Chapter 16 - The Men at the Back Gate
I was across town with Tessa, nowhere near the house. She called the police while I called Jonah at the gatehouse.
"Don't go home," he said. "We're sending a patrol."
On Mrs. Alvarez's video, two men in work jackets tried a key at my back door. One carried a small tool case. The other kept looking toward the street.
They weren't there for a television. They went straight to the doorframe where the camera sat, apparently trying to disable it before entering my study.
The neighborhood guards reached them before they got inside. One man ran but was stopped at the exit gate. The other dropped the tool case and claimed he was there to service the alarm system.
Officer Chen later identified him as an employee of Cole Darrow's property-inspection firm. The key in his pocket opened my back gate. Ryan had ordered copies of that key during our marriage.
"The camera?" I asked.
"They cut its power supply," Chen said. "The battery was already low. But the earlier evidence has been preserved."
I thought of my mother teaching me to test the back-door lock by tugging twice after turning the key. She used to say a lock was only useful if you trusted the person holding the spare. Ryan had copies of every key in the house, and I had never once asked why he needed so many.
I sat on Tessa's office floor with my back against a filing cabinet. My hands wouldn't stop shaking. I was tired of being brave on command.
Tessa sat beside me without saying anything. After a while she passed me a bottle of water.
"I want my house back," I said. "Not just the deed. I want to stop checking every window before I sleep."
"Then we're going to take care of what we can prove. One thing at a time."
That evening, Chen called with news. The man who had tried the back gate had agreed to provide messages from the person who hired him.
May you like
The sender's name was saved in his phone as Mrs. W.
But the number belonged to Ryan.
