“Martin!” she called, her face brightening a bit. “Thank you so much for coming…” she turned and pushed the gate into her yard open when he neared, walked inside ahead of him.
“Sure, no problem. I’ll take a look around,” he said. For a moment he considered telling her his thoughts on how she could be targeted, but hers was a home that could be targeted by simple robbers too. It was likely that it was unrelated to his case, and he doubted that Anita even thought that it was. Because of all that, there was no point in letting her know. She was spooked enough already that someone broken into her home.
He followed her into the yard and while behind her, on the small path, continued to admire her home. The windows took most of his attention. They were the kind of large, welcoming windows that he would want on his own family home. Something that Martin thought was strange, however, was that the long, deep blue curtains were closed.
“Do you usually keep your curtains down?” he asked.
Anita’s breath hitched, and she uttered “No.”
Martin knew it meant someone definitely had been inside, what prompted them to close the curtains was, at that moment, quite beyond him. Perhaps, they knew they would be inside for some time? If that were the case, then they wouldn’t want to be interrupted. But what could they want from Anita that could take time to search?
At that moment he was back to thinking that it actually did have something to do with Joseph Cooper. But even so, he turned around and told Anita that she’d be better off calling the local cops. Something told him that they needed back up.
The first thing he noticed when he approached the entrance way of the house was the door frame. Martin wouldn’t have noticed it if Anita hadn’t said there were signs of forced entry; the markings left behind were so subtle that they looked like they could have been from regular use. With a closer look, it seemed something was pressed against the frame. In addition, the door wasn’t even closed. Something was wedged between the door and the door frame; a small piece of wood. It was left in such a way that it could have been simply pushed open from the other side without even touching the handle. He understood this as a prepared escape route for the intruders.
Martin felt a spike of unease. There was still someone in the house, he was sure of it. But while his mind tugged him to tell Anita to stay outside, his heart told him that she would be safer if she stayed close to him.
Martin decided to follow his gut instinct. He cocked his head towards Anita when he opened the door, and pulled her along with him when he went inside.
(To Be Continued Tomorrow…..)
[The complete Book ‘MAN FROM TOMORROW’ can be downloaded at amzn.to/2MSf1ng]
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