staircase and reached between the steps. He ran his fingers across the cement. They stumbled over a chain of some sort. As he scooped it up, the hair on the back of his neck quivered.
* * *
MICHELLE SMILED AS she pushed through the door of the first bedroom after the bend in the hallway. Colin’s concern for her well-being sent tingles along her skin. And the fact that he’d taken the basement sent a wave of relief through her body. No way did she want to head down those stairs into the darkness.
The bedrooms at Columbella surprised her with their order. A thick layer of dust coated everything in sight, but the grime couldn’t hide the beautiful lines of the furniture, and all the beds sported full linen, including matching bedspreads, shams and pillows.
She lifted a flounced duvet and peered under the bed. She strode to the closet and sneezed as she flung open the doors. Empty hangers swayed on a rod, boxes sat in neat rows on the floor.
She exited the room and a creaking noise from the next bedroom slowed her gait. Probably just the floorboards protesting her intrusion.
Despite her commonsense approach, her heart skittered in her chest as she eased open the door. She glanced over her shoulder, longing for Colin’s reassuring voice.
She shuffled into the room. Her gaze darted toward the bedspread, wrinkled and wavy with indentations. She ducked and peered under the bed. Dust bunnies scurried into the corner.
She slid a sidelong glance at the closet, almost wishing she could ignore the sliver between the two doors. Every other closet door in every other bedroom had been closed. Holding her breath, she tiptoed to the closet.
“Colin?” She licked her dry lips. He was probably in the bowels of the house…the spooky part. She squared her shoulders and whipped open the closet door.
Her mouth dropped open and she stumbled backward. She hit the bedpost. The jolt of the collision cut through her shock and she let loose with a scream that had to be piercing straight through the floors to the basement.
CHAPTER FIVE
THE SHAGGY MAN in the closet spread his arms wide and smiled. “Caught me.”
Michelle crossed her arms over her chest as if to ward off a blow or a bullet…or the man’s pungent odor. His hands were empty, but that didn’t mean anything. He could have a hidden weapon or he could strangle her with his bare hands.
She choked and spun around, colliding with Colin as he charged through the door, his weapon grasped in one hand.
He gripped her arm with the other hand to steady her. “What happened? What’s wrong?”
She thrust a shaky finger at the closet where the disheveled stranger still hadn’t moved. “He’s in there.”
Colin shoved her toward the door and strode toward the closet. He flung the doors wide and leveled his gun at the man slouching amid the dresses and skirts.
“Get out now and put your hands where I can see them. Call 9-1-1, Michelle.”
She patted the pockets of her shorts and dragged out her cell phone. While she breathlessly relayed the pertinent information to the dispatcher, the man in the closet inched a tentative foot forward.
“Be careful, Colin.” The fact that Colin had the man at gunpoint didn’t ease her fears.
Colin gestured with his gun. “Hurry up and keep your hands in front of you.”
The man shuffled forward a few more steps, his arms held out. He started whistling.
Michelle sucked in a breath. Was it some sort of signal? She dipped into the hallway and looked both ways.
The man stood before Colin and peered at him through a veil of stringy hair. His filthy clothes hung on his gaunt frame, his lips, still puckered in song, framed by a wild beard. He dropped his arms to his sides and his hands nestled amid the folds of his raggedy clothing.
Colin steadied the metal-gray barrel of the gun. “Put your hands back in front of you where I can see them.”
The man gave him a gap-toothed smile. “I had a gun once. Don’t have it no more.”
“Let me see your hands. Real slow.”
The man hunched his narrow shoulders and raised his arms again. He held his hands, tipped with dirty fingernails, in front of him where they trembled. “Is that what you want, boss?”
“What are you doing here?”
“Is this your house, boss?”
Colin’s jaw tightened. “No.”
“Not mine, either.”
“So what are you doing here?”
Michelle glanced at the time on her cell phone. The police had a mile to get here at high speed. Where were they?
The man moved his hand toward his face, and Colin’s finger tightened on the trigger.
He scratched his beard and turned his head toward Michelle. “I scared the pretty lady, huh?”
Michelle nodded, and her heartbeat began to return to normal. He seemed harmless enough now, but maybe Colin’s big gun had something to do with that impression.
Sirens wailed in the distance, and the grungy man swore. “You didn’t have to go and call the cops on me. I didn’t do nothing wrong. Just scared her. Wasn’t even trying. Heard her going through the rooms and figured I’d better wait it out in the closet. Didn’t know she’d go snooping in the closet.”
Colin narrowed his eyes. The hand on his gun seemed to relax, or at least his knuckles were no long the color of white marble.
Michelle shifted her gaze to Colin’s face. Was he thinking what she was thinking? This man with his long hair, overgrown beard and disheveled clothing didn’t fit the profile of Amanda’s killer. And he definitely wasn’t responsible for the murders in Vegas and San Francisco.
Colin repeated his previous question. “What are you doing in this house?”
Waving his arms at his sides, the man said, “It’s empty, isn’t it? I needed a place to crash.”
Several pairs of footsteps charged up the stairs. “Michelle? Roarke? You up here?”
Colin backed up to the door, keeping in front of her and keeping his gun trained on the homeless man. “In here.”
His own gun drawn, Chief Evans barreled through the door almost knocking Michelle’s shoulder. “Face down. Prone position.”
Colin lowered his weapon and shook his head. “I think he’s just a homeless guy camping out.”
Another officer had joined the chief and shoved the stranger onto the hardwood floor. The cop dragged the man’s arms behind his body and snapped a pair of cuffs on him.
The
