“What’s wrong, Mo?” I asked and froze when I caught sight of an outline of a shadow creeping past the French doors.
Moe charged at the doors, barking wildly. I ran for the front door and threw the lock at the top, which I rarely used. If I didn’t, Mo would get the door open and charge after the guy. At least I thought it was a guy, since the shadow was fairly large.
Mo was angry with me, but I had no idea if the guy out there had a weapon. The thought sent a chill through me. Mo continued to bark like crazy, then suddenly ran to the French doors again.
I saw what Mo saw. The shadow had returned, running past the window again. Had he circled my house. Was he trying to break in?
I didn’t wait… I called my dad.
21
I shook my head when I heard the sirens wailing and saw the strobe lights flashing on the police cars flying up my long dirt driveway. No way had the guy stuck around after hearing that racket. Though he’d probably made a mad dash after I turned on every light in the house and the outside ones too, add to that Mo’s continuous barking.
“Enough, Mo,” I ordered. “It’s done. The guy is long gone.” I unlocked the door for my dad who was probably steps away.
Mo turned away from the front door and gave me a look that let me know he wasn’t happy with me. Then he followed me to the couch and after I sat, he leaned his big body against my leg. I patted his head. “Good job protecting me, Mo.”
My dad rushed through the door. “Are you all right? Why didn’t that dog of yours warn you?”
“He did and I called you right away,” I said and hurried to tell him what happened. “It was a guy, a good-sized one or the shadow made him appear bigger than he actually was.”
“Why isn’t Ian here?” my dad asked.
That surprised me since I believed my dad truly did like Ian, but he was being cautious and protective of me until he could positively rule him out as a suspect.
Something made me ask, “You can’t think it would be him prowling around outside. That’s ridiculous.” The Dad Warning Look sparked in his eyes, and I quickly explained. “He had a late-night photo shoot and a business call with his new agent.”
“This place is too remote for you to live out here alone,” he warned for the hundredth time.
“I’ve had no problem until—”
“The murder, Pepper. Murder,” he emphasized. “And not far from your place.”
He ran his hand through his white hair, a sure sign he was upset and, of course, it made me feel guilty, though I hadn’t done anything wrong.
“I want to believe Ian is a good guy. I really do,” my dad said.
I waited for the but, and it came.
“But he hasn’t been completely cleared as a suspect and with the dead guy being found on his property and the guy being from Scotland, and the torn piece of paper with the town where the dead guy’s from found in Ian’s place—” He shook his head. “It makes him an obvious suspect.”
“What about that key I gave you?” I asked.
“What has that got to do with Ian?”
“Precisely, who does it belong to and what does it open?”
“That has nothing to do with any of this,” my dad insisted.
“And how do you know that? How do you know someone isn’t out to frame Ian for all this?” I said, waving my hand in the air.
“You’re an intelligent woman, Pepper, and if you weren’t losing your heart to this guy, you’d see for yourself that you should be cautious,” my dad warned. “And as for that old key, it couldn’t have been important if it somehow got left among the sheets.”
“Now who’s ignoring the obvious,” I accused. “You’re the one who taught me that every bit of evidence matters.”
“You’ve got me going crazy on this case,” my dad said, shaking his finger at me.
“So far we haven’t found anybody, but there are so some good-sized footprints around the house,” Josh said, having entered through the front door that my dad had left open after rushing in.
“You should know that William Strathmore was here the other day taking measurements for a new deck,” I said.
“The ones we found are pretty fresh, so I doubt they belong to Mr. Strathmore,” Josh said. “You’re getting a new deck?”
“In the spring and—”
“This is no time to be talking about that stuff. Make sure the men check the woods from here to Willow Lake Lodge and make sure all evidence is collected, Josh” my dad ordered.
He nodded and asked quickly, “You okay, Pepper?”
“I’m good, Josh, thanks,” I said and out the door he went, my dad closing it behind him.