Under the Moon's Shadow (5 page)

“You mean who all have I ticked off lately, right?” The question startled him, and he stared at her, his mouth slightly agape.

She shot him a funny look. “What?”

He chuckled at the irony of her choice of words. “Nothing,” he muttered. “Yeah, if you want to put it that way, I guess that’s what I’m asking.”

Opening the driver’s door, she leaned in to set the briefcase down. Before she answered his question, she gave him a measured look. “This is off the record, right?” He just raised an eyebrow and waited. Giving in, she explained. “This isn’t privileged info, but I don’t want it shouted from the rooftops, either. That article I wrote about the animal shelter? The Grayson camp is not happy about that. They called Marshall and got pretty heated with him.”

“After reading it, I can’t imagine why,” he remarked dryly.  Beth rolled her eyes at him. “Anyone else?”

She tilted her head and placed her hand on her hip with pretend outrage. “Isn’t that enough?” She moved her shoulders in a small shrug. “There are always folks out there who don’t like what I write or what the paper prints, or even what the weather was like today. Who knows? I suppose it’s possible that anyone who thinks they have a beef with me, real or imagined, could have done this. The Graysons are the only ones I can think of who might be inflamed enough to pull something so vicious right now, and I really can’t even see them doing this. This was personal.”

She slid in behind the steering wheel and closed the door as she rolled the window down.  “I don’t know, Ethan. I really have no clue who would do this or why.”

He slipped the notebook back into his pocket. “We’ll figure it out. I’ll follow you out to the farm.” He turned away, then stopped to look back at her. “I’m glad you’re okay, blondie.”

Beth smiled tiredly. “Thanks.”

Once he was in his truck, he flashed his lights at her. Following as she pulled out of the parking lot, he had to make a concerted effort to relax his jaw. When she’d made the joke about

him offering his couch, he’d almost offered his bed, instead. Just for a few minutes, as he drove behind her, he let himself wonder how it would have turned out if he’d made the offer, and she’d accepted.

Chapter Six

Sunday morning, Beth drove into town with her parents to survey the damage on the apartment. As she unlocked the door and led them inside, she saw that someone, probably Jason, had swept up all the broken glass from the hall.  In the stark morning light, the rest of the destruction looked even worse.

“I guess I was hoping some magic restoration fairy would come along last night and fix everything.”

Her father walked over and gave her a quick hug. “We’ll get it straightened up, honey,” Richard told her.

Her mother had made her way through the mess and was now heading back into the living room. Jackie had a determined look on her face, and seeing it, Beth started to feel a little better. She felt a rush of gladness that her parents were the people they were.

“Garbage bags in the kitchen?” Jackie asked. Beth told her yes and went to the cabinet to pull them out, careful to avoid stepping in the mess from the countertops. She handed several bags to her mother.

“What’s the plan?”

“Your father and I will start in here and in the bathroom and gather up all this broken stuff. You head into one of the other rooms and go through your paperwork, clothing, whatever needs sorting, and we’ll have this cleaned up before you know it,” Jackie said as she passed some bags to Richard.

Beth grabbed her in a hug, tight and quick, and then headed toward the office without a word. By the time Jason and Chase showed up, she’d made significant progress in getting the office set to rights, and her parents almost had the bathroom livable again. Richard answered the door and let her brothers in, and Beth poked her head around the office door to greet them.

“Hudson Cleaning Service,” Jason said in a sing-song voice. When he saw the pile of garbage bags stacked in the hall, he whistled low. “Dang, you guys are smoking. Don’t even need us.”

Chase walked over to where she stood.  He looked at the room behind her, his face tight with anger. Not speaking, he ruffled her hair gently before going into the living room.

She turned and laid the stack of papers she had been sorting down on her desk, then followed him. “Were you guys able to pull anything useful last night?” she asked Jason.

“The lock didn’t show signs of being forced, so whoever came in used a key or picked the lock. You’re probably going to want to replace it, just in case. As to the fingerprints? There were lots of prints, but they were mainly just ours, Lauren’s, and Annie’s. I’m sorry, sis.”

Beth sat down on one of the undamaged bar stools, quietly absorbing the implications. “I was hoping for something, but I’m not surprised.”

