“Bear!”

He frowned. Did it take him this long to know the difference between a bear and a cat? He heard the front door close. It was loud, maybe because of the wind. He looked at the clock. It was digital, so he could easily read it—9:34. It couldn’t be his mom. She just left at 9:21, and it hadn’t been thirty minutes.

He wanted to go downstairs and see who the visitor was. Ashley would tell him that he was nosy and to mind his own business.

There was a loud crash and PJ jumped. It sounded really big, and he couldn’t even think about what had broken. Then a thump-thump! and he heard his daddy’s voice. It didn’t sound right.

“Please! No! What do you—”

Then his daddy screamed, and tears burst into PJ’s eyes and he didn’t know what to do. He was so scared. He looked at Sheila. She wasn’t laughing and she wasn’t saying bear and she looked like she was going to cry.

A strange voice was yelling downstairs. PJ only sort of knew what he was saying. He was mad about something. Really, really mad and he said a lot of bad words and said this wasn’t Daddy’s house.

PJ wanted to help his daddy, but he was so small, and he wasn’t very strong.

But he could pick up Sheila. He picked her up. A loud crash downstairs made PJ jump and he almost dropped her, but he didn’t, and he held her tight and ran to Jilly and Ashley’s bedroom because they had a really big closet. He went inside with Sheila and closed the door. It was really dark. Sheila started to cry.

“Shh. Shh. Sheila, no crying.”

She whimpered. And PJ was very scared, though he didn’t hear anything downstairs other than someone walking around.

Dad?

Sheila wailed, and PJ remembered he had cookies in his pocket. He took one out. He couldn’t see anything, but he could feel Sheila’s chubby hands. He put a cookie in her hands and whispered “Cookie.”

“C-c-cookie.”

“Eat the cookie,” he whispered.

She sniffled and PJ hugged her on his lap, all the way in the far corner, behind Jilly’s baseball equipment and Ashley’s stuffed animals and all their dirty clothes they threw in the closet when mom said to clean up their room. Pretty soon PJ thought that he and Sheila were very well hidden and no one could see them even if they opened the door.

Someone was downstairs breaking stuff. He was so scared, what if the bad man came here? Sheila chomped on the cookie with her four teeth but she wasn’t crying. He hugged her tightly and closed his eyes.

“We have to be very quiet,” PJ said. “Daddy will get us when the bad man goes away.”

Andy Knolls and Officer Tolliver pulled up in front of the house on Vine Street at 9:45 a.m. It was one of the older homes in town, but had been recently updated and painted and had an addition upstairs. Many of the houses in this neighborhood had done the same thing, and Andy liked what the upkeep did for their small town. He and Gracie had been