She thought about it for several minutes and she came up with only one possible scenario. The driver was locked out of his condo. But why would he park in the visitors’ lot if he lived here? It was a lot warmer in the garage.

Hannah didn’t think she was in any actual danger. Bill had installed a police-recommended deadbolt on her door when she’d first moved in and he’d put extra locks on all the windows. She even had an alarm system, installed by the previous owner, that boasted a siren, clanking bells, and two keypads, one by the front door and another in her bedroom. Hannah had never bothered to turn it on before, but tonight she would. She hadn’t been born with nine lives like her feline roommate.

She was about to go to the keypad to activate the system when she had a brilliant idea. The moment she thought of it, she jumped up and rummaged through the closet for her camera. She’d take a picture of the car. It was sitting right under the streetlight and the license plate would show. And she’d turn the film over to Bill in the morning.

Her camera was out of film and it took a frantic search to find a roll. Hannah turned off the flash, knowing it would just glare off her windowpane, and used the zoom lens to snap several shots of the car. Then she activated the security system and sat down in her chair. She’d done all she could, with the exception of alerting Bill, but she’d never be able to sleep peacefully. She might as well resign herself to an all-night stint of surveillance.

Several minutes later, armed with a freshly made cup of coffee and a box of white cheddar cheese crackers, Hannah sat down in her chair again. As she alternately crunched and sipped, Moishe opened his good eye to give her a curious stare and promptly went back to sleep again.

“Some attack cat you are!” Hannah complained. And then she heard the sound of another car approaching the visitors’ parking lot. As it drove past one of the old-fashioned streetlights, Hannah recognized Bernice Maciej’s yellow Cadillac.

Bernice, who lived in the building directly across from Hannah, turned in to park next to the snow-covered car. She got out, the man got out, and they embraced in the parking lot. Hannah punched in the code to turn off the security system and opened the window to listen in on their conversation. She heard Bernice say: “Sorry, honey. I didn’t think I’d be out this late.” And the man replied, “That’s okay, Mom. The traffic was light and I got here sooner than I thought I would.”

Feeling more than a bit foolish, Hannah closed the window, set her alarm clock, and climbed under the covers. She rousted Moishe from the nest he’d made on her pillow and plunked him down on his.

“I must be getting paranoid,” Hannah murmured as she reached out to pet Moishe’s soft fur. “I should have taken my cue from you and just curled up and gone to sleep.”