Jackie came into the room in time to hear Jason’s words and, with her hands on her hips, frowned. “Well, we know that none of us is responsible for this. What does that mean? That you didn’t find any fingerprints? What do you do now?”

Jason’s frustration was evident. “There isn’t a whole lot we can do, Mom.  This building doesn’t have security cameras, does it, Beth?”

“No.”

“We can’t pull the security tape, since it doesn’t exist. With no prints and no solid evidence, the investigation stops here. None of her stuff was taken, so we can’t expect any help from the pawnshops. The only thing we can do is just keep our eyes and ears open and hope that this was just a random break-in.”

“There has to be something more you can do,” Jackie said, incredulous. “Couldn’t it have been kids?”

Jason hesitated, and Beth stepped in to explain.

“Mom, the fact that they didn’t leave fingerprints means they probably wore gloves, and kids wouldn’t do that. Since they didn’t take anything that I’m aware of, this was probably a personal hit at me more than anything else. Whoever did this – they didn’t want to be caught. We won’t know who it was unless they want us to know. There’s nothing Jason or the sheriff’s department can do.”

Jackie walked over and pulled out the other bar stool, sitting down beside Beth. “I guess I knew that, honey. I just don’t like it. Why don’t you guys take all these bags out to the dumpster? Those perfumes are getting to me.”

They nodded and did as she asked, and once they were alone, Jackie turned to her daughter.

“You’re staying awfully calm about all these shenanigans. I know it has to be bothering you, seeing your belongings thrown around like this.”

Beth moved her shoulders and leaned back against the counter as she looked around. “I’m trying to focus on the smaller picture and getting it cleaned up. Not on what was destroyed. I’ll have plenty time to panic about that later, I suppose. Wish they hadn’t broken my bowl, though. That really burns me, Mom. I looked for that stupid thing for so long.”

Jackie tucked her arm around Beth’s shoulders and squeezed. “I know, honey, but that bowl can be replaced. It might take a little time, but you’ll find another one. At least they left the bookshelf with your grandmother’s pitcher intact.”

“That shelf is attached to the wall. Guess pulling it down was more trouble than they thought it was worth.”

As they heard the men coming back Beth stood and stretched. She went to the refrigerator, getting out soft drinks and several bottles of water. “I think I’m ready for a break from the papers. I’m going to start getting clothes sorted.”  She headed to the bedroom. “I’m just going to wash everything. Even if they’re not damaged or dirty, I don’t think I could wear them without washing them. They wouldn’t feel clean.”

Jackie followed to help as the men loaded up again with bags and went back out, closing the door behind them. She stopped in the doorway when she saw the perplexed look on her daughter’s face.

“What’s wrong?”

Beth shook her head and looked around at the piles of clothing. “I can’t find my underwear.” She held up a couple of the sleep shirts that had been near the top. “They were in the same drawer as my sleepwear, at least the camisoles were. Panties and bras were in the next drawer down, but none of them are here.” She met Jackie’s gaze and saw that her mother understood the implications of the missing clothing.

“Have you looked through all of this?” Jackie asked as she moved across to one of the piles and sorted through it quickly. After not finding any underwear, she moved to the next. Beth did the same, and they soon had all the piles turned over. The lingerie was nowhere to be found.

“I don’t like this, Mom.” She pulled out the drawers that were still in the dresser. They were empty, their contents on floor as well. “Let me check the dryer.”

She walked into the hall to the small closet where the washer and dryer were located. The clothes she had left in the dryer were undisturbed, mainly t-shirts and casual clothes, with just a few pieces of underwear thrown in. Slamming the door back, she cursed, startling the men, who had come back in and were taking a short break. Just to be thorough, she checked the laundry hamper and saw that the few items in that basket were also intact.

“What’s wrong?” Chase asked.

“My underwear is gone.” She looked at Jason as she spoke. He slowly straightened from where he had been sitting, his face going blank.

“All of it?”

She nodded. “Except for a few things that are in the dryer and the dirty clothes.”

“I’d better call Ethan,” Jason said.

