“Great, they skip town and I still own a dog.”

“You don’t like dogs?”

“Who doesn’t like dogs? I just think you get a dog because you want one, not because—” I stopped myself. I was babbling, residual of the attack.

“You’re not hurt. You’re sure? You could go to urgent care and be checked over, just in case.”

“I’m shook up. That’s it.” That and a bruise that was going to make sitting down a challenge for a while. I thought about Holly and hoped she wasn’t in trouble because I hadn’t returned with her backpack. Then I realized what might have happened if I’d brought the girls back home with me, the way that Holly had wanted me to. I shuddered.

“I think we’re done here. You let us know if you remember anything else. Feel free to call if anything comes up.”

He paused before he let himself out. “I just realized why you look familiar.”

“Oh?”

“You know Mateo Santiago? He used to be a K9 officer with the sheriff’s department.”

A chill snaked down my spine. “I know Teo.”

He looked substantially less friendly. “I thought maybe you did. Too bad he and his dog aren’t on our K9 unit anymore, isn’t it? I’m sure he would have been happy to help you now.”

Then he was gone.

With the remote possibility that the intruder was still hanging around the neighborhood, I checked and rechecked the town house locks and turned on the security alarm before I dropped off Holly’s backpack and raincoat. Instead of heading to the natural foods store, I went home again, and after a careful check, got out and opened the garage and parked inside, closing the door quickly behind me.

Something liquid was called for to help calm me down before I faced my parents. Since by anybody’s standards it was too early for alcohol, I settled on green tea and took it to the great room, where I could watch the rain through the doors to the screened porch.

I wasn’t surprised that the deputy who’d interviewed me knew my connection to Teo, or remembered the events of four years ago that had made today’s attack seem like dinner with an old friend.

I had met Teo Santiago on a gray, rainy day, like this one, although the month had been June, not December, and despite having been raised in Seabank, between the heat and humidity I’d felt trapped in a Tennessee Williams novel.

After high school I’d abandoned Florida for college and my first job, but that summer I’d returned to do an internship at the Seabank Free Press for my master’s degree in investigative journalism.

I had already earned an undergraduate degree in criminal justice, hoping to become a cop. After my cardiologist refused to certify me to lift more than half my body weight, I’d worked as a fraud investigator for a full-service risk mitigation company. For the most part I’d done background checks, and a limited amount of skip tracing, but I’d learned a lot. Most important, now I knew I thrived when digging up facts that other people found unimportant or useless. I particularly liked putting them together to form pictures of my subjects’ lives.