Tonight! Panic clutched Pandora’s heart. She had to get home and save Willa!

“Thanks!” Pandora turned and sped toward the barn door.

“Wait! We must form a proper plan!” Inkspot yelled after her.

“There’s no time!” Pandora shot back.

“Impetuous fool will get herself killed.” She heard Otis’s disapproving tone as she shot into the woods. 

Ignoring his words, she raced toward home as fast as she could, stopping only long enough to sharpen her shivs on the bark of a tree—she had a feeling she might need them to be razor sharp tonight. Her feline instincts were on high alert. Trouble was coming and she’d have to do whatever she could to stop it.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Six

After talking to Emma and Elspeth, I stopped in at The Mystic Cafe for supper. I wasn’t up for another English muffin jalapeño pizza and I didn’t have anything else at home. Pandora would be mad, but I’d left the food out for her at noontime, so at least she wouldn’t go hungry.

I sat by the window, watching the sunset and eating an Italian sub. If what Emma had said was true, I should add Derek to my suspect list. He was in town at that time, so he had opportunity … but did he have motive?

So far, I had been operating on the theory that the killer was after the bronzes for financial gain, but what if there was another motive? I wondered if the police had come up with anything else, which made my thoughts turn to Striker.

I hadn’t seen him since I threw up on his shoes and I wondered if he had been avoiding me. Chances were he probably never wanted to see me again.

“Easy come, easy go,” I muttered to myself as I tossed out my sandwich wrappings and headed to my Jeep.

It was dark by the time I pulled into my driveway. The pitch-black moonless night enveloped my car as soon as I shut the headlights off. Ever since I’d reached my mid-forties, my eyes had been taking longer and longer to adjust to the darkness and tonight was no different.

Which was why I didn’t notice anything wrong with my door until it swung open on its own when I tried to insert the key.

***

I stared into the dark interior of my house, adrenalin shooting through my veins.

Was someone in there?

I strained to hear even the slightest noise, but the house was silent. Grabbing the baseball bat I kept next to the door, I inched my way in, flicking the light switch, then immediately lifting the bat behind my head, ready to swing at anything that came at me.

The house was empty. Or at least the kitchen was.

I’d left in a hurry. Maybe I hadn’t closed the door fully?