Beth cringed at the thought, but knew he had no choice. The missing underwear changed things drastically. “Go ahead. I’m going to take one more look in the bedroom.”

When she came out, Jason was putting his phone back on his belt.

“He’s going to add it to the report. He’s also going to run all the registered sex offenders in the area, see if this fits any of their MOs.” He gestured around the apartment as he spoke, obviously angry. “That’s all we can do at this point, damn it.”

Beth moved toward him. “No one expects you to do more, Jason.” Her parents and Chase echoed their agreement.

“Yeah, well, maybe I expect me to do more, Beth.” He turned and slammed out of the apartment.

She started after him, but Richard stopped her. “Give him a few minutes, honey. He needs to cool down some.”

Forcing herself to not follow her brother, she went to the washer and got a load of clothes going.  As the tub filled with soapy water, Jackie walked over to Beth and touched her arm.

“Why don’t I show you what we were able to salvage in the bathroom and start a list? You’re going to need to run out and get some things this afternoon.”

She allowed her mother to lead her into the bathroom, and they went over what was left. After a few minutes when Jason hadn’t come back in, she excused herself to go look for him. She left the apartment and headed to the door at the end of the hall that led onto the roof. The tendency to go up when sorting something out was one she and Jason shared.

Opening the door, she looked around. Jason was seated at one of the patio tables the building’s residents used in warm weather. She sat down next to him, and for a little while, she just looked out over the view, not speaking. The renovated three-story building sat halfway up the hill that led to the bluffs overlooking the town, leaving the view of the town and the river below unobstructed. After a few minutes, she spoke.

“I never get used to seeing you in cop mode. You’re always so danged happy-go-lucky, so laid back. But Deputy Hudson? He’s like a different person, so cool and competent. When I see you do something like searching the apartment last night, it hits me that we’re adults now.”

Jason grunted and stretched his legs out in front of him. “It’s who I am, Beth.” There was a serious note in his voice she didn’t hear very often. “A lot of people don’t expect it of me. They think just because I’m a doctor’s son and half my family is as rich as Croesus that I don’t take my job seriously, that I’m just playing at being a cop.” He turned to look at her, something dark in his expression.

Beth reached over and laid her hand on his arm. “I understand, believe me. I can’t tell you how many short-term reporters we’ve had at the
Journal
over the years who’ve had the opinion that since I’m the owner’s granddaughter and all, I must just be there to keep the family name in the business, especially when they find out how young I am. They aren’t able to get their heads around the fact that I’ve worked there since I was twelve years old.”

“I know you understand. I guess it just gets to me. You’re my sister, you’ve had this horrible invasion of your home, and my hands are tied. There’s no way I can figure out who broke into your apartment unless we get really, really lucky and someone comes forward with information, and that means I can’t protect you.”

“Don’t beat yourself up about this. You know the world doesn’t work that way. I know you’ll do whatever you can, and that’s what’s important in the long run. And I can protect myself.”

He shot her a look. “I know. Being unable to help, though, that’s hard to accept,” he said as he sat forward and scrubbed his face with his hands.

“Well, I suppose we could sit up here all day, moaning about how we can’t do anything, or we could go back downstairs and clean up my apartment.”

He looked over at her for a long moment before he smiled. “You won’t let me feel sorry for myself at all, will you?”

“Nope, not in the least.”

As they headed back to the door that led inside, he teased her. “On the bright side, at least I don’t have to tell my sweetheart that all my underwear’s been stolen.”

Beth turned to him, eyes flashing. Half amused, half horrified, she tried to keep her face stern. “Ethan is not my ‘sweetheart’ and you know it, Jason Hudson. I’d better not hear you use that word around him, hear me?”

Jason just grinned and held the door open for her to pass. “By the way - I think we both owe Mom some money for the Swear Jar,” he said.

When the Hudson children had still been young, Jackie had decreed a family moratorium on cursing. Anyone who broke the rule had to pay a fine, which was deposited into a large jar in the kitchen. When a certain level had been reached, they would cash out the jar and use the money to help a local charity or needy family. Even though the children were all grown now, Joely being the last child to leave the nest when she started college two years ago, Jackie still expected to them all to contribute and use the honor system.