Across the street, she saw the porch lights on Cade Emmett’s log home were on and a few more inside. As she watched, more lights came on. Apparently the chief of police wasn’t sleeping, either.
“The power outage must be only this side of the street,” she told Sadie. She couldn’t see any other houses but Cade’s from her bedroom window at the front of the house, but when she walked out of her bedroom to the landing, she could see toward Marshall’s house and the Jacobses’ at the end of the street, where Christmas lights gleamed in muted colors beneath a layer of thick snow.
She tried the hall switch, but again, no welcoming lights burst on.
Maybe it was only her house. She stood for just a moment, aware of a vague feeling of misgiving. She was trying to remember where the fuse box was when she suddenly heard a soft knock at the front door.
The lingering tendrils of her nightmare and that entirely too-real memory of Rob Warren’s handgun pressed to her chin raced through her head and panic spurted through her.
It was 2:00 a.m. in the middle of a snowstorm. Who would be knocking at her door?
She hesitated, wildly tempted to gather her children and lock them all in the bathroom.
No. Rob Warren was in prison. She no longer had reason to be afraid.
That didn’t mean she was stupid, either. She didn’t feel right about having firearms in the house with young children, but she did have a Taser and pepper spray. She hurried to the hallway and dug through her purse until she found the small child-resistant bag she kept both in.
Another trio of knocks sounded through the quiet house while she was trying to open the bag with fingers that trembled. She pulled both out and hurried to the door, wishing she had installed a security peephole.
“Who is it?” she called through the door.
“Andie?” She heard a male voice. “It’s Cade Emmett, from across the street. Is everybody okay in there?”
She frowned at the odd question and opened the door. In the glow from her phone flashlight, she saw the Haven Point police chief standing on her porch wearing boots and a parka.
“Yes. Everyone’s fine. Why wouldn’t we be? It’s just a power outage.”
“It’s not just a power outage, I’m afraid. That big elm on the south side of your property just blew over, onto your garage. It must have taken the power line with it. It made a horrible crash. You didn’t hear it?”
She remembered that crack in her dream that had sounded so real and terrifying. “Are you sure?”
“Positive. Marsh just called me and ordered me to get my ass over here. Apparently he was looking out the window and saw the whole thing blow over. He tried to call you first, but you didn’t answer, so he called me next.”
She had put her phone on “do not disturb” before she went to bed, which in retrospect seemed like a stupid idea. She switched it on now and the phone immediately rang.
“Andie! What’s going on?” Marshall’s urgent voice came over the line. “Are you okay? Are the kids okay?”
“I don’t know. I...I haven’t checked, but their rooms are on the opposite side of the house from the garage. I’ll call you back.”
She raced to their rooms just as Chloe cried out. “Mama? Where are you? Mama! My light won’t turn on!”
Andie opened the door. “I’m here, darling. Right here. The power’s gone out, but we’re okay.”
Chloe jumped into her arms and flung her arms around her neck so abruptly that Andie staggered backward a little. Her daughter burst into tears and buried her head against her.
“What’s wrong? Are you hurt? Why are you crying?
“No.” Chloe sobbed. “I thought I heard a man.”
“Oh, honey.” Her arms tightened as she felt her heart break a little more. Chloe had witnessed too much for a six-year-old girl. She had stumbled out of her room that terrible June night when Rob Warren had found them, had seen her mother bleeding, bruised, had seen Rob shove the gun to her chin and Wyn and Cade pull their own weapons.
Chloe had watched a man she had trusted and liked—her father’s friend and former partner—fire on Wynona when the officer had tried to protect them all from him.
“It’s only Chief Emmett from across the street,” she said now. “You know Cade. He came to check on us because Marshall saw a tree fall on our garage.”
“A tree?” In the dim light from her phone, Andie saw her daughter’s eyes go wide. “Was that the big noise that woke me up?”
“I imagine so.”
Chloe hitched in a breath, but her sobs slowed a little. Though she was growing bigger, Andie still held her in her arms as if she were a toddler, sensing both of them needed it. “Come on. Let’s go check on Will.”