Hank arrived, and they went with him out the back door, and Camilla cringed when she saw what had been done to her pretty car. Yes, it was just a car, and she was glad nobody had been injured, but it still hurt nonetheless.
Damn it!
In addition to what Ben had told her, the pretty aluminum rims had been removed and cast aside, and the trunk liner hung out in tatters. The headliner that lined the ceiling had been cut with something very sharp and left in shreds. The doors were left wide open, the door panels dangling by wires to the electric window switches.
“Those rims are pretty pricey to just leave them lying on the ground after removing them,” Quinten said as he walked around the vehicle. “And the stereo is still in it. The only damage to the body is this. Looks like they kicked it.” He pointed at a scuffed dent behind the front right fender.
Hank shook his head and cast his gaze around the area. “Whoever did this wasn’t trying to steal it.” He pointed to the security cameras mounted near the back door and on the light poles. “Those operational?”
Ben nodded, and Quinten said, “Yes. You can view the recordings from Ben’s office.”
Hank went around the vehicle, and they followed as he squatted and looked at the dent. Another vehicle pulled up beside his sheriff’s department SUV. He looked over at it and said, “They’ll look for prints. Does it look like anything is missing?”
“No. I don’t keep very much in it. A few CDs in the glove box and the doors was all. Oh, wait.” She checked with Hank before she felt around in the console between the seats. “It’s gone.”
“What?” Hank stood and looked in the console.
Camilla shook her head and looked around the windswept parking lot and the field of tall grass beyond it. “It must’ve blown away.”
Ben looked inside the car, too. “What?”
Camilla felt a little silly sharing her sentimentality with the sheriff standing there but didn’t have a choice since she’d opened her mouth. She turned to Ben. “The love note you stuck on the steering wheel of my car this morning, before you left to run errands.” She glanced at Hank to find him standing there with a half smile on his face before he busied himself and gave them some privacy. Ben hugged her and rubbed her back, probably thinking she was being silly. “It was special.”
Quinten smiled as he joined them. “Something tells me there are more where that came from, baby.”
Hank pointed at the dent. “Whoever it is, they’re frustrated. They broke in, but they didn’t take anything.” He turned to Camilla and said, “For your own safety, I think it might be a good idea if you stayed with Ben and Quinten until we can figure out what’s going on.”
Ben caressed her shoulder and said, “That won’t be a problem.”
“I don’t mean to scare anyone, but I’d also keep that fact confidential, to protect her just in case.”
First her home had been invaded. Now her car. It irked her that these choices were being taken out of her hands whether it was for safety purposes or not. She didn’t mind staying with Ben and Quinten, but she wanted the choice to be hers.
Hank said, “I wish it wasn’t necessary, Camilla, but I want to avoid an escalation. Let’s have a quick look at the camera recordings. I know y’all need to get back to work.”
Hank followed them in, and Camilla sat at Ben’s desk as they reviewed the footage, which was pretty grainy. “I can’t make out his face because of the cowboy hat.”
Hank asked, “Does his body type look familiar?”
“In that bulky jacket, no. He looks like any other guy of an average build,” she replied. He looked like any number of men that came in The Pony on a regular basis.
Ben let Hank take the security DVD, and he said he’d be in contact if he found out anything else. The sheriff looked notably concerned and pissed that she’d been victimized again as he assured her they’d get to the bottom of whatever was going on.
Ben called Ethan, to let him know what had happened. Five minutes later, he was there at the club, offering whatever assistance was needed. Once the deputy was done dusting for fingerprints, they had the vehicle towed to the dealership. Camilla hoped it could be repaired, but there was so much damage she wasn’t sure.
By the time Ben left and returned with their supper, her appetite was practically nonexistent. Safety suddenly felt like an illusion, and she was glad she was going home with Ben and Quinten that night.
Her thoughts revolved around the home invasion and the car break-in, and something hovered on the edge of her mind, a clue that she wasn’t picking up on. She wracked her brain as she recalled walking around the house. Frustrated when Corinna sympathetically repeated a drink order to her for the third time, Camilla had to put it out of her mind so she could concentrate on the task at hand.