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“The yard. It never looked like this when I lived here. We received notices all the time about letting our grass grow too tall. Zach wouldn’t keep the yard mowed. Mom never planted flowers. This looks like a fairytale house. I can’t believe the difference.”
“The house has great curb appeal,” Sasha said. “You should get a good price for it if the inside is attractive as the outside.”
Matt and Cade exited the vehicle and opened doors for the women. “You still have a key to the house?”
Delilah nodded. “I can’t wait to see what Mom did with the backyard and the inside of the house. This is incredible.”
At the front door, Matt held out his hand for the key. He unlocked the door and stood back for her to move past him into the darkened interior.
She turned on the lights and stood in the entryway, staring. “Wow.”
Matt threaded his fingers through hers. “What’s different?”
“Everything. The furniture, carpet, paint, curtains. The only thing the same are the pictures on the walls.” She wandered from room to room, pointing out the changes in each one except for the two closed doors of bedrooms at the end of the hall.
Looked like Michelle had used some of her lottery winnings to redecorate the house. If this was her handiwork, Delilah’s mother had been gifted at interior decorating. While the house looked like something out of a magazine, Michelle had managed to make the home comfortable as well as beautiful.
“I always wanted our house to look like this.” Delilah leaned against the wall in the hallway. “But we lived hand to mouth. With interior decorating, it was feast or famine, and Dad’s job as an elementary school teacher didn’t pay well. We didn’t have money for the house to look like this, even after Mom married Randy.”
Matt glanced at Cade. “You and Sasha start at the front of the house. Delilah and I will search back here. We’ll meet in the living room.”
With a nod, Cade led Sasha to the other side of the house.
Matt turned to Delilah. “Where do you want to start?”
“The guest bedroom.”
“You don’t want to start in your mother’s bedroom?”
“I’d like to save that for last.” She walked to one of the rooms. Delilah opened the door and pulled up short.
Matt eased her back into the hall. In stark contrast to the rest of the house, this room had been systematically destroyed. Lamps lay broken on the carpet. Pillows and the mattress on the king-size bed showed signs of knife work. A few worn articles of Randy’s clothing were strewn around the room. The drywall showed signed of violent rage with multiple holes in the walls. Ugly epithets covered the walls, the air still smelling of spray paint. The carpet had dirt and manure ground into the fibers. The mirror lay in shards on the dresser and floor.
“Your stepfather wasn’t happy.”
Delilah gave a shaky laugh. “You think?”
He opened the closet door. Similar destruction in there, too, along with old shoes and more ragged clothes.
“Matt.”
He turned to see Delilah had left the room. He went to the hall and peered inside the master bedroom. Delilah stood just inside the door with her arms wrapped around her middle.
More damage in here, worse than the destruction in the guest room. Anger knotted his stomach. “Don’t touch anything. We’ll take pictures and call Russell.”
He pulled out his phone and snapped photos of everything in both rooms. From the clothes tossed around and shredded with a knife, the master bedroom belonged to Michelle alone. Nothing of Randy’s was in the room while the guest room held remnants of Delilah’s stepfather. Had Michelle found out about his cheating and consigned him to another bedroom or had she been so sick her husband voluntarily moved to the other room?
“Matt!”
Cade’s shout had him swinging around. Matt’s friend raced down the hall with Sasha in tow, her face white with fear.
“What’s wrong?”
“Bomb attached to the water heater. Fifteen seconds.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Matt led Delilah to the window at the farthest point from the water heater while Cade shut the bedroom door and locked it. Matt opened the window and boosted Delilah to the sill. “Run!”
