Count on Me (Petal, Georgia) (28 page)

She swallowed and straightened. “You’re right. I’m sorry. Um. I don’t have much expensive jewelry but I do have a lot of costume stuff.” She bent to pick up several bangle bracelets. “Like this. Doesn’t look broken so there’s that.” She stood and looked around. “Royal, can you take pictures, please? The insurance company might like that.”

He hated to walk away from her but she had pulled herself together. He knew her motto about surviving first and crying later so he leaned in to kiss her. “All right.” This way was better anyway. He’d chronicle the damage, and she would be spared at least having to take pictures of it.

“The few pieces of more expensive stuff, mainly art nouveau, some hair combs, a sapphire brooch and earrings to match. I wear the ring all the time though.” She raised her hand to show her right index finger.

“This is my jewelry box, but I keep the valuable stuff along with my handgun in a safe attached to the underside of my bed.” She went to her knees and felt around. “Still here and closed.”

“Just check to be sure.”

She opened it and put the handgun on the bed along with a box of ammo and the clip, which was stored apart from the weapon. “I have all the necessary paperwork on it too.”

“When did you get a gun?”

“I’ve had it for several years. One of my old cases came complete with a crazy person and death threats. I got it and learned to use it then. This is the same box of ammo I bought like four years ago. I haven’t even gone to the range in something like two years.” She flipped open the box holding the jewelry. “It’s all here. Like I said, it was just a few pieces.” She put it back and stood again, dusting off her pants.

In the bathroom, it was a mess of her lotions and creams with soap and shampoo drizzled all over it. Some of her clothes had been tossed in the bathtub and then covered with whatever had been within reach. Her shoes had been tossed everywhere, and she nearly broke down when she saw that the ridiculously high and delicate stilettos she got in Paris had been totally destroyed.

“I cannot even with this guy. He needs to be punched in the butthole a few times.”

Shane barked out a surprised laugh.

Royal spoke up from where he took pictures of the ruin in her closet. “She’s full of wisdom just like this.”

“I’m special.” She opened her medicine chest. “Um, stuff missing. I had to get dental surgery and I had leftover pain meds from it. I also had leftovers from something else. They were both probably expired.”

Shane wrote on his pad as she walked out into the hallway.

“This whole hall was full of framed photographs,” she said, stepping carefully over the piles of broken wood and glass from the frames.

The office was a mass of torn paper.

“Those were strapped to the walls.” She looked at the wall where the bookcases had once stood.

Shane looked close. “They’ve been cut. Hacked at, so probably a knife.”

It was like that all over the place.

An hour later after Shane and the rest of the police had left, she called her insurance company and arranged for someone to come over and for the police report and photographs taken to be sent to her agent. The door had been replaced and she had a set of new keys and she still did not feel safe in the slightest.

She also found it interesting that Royal had taken on a hard outer shell over the last half an hour or so. She wasn’t sure if it was about her or him or what had happened, but as he was still being sweet to her, she figured it was anger at the situation and she sure empathized. She’d give him the space. Heaven knew she needed it right then as well.

“I need to call Melissa. Jesus.”

“You call her and you tell her she and Clint are invited to dinner at my house tonight. That’ll give us time to get this mess dealt with. And you can make a list of whatever you’ll need and we’ll get the important stuff and tomorrow we can hunt down clothes for work and that sort of thing.”

“I’ve got clothes at your house. I just did laundry there. Two suits and some other work stuff. My birth control pills are at your place, along with my makeup. My journal and laptop. Thank goodness for that, I’ve got work on it.”

Royal was glad to see her getting herself together.

“Let’s see what we can salvage here. My office is plenty big for you to share with me. Especially when our work is really so different. Or you can use the kitchen table if you prefer. We’ll load some stuff into your car too and you can drive it to my place.”

“What? Wait, what are you talking about?”

“You calling Melissa and inviting her. That’s step one.”

Which she did. Melissa was outraged and immediately offered her a place to stay if she wanted, and when Caroline had said thanks but no, she’d also offered to come over and help her clean up.

“You know how when you’re all worked up and mad and on the verge of tears? I just need to work it through a bit. I’m not okay right now.”

Melissa made a soothing sound. “I got it. We’ll see you tonight. I’ll bring some of what we have here for the barbecue. Definitely all the makings for margaritas.”

“Yes. Thank you.”

“Call me if you need anything before I see you later on, okay? I’m glad Royal is there with you.”

Caroline hung up, tucking her phone in her pocket.

Royal put down the photograph he’d managed to save from the mangled remains of a frame and took her arms.

She smiled, but she was pale, her pupils still too big. “They’ll be at your place tonight. I feel so bad cancelling on her.”

“Was she mad?”

“No. Not at all.”

“Problem solved. Now as to the second thing. You’re going to move in with me at least until this whole mess is figured out.”

She nodded. “All right. Thank you.”

When she didn’t argue, he truly got how frightened she was. Which made him so angry he had to breathe through his nose several times until he’d gotten himself back under control. “You’re not going to argue with me?”

“Hell no. I’m freaked out. In all the time I’ve been an attorney, I’ve never had anything like this happen to me. This is scary and awful and I hate it.”

“I’m not going to let anything happen to you. You’re going to be with me at my house. Spike will be happy to have you so he can ride around on your shoulder all day long.”

“He prefers it when I simply accept that he’s in charge.”

He laughed, kissing her.

