herself, but a few feet from her, the dog skidded to a stop.
Her daughter halted next to the animal and threw her arms around him. “Isn’t Ralph great? He can even do tricks. Caleb showed me.”
At a much more leisurely gait, the police chief approached, again dressed in casual jeans, a blue T-shirt and an open sheepskin coat. “Your daughter wanted to show you Ralph.”
“Will you show Mommy how he can roll over?”
“You can get him to by pointing your finger and making a circle in the air,” he said with a grin.
Jayden squared her shoulders and inhaled a deep breath, then drew a circle. Ralph performed the trick while Jayden clapped.
Caleb retrieved a rubber ball from his coat pocket. “He loves to fetch. Do you want to throw the ball for him?”
“Yes!”
As Caleb gave the toy to Jayden, Annie’s throat closed at the excitement that brightened her child’s face. She ran a few yards, winding up her arm, then lobbed the ball as far as she could. Ralph shot after it. It bounced several times and landed by the back door. Her daughter ran after the dog.
“I’m gonna have to get her a dog. This will cinch it.”
“Kids should have a pet. It teaches them responsibility and how to care for something other than themselves.”
“Thanks for bringing Ralph over.” While Jayden continued to throw the ball for Ralph, Annie started across the yard. “I’d forgotten how quiet this town is. A good quiet. Sara says this is a great place to raise children, that it’s so peaceful a lot of people don’t lock their doors.”
“Yeah, I’m trying to convince them to lock them at least at night, but most of the older folks never have.” Caleb paused, his intense gaze skimming her face. “That includes Sara.”
“I know. That’s when we had the discussion last night about not locking the doors. I did. I told her I couldn’t sleep with one eye open.” When she did sleep, which had been little lately. “Are you staying for dinner?”
“Of course. I could smell that stew the second your daughter opened the front door. I didn’t even have to beg Sara. She asked when I set foot in the living room.”
“How did you know it was stew?”
A gleam twinkled in his eyes. “I looked.”
Annie stopped at the bottom of the back steps and swung around to watch her daughter. “Jayden, it’s time to go in.”
Her daughter trudged toward the stoop with the dog bouncing across the yard much like the rubber ball he held in his mouth had.
Five minutes later, Annie entered the living room after checking on the stew in the Crock-Pot and setting the table. Sara sat in her favorite lounge chair while Jayden sprawled on the area rug, busily drawing a picture of Ralph stretched out before the fireplace.
“Caleb, would you be a dear and build a fire?” Sara pulled the edges of her shawl together.
“Sure. I’ll need to move some of the items away from the fireplace.”
Jayden leaped to her feet. “I’ll help.” She headed straight for the figure of the baby Jesus, gently lifting it from the manger and cradling it against her as if she were playing with one of her dolls that she’d had to leave in Crystal Creek. “Miss Sara says I can hold him. But I hafta to be real careful.”
“Are you sure, Sara?” Annie held her breath watching her child handling the eighteen-inch-long figurine, beautifully painted.
“She’s fine.”
“Here,
