“Hey,” Lula said, “you're supposed to be in the car.”

“I got tired of waiting.”

I gave Lula the evil eye.

“I was watching,” Lula said. “I don't know how he got past me.” She turned to Kloughn. “How'd you get in here?”

“The back door was open. And the window was broken. You didn't break the window, did you? You could get into big trouble for something like that. That's breaking and entering.”

“We found the window like that,” Lula said. “That's how come we're wearing gloves. We don't want to screw up the evidence if anything's been stolen.”

“Good thinking,” Kloughn said, his eyes getting bright, his voice up an octave. “Do you really think stuff has been stolen? You think anybody got roughed up?”

Lula looked at him like she'd never seen anybody that dumb before.

“I'm checking upstairs,” I said. “You two stay down here and don't touch anything.”

“What are you looking for upstairs?” Kloughn wanted to know, following me up the stairs. “I bet you're looking for clues that'll lead you to Evelyn and Annie. You know where I'd look? I'd look—”

I whirled around, almost knocking him off his feet. “Down,” I said, pointing stiff-armed, shouting at him nose to nose. “Go sit on the couch and don't get up until I tell you.”

&n

bsp; “Yeesh,” he said. “You don't have to yell at me. Just tell me, okay? Boy, it must be one of those days for you, hunh?”

I narrowed my eyes. “One of what days?”

“You know.”

“It is not one of those days,” I said.

“Yeah, she's like this on a good day,” Lula said. “You don't want to know what she's like on one of those days.”

I left Lula and Kloughn downstairs, and I poked through the bedrooms on my own.

There were still clothes hanging in the closets and folded in dresser drawers. Evelyn must have only taken essentials. Either her disappearance was temporary or else she was in a rush to leave. Maybe both.

As far as I could tell there was no sign of Steven. Evelyn had sanitized the house of him. There were no leftover men's toiletries in the bathroom, no forgotten men's belts lurking in the closet, no family photo in a silver frame. I'd done a similar house cleaning when I'd divorced Dickie. Still, for months after our breakup I'd get bushwhacked by an overlooked item . . . a man's sock that had dropped behind the washing machine, a set of car keys that had gotten kicked under the couch and been given up for lost.

The medicine chest contained the usual . . . a bottle of Tylenol, a bottle of kids' cough syrup, dental floss, nail scissors, mouthwash, box of Band-Aids, talcum powder. No uppers or downers. No hallucinogens. No happy pills. Also, conspicuously missing was anything alcoholic. No wine or gin stashed in kitchen cupboards. No beer in the fridge. Could be Carol was mistaken about the booze and pills. Or could be Evelyn took it all with her.

Kloughn popped his head around the bathroom doorjamb. “You don't mind if I look, too, do you?”

“Yes! I mind. I told you to stay on the couch. And what's Lula doing? She was supposed to keep her eye on you.”

“Lula's doing watch out. That doesn't take two people, so I decided to help you search. Did you already look in Annie's room? I just looked in there, and I didn't find any clues, but her drawings were real scary. Did you look at her drawings? I'm telling you, that's a messed-up kid. It's television. All that violence.”

“The only picture I saw was of a red-and-green house.”

“Did the red look like blood?”

“No. It looked like windows.”

“Uh-oh,” Lula said from the front room.

Damn. I hate uh-oh. “What?” I yelled down at her.

“There's a car pulled up behind your CR-V.”

Tags: Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum Mystery
Source: readsnovelonline.net