“Okay. Good luck with your new job, Nikki,” said Duncan. “I’ll give you a couple of days before I stop in and harass you.”
“Thanks.”
After Duncan left, we walked around the perimeter of the house again to make sure all of the cameras were facing the right way.
“There’s even one by your balcony to make sure some Romeo doesn’t try and steal you away at night.”
I snorted. “If someone shows up on my balcony, I’m going to beat them with my bat while I scream bloody murder.”
He laughed. “That guy has no chance.”
We went into the kitchen where Nathan made a pizza and then joined me on the couch to watch movies.
“So what do you think of mom dating Caleb?” I asked.
“He seems like a good guy.”
“You don’t think it’s too soon for her?”
“I think mom is lonely and wants to feel protected. The town’s sheriff sure fits that bill.”
I shrugged. “I suppose. I’m just worried about her getting hurt.”
“Nobody can hurt her as much as dad did,” said Nathan. “Sad but true.”
That was for certain.
I fell asleep halfway through some horror flick about zombies when several loud thuds from outside woke me up.
“What was that?” I gasped.
Nathan stood up and I could tell he was as freaked out as I was. “I don’t know.”
Something heavy banged against the door, and we both jumped.
“Oh, my God, Nathan, what’s happening?”
He ran into the kitchen and came back out carrying the butcher knife.
“You’re not going out there, are you?” I whispered in horror.
He swallowed. “I was considering it.”
More loud bangs and I grabbed the phone. “I’m calling nine-one-one.”
“Wait, it could be a raccoon or a bear.”
“A bear; like you’d want to tackle that by yourself, anyway.”
He nodded. “True. I’m going to open up the blinds and look outside.”
I followed him over to the window. “Can you see anything?” I asked as he peeked through the gap in the blinds.
“Shit,” he whispered.
“What?”
He turned towards me, his face as white as a ghost. “It’s the cameras. Un… fucking… believable!”
I looked outside and gasped. Even in the dark I could tell that someone had destroyed all of the surveillance equipment we’d set up.
We raced upstairs and woke up mom. She called the police, and a half hour later, one of the deputy sheriffs arrived at the house.
“I don’t know who did this, but they’re gone now,” he said. He was a middle-aged man with a curly black moustache that he kept touching, which creeped me out.
Mom let out a long, ragged sigh. “Why would somebody do this?”
“Oh, I don’t know… so they wouldn’t get caught spying on us?” I muttered sarcastically.
“Can you check for fingerprints or anything?” asked Nathan.
He nodded. “Yeah, I put a call in for a couple of our guys to get out here and do that, so try not to touch anything. They should be arriving any minute.”
“So, where is the sheriff?” I asked.
“Caleb? Oh, it’s his night off,” replied the deputy. “He won’t be back in until late tomorrow night.”
Mom nodded. “He mentioned that he was going out of town today with his daughter.”
“Let me get a statement from you and then I’ll be on my way. There isn’t much we can do without any evidence right now. If we pick up something from the fingerprints, we’ll proceed from there.”
After everyone was gone, mom dragged herself back to bed but Nathan and I were still spooked and unable to sleep.
Nathan shook his head. “Duncan is going to be pissed when he finds out what happened. That was thousands of dollars in video equipment this person destroyed.”
“Let’s call him, it’s only eleven. I’m sure he’s awake.”
A half hour later Duncan pulled up in his white truck. Our eyes met immediately and I had to admit, I was really glad to see him.
“Wow,” he said, “This is amazing. I can’t believe someone trashed all of these cameras. Did you see anything?’
“We heard the crashes but were too freaked out to investigate when it was happening,” I said. “It actually happened pretty quickly.”
“They must have brought their own ladder,” said Nathan. “I locked up the other one we’d used, earlier.”
Duncan walked over to one of the trees and smiled proudly. “They missed one. I hid it pretty good. Let’s go see if it recorded anything interesting.”