What She Forgot (What She 2)

Clark

Shelly bellowed my name from the other room. “Clark!” she cried. Then the door flew open, banging loudly against the wall.

“Someone is in the house with your MeeMaw,” she said, nearly breathless, as she ran for the door. She took off, moving as fast as she could go. It was all I could do to keep up with her.

“What did you see?” I asked as we jumped in the car, but Shelly was already on the phone with 9-1-1. She was giving them the address to my house as she pressed her imaginary gas pedal on her side of the car, urging me to go faster with her hand flying wildly in the air. Finally, she hung up with 9-1-1 and flipped to the browser on her phone. She didn’t turn it in my direction, since I was driving. “What did you see?” I asked again.

“Someone is in the house with MeeMaw,” she said.

“Who?”

“I don’t know.” She watched the screen. “MeeMaw is napping. She’s not even aware.”

“Did you call her?”

“She’s not answering.”

She usually turned the ringer off when she napped. She didn’t like to hav

e her sleep interrupted.

“Is it Megan?” I looked over at Shelly.

“I couldn’t tell. She didn’t look at the camera. Not this time.” Shelly stared at her phone, searching the cameras in the various rooms one by one. “There,” she said, as she panned to the camera in the hallway. “In the hall. Walking toward the guest room.” She waited. “Now she’s in the guest room. She’s searching through the drawers.”

The guest room drawers were full of MeeMaw’s seasonal clothes. She liked to put her winter things away and get out her summer clothes as the seasons changed.

“She’s looking under the bed.”

I couldn’t think of anything that might be under the bed.

“She didn’t find anything.”

We skidded to a stop near the street. I already had my weapon in my hand before we both jumped out of the car, and so did Shelly. She held her sidearm down by her thigh, and she ran for the front door, getting there just before I did.

“Wait,” I began, but Shelly was already opening the door and entering the house. “Jesus,” I swore as I followed right behind her.

Shelly went left and I went right. I slapped the emergency alarm button on the wall as I walked by it, and a siren began to go off, loud enough to wake the dead from an eternal rest. I went straight to MeeMaw’s room, where she was already sitting up, confusion and panic clouding her features. “MeeMaw!” I called, as I crossed the threshold.

“Why are you waving a gun at me?” she asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

No one was in MeeMaw’s room, so I said, “Wait here.” Then I went out to find Shelly.

She stood in the kitchen next to the back door, which was standing wide open like someone had just gone through it.

“She’s gone,” Shelly said, as she lowered her weapon and put the safety back in place.

Suddenly, four police officers rushed through the front door. “Clark,” one of them said in acknowledgement. I could barely hear him over the alarms, but I could read his lips.

“Jack,” I replied, nodding to them each in turn. I knew three of them.

“What’s going on?” Jack asked.

“Somebody was in my house,” I said.

He winced at all the noise that was still going off. “Can you turn off the alarm?” he shouted.

Shelly beat me to it. She entered my code and the noise stopped.