“And you told me that it’s the mayor who calls in the outside investigators from the BRI.”

“Correct, the mayor and the chief.” Nazari turned the engine over and started it. “Now I just want to go home. Take a shower. Sleep.” She looked at me. “With you.”

“Sounds good to me. Tough night.”

We passed through the empty and still town. Empty of people and animals and vehicles. Just vapor lamps that shone a light for absent observers. Unless it was for us, speeding through the blank streets. We didn’t speak during the ride. Nazari pulled the Peugeot into the little overgrown driveway of her house.

By then the moon was low and not quite as bright. She took my hand and led me down the stone path towards her front door. She said, “I love the way the river looks from up here at night.”

She stifled a yawn. And then I felt her hand tighten its grip on mine until her fingernails bit into my skin hard enough to leave marks. She froze where she was on the path, looking directly at the front door. I had to step around her to see what it was that had captured her attention.

The front door of her house was ajar. In the dim light I could make out shredded wood around the door jamb.

She stepped back and whispered, “I left my weapon at the station.”

I took a couple of steps to the door and looked in. “I don’t think anyone is here. No car and I doubt they came on foot. Most likely they’ve been and gone. You ever clear a house?”

“No.”

“Go back to the car. Call in to your colleagues and report the break-in.”

“Okay.” She went quietly towards the car.

I walked to the front window. Squatted down on my heels and listened. I waited more than two minutes. There were no sounds other than those that could be expected in a rural location in early summer. I pulled the door open. The lock had been jimmied by a crow bar. One big pull. Long crow bar. Splintered wood. I entered the kitchen, left of the front door. I pulled a mid-length blade from a counter-top knife block.

Then I cleared the house, room by room. Nobody was there. The house was intact, just as we had left it, as far as I could tell. I left the knife on the counter, leaned out the door and gave a two-fingered whistle.

Nazari came into the house hugging herself and shivering. “What do you think he wanted?”

“Can’t know for sure, but I don’t have the best feeling about this.”

“So just say it. I’m thinking the same thing.”

“They came for you or me, possibly for both of us.”