“Let’s try the back door,” Jack said, leading her toward the trellis. “I’ve got a bunch of keys here and don’t want to spend too much time out front looking for the right one. Someone might remember us.”

She followed him into the dark and held his penlight for him as he tried a succession of keys. The fifth one fit. The solid clack of the retracting dead bolt hit her like a punch.

Alicia began to shake. She felt the tremor begin in the pit of her stomach and spread outward to her limbs. She wanted to turn and bolt for the street.

No! she told herself. You will not run.

Bricks and lumber… bricks and lumber…

Jack pulled out a larger flashlight and stepped through the door. Bathed in a cold sweat, Alicia clenched her jaw and followed him. She had a bad moment—a trapped, clawing, let-me-out moment—when the door clicked closed behind her, but she fought it off.

Then Jack’s flashlight beam found a wall switch, and he flicked it. Light flooded the room.

“Well, isn’t that considerate,” he said. “They left the power on.”

Alicia stood blinking in the unexpected light. The carnage came into focus as her eyes adjusted.

“Oh, my God. Look what they’ve done.”

When she’d lived here, the rear door had led into a narrow utility room that housed the washer and dryer, and a pantry. The washer and dryer were still here, but in pieces—they’d been thoroughly dismantled, and their components lay in piles on the floor. The pantry shelves had been emptied, and their contents scattered among the appliance parts.

“Now this,” Jack said, “is what I call tossing a room. And they didn’t have to hurry. With the power on, they had plenty of light. And with the windows boarded up, no one would know they were here.”

He stepped through the debris and headed for the adjoining room.

“Let’s see what’s in here.”

“Should be the kitchen,” Alicia said as Jack turned on the light.

It was… in a way.

The kitchen had been as thoroughly “tossed”—to use Jack’s term—as the utility room. Not only had the cabinets been emptied, they’d been ripped off the walls and broken apart. The dishwasher had suffered the same fate as the washer and dryer. The sink had been removed, leaving its pipes jutting from the wall like copper carotids. All the pieces had been piled in the center of the floor.

In shock, Alicia stumbled after Jack, who was still on the move, skirting the debris and moving into the dining room. Same story there, except that the rug had been torn up and the strips of its remains were in the pile with the remnants of the furniture and china.