Holden turns on his heel and walks back up the stairs into my home while Caden makes his way back over to our little group. “What was that about?” Jesse asks.
“So far, they believe the suspect entered the house through the back door,” Caden says. “There were some scratches on the back door but when the door didn’t open, a window was broken with a rock.”
“Shit,” I gasp as Nate cringes.
“At the moment, nothing looks to be out of place,” he says, pointing his gaze on me. “But as Mick said, you’ll have to check that.”
I nod my head as Nate turns to me. “Do you have any idea who’d want to do this?”
I shake my head. “I mean, there’s always Josh, and Elle has a stick up her ass about all the cheerleader stuff. It could be either one of them.”
“I don’t know,” Jesse says. “I think Josh has learned his lesson and this seems a little elaborate for Elle.”
“This isn’t the Josh who attacked you, is it?” Caden questions. “I thought we’d dealt with that.”
“We did,” Nate says. “The dickhead showed up at a party a few weeks ago, but we showed him the door.”
“Jesus,” Caden groans. “I can only imagine your version of showing him the door. Please tell me you didn’t put him in the hospital?”
Jesse grins to himself as I roll my eyes. “It’s a possibility,” Nate admits. “But I don’t actually know.”
“For fuck’s sake,” Caden groans under his breath as he shakes his head. He looks back up at Nate. “You and I are going to talk about this once all this shit is sorted.”
Nate nods and I focus my attention back on the house. “I’m sure I could figure out how to look up the security footage,” I tell them. “That should help.”
Jesse scoffs “That’s if the person was stupid enough to get caught on camera.”
“I’ll help you with that,” Caden says. “I believe we have similar systems. Your father was bragging about his new security system last year, so naturally, I had to beat him and upgraded mine when the latest software was released.”
I can’t help but laugh. Dad and Caden have been at war since before I can remember. It’s always about outdoing each other, in a friendly way though. Usually, dad would come home and tell me how Caden had bought something and would start plotting what his next buy would be and I’d hate it. I wouldn’t want to know anything about what was happening in the Ryder household, but things have changed… a lot. Now, I’ll probably even help dad, maybe give a few good suggestions.
Nate grows anxious beside me and I don’t doubt he’s desperate to get inside the house and look for himself. I have a feeling the second the door opens, he’ll be running straight up to my room to check it over before he even considers looking through the rest of the house.
I can’t help but feel dirty. My home was broken into. My personal space violated. How am I ever to feel safe within the walls of my home again? I’m kind of hoping this was all some sort of misunderstanding, that maybe it was just a prank, but my gut is telling me otherwise. I mean, was someone here looking for me? Was Josh wanting to finish what he started? Or maybe someone was here because of my parents. Maybe dad is involved in something bad. Maybe mom overheard something at the country club that she shouldn’t have.
I don’t know and that feeling makes me feel sick.
Officer Holden comes back out with his colleagues and walks down the stairs as he looks at me. “Alright, we’ve done what we can. We’ve searched high and low and there’s nobody in your home, so if you wouldn’t mind having a thorough look around and letting me know if anything is out of place or missing. That could give us some sort of clue who this person is or what the person was after.”
“Sure thing,” I say.
“Excellent. We’re going to head back to the station and get started processing reports and what not,” he says before pulling out a card with his number on it. “If you have any information at all, this is my direct line.”
“Thanks, Officer,” I say as Caden holds out his hand again. The cops move towards the cruisers and get out of here while Nate practically races up the stairs, pulling me along behind him while trying his best not to jostle me around too much.
“I’ll head to the office and check the footage,” Caden tells me as Nate opens the front door. “Why don’t you start with the bedrooms? Make sure to check all your mother’s jewelry and your dad’s watches. If you’re not sure about something, take a photo and send it to them to double check.”