“All right, let’s make a list. I always feel better when I make lists.” She pulled a pad from her bag. “I have multiple copies of all this paperwork. The originals are at my office right now as well. This wasn’t all my furniture anyway. I have a storage unit where ninety percent of it is until I buy a house. My bed is destroyed, which sucks because it took me forever to find just exactly the one I wanted.”

“It wasn’t destroyed. You could salvage it.”

She looked at him and her eyes brimmed with tears. “I can’t. Someone came in here. Came into my house and touched my things. My underwear! My books and my pictures. I don’t even want to think about what makes up that mess all over my clothes in the bathtub.”

He ached for her. This wasn’t something he could really make better.

“All right. How about we go get some rubber gloves and garbage bags? We’ll throw the clothes away if you like.”

“I don’t know about the ones in the tub. I just…” She looked at them with a shudder. “Yeah, no I can’t. I’ll always wonder so it needs to go. I have a bunch of stuff that I took to the cleaner on Wednesday. I’ll need to grab some underwear and stuff. I’ll order them online from my favorite place back in Seattle. They won’t arrive until the end of the week or so, but I’ve got enough for now at your place. Is it all right if I use your washer and dryer?”

“Baby, I want you to know you’re welcome to use anything and everything I have.”

She nodded again. “Yes, let’s get bags and then we can have throw-away bags, closer-examination bags and keep bags.”

They locked up and headed down the street to the hardware store to grab gloves and bags. It was pretty clear the story about the fight the night before at the Pumphouse had spread around town. They received some dirty looks here and there. A thumbs-up several times. Most of it though was just sort of general nosiness and staring.

When they returned after stopping at the Honey Bear and getting some provisions since they hadn’t eaten in hours, they began to do what they could to set things to rights again. The throw-away pile was larger than the keep pile. He ran loads down to her car and his truck, packing things that they could keep.

At the end he handed her a pile of photographs. “This is everything. I think many of them can be saved. I know someone who can touch them up, clean up some of them. Others have been ripped.”

She’d had three photo albums. One had been thrown in a sink full of water, but the other two had just been spilled all over the ground with the others.

She looked through the stack of pictures. Some of them she had duplicates for at her office. All the important ones were in Atlanta at a shop that was making albums for her siblings.

“Looks like several of the ones with the worst damage are of my mother like Shane had thought.” Which was creepy. Ugh. Caroline looked through again and once more. “This is everything you say?” she asked Royal.

“Yes. I mean there were some that were torn, but in large pieces so you could tell which went where. Why? What’s wrong?”

“There are two photographs missing. One of my mom taken about a year before she was killed. We’d been on a camping trip in Tennessee. The other is one taken when I was camping with my aunt, uncle and cousins. My aunt had it framed for me as a gift because I looked so much like my mom. Her hair had been up in a cap and mine was in a bandana.”

“You need to call Shane right now with this.”

She agreed, calling the number he’d given them before he’d left.

Four hours later they’d done their best, and she was worn thin and needed a shower and a drink and to be away from there. She didn’t say anything out loud, but once all this was handled, she was going to find a new place. She couldn’t stay there. Not after the break-in. It didn’t feel safe or secure. It didn’t even feel like it was hers.

“My grandmother has called and left four messages.” She looked at her phone and tucked it back into her pants.

“We’re going to drive back to my place where you’re going to soak in my tub while I make us a drink and come join you. Don’t call her. Not without me around.”

“I’ve been talking to that woman for thirty-one years now.”

“Yeah and it cuts you up every time. You’re cut up enough for one day. Let me be there to give you some support when you talk to her.”

She shouldn’t let him take over like this, but it felt good to just nod. “Okay.”

She’d reached her car when Edward and Polly rolled up in their Caddy. Polly got out and rushed over, concern on her face. “Oh, honey! We just heard. Are you all right? Do you need a place to stay? Surely it’s not safe here now.”

Edward had managed to get Polly’s door closed and their car parked before he came over.

“Shane mentioned that you’d had a terrible break-in when we dropped Drew off at his and Cassie’s place.” Edward took her hands, examining her face carefully.

She looked back and forth between Edward and Polly. “Royal has been here with me the whole time. Helped me clean up. The door is replaced and I have a new lock. The landlord also put a new hall light in, this one is a lot brighter.”

“This is just terrible.”

“It is. But I’ll get over it.” She shrugged, and this time Royal put an arm around her shoulders. She shouldn’t have to
get over it
.

“She’s staying with me for the next weeks.”

Polly beamed at him, and Edward’s brows went up but settled just as quickly. “We were heading back now. I need to wash a lot of clothes, but at least I have them. I was lucky in a lot of ways.”

Edward leaned in and kissed her forehead. He spoke quietly to her for a bit until she nodded, mute, and he took Polly’s hand and stepped back. “We’ll see you tomorrow afternoon. Be careful and let us know if there is one single thing we can do, big or small.” Polly winked at Royal and then turned her attention to Caroline again. “I mean it.”

Caroline nodded. “Of course.” Caro had regained a little color, and for that, he’d be grateful for Polly and Edward coming along right when they did.

Polly’s perceptive gaze took Caroline in from head to toe, and she gave Royal a discreet eyebrow raise that said,
take care of this woman.
He nodded back.

Bright smile back in place, Polly looked to Edward, who picked up several tote bags and gestured them in Royal’s direction.

“Before you go, I made a little something. Figured you’d appreciate the break from having to cook or go out.”

As heavy as they all were—all four of them—he figured they had enough food to last at least three days.

Caroline hugged Polly one more time, thanking her. They all walked back to Royal’s truck and Caroline’s car and after more hugs and admonishments to rest, they were finally back on the road to Royal’s place.