Page 76
“I don’t need to earn it. It’s already mine.”
I gave him a little shove. “Go.”
To his credit, he pretended I had the power to move him and stumbled forward a step. Then he kept going.
I watched him until he blinked out of existence in front of the house, the silence turning oppressive now that I was alone. A minute ticked by, and then two. Was I stupid to trust him not to carry out an interrogation of his own? Just as I was beginning to think that things must have gone wrong, he reappeared by my side.
“The house is empty,” he said. “I checked every room. There’s a burglar alarm, but it’s not set.”
It all suddenly became far too real, making me realize that I’d been banking on Donald being there so I could avoid making a decision. I eyed the house as though it were a combatant.
“What do you want to do?” Caligo asked.
“It would be stupid,” I said, “to come all this way and not go inside.”
“It would,” he agreed.
“I’d only regret it when we got home.”
“Probably.”
“Fuck.” I nodded, my heart already pounding. “Okay. I can do this. Chances are if he’s not there now, then he’s not coming back tonight. Right?”
Caligo nodded.
I squared my shoulders. “Then let’s do this.”
Caligo disappeared again, and the door was already open before I got halfway across the street. I aimed for a relaxed stroll in case any of the neighbors happened to look out of a window, but my body seemed to have forgotten how one worked, tension seeping into every step.
At the door, I paused to pull on the latex gloves I’d stashed in my pocket. I’d watched enough TV to know that if you were going to enter someone else’s house without permission and rifle through their things, you didn’t leave fingerprints.
The door clicked shut behind me as soon as I stepped inside, the noise making me jump.
“I could look for you,” Caligo offered.
I shook my head. “If you didn’t find anything, I’d always wonder whether you just hadn’t checked everywhere. I need to look myself, so I’ll know for sure.”
“What are we looking for?”
“My mother’s wedding ring. It was missing when they found her.”
I pulled a torch from my jacket pocket and flicked it on. Searching by its beam wasn’t ideal, but it seemed a safer bet than switching on the lights and risking alerting someone who knew Donald wasn’t home. “I assume you can see in the dark?” It was funny how I’d never thought to ask that before.
“Yes.”
“And you don’t even eat carrots.”
“What?”
“Never mind.”
I paused with my hand on the door to my right. “You’re sure no one’s home.”
“Positive.”
I pushed it open and found myself in a living room. As you might expect of an art dealer, there were numerous paintings on the walls, most of them depicting scenic landscapes. I pulled each one aside, checking for hidden safes and finding none. Good, because I was no safecracker. Although it was entirely possible that Caligo could punch straight through one if I asked him nicely.
There weren’t many places in the room to search, and I seriously doubted anyone would leave evidence lying around where a visitor might stumble across it, so I quickly ticked the room off my list. I searched the kitchen next, applying the same reasoning. If I were going to hide something and didn’t have a safe, upstairs would be the better bet, given that visitors were less likely to venture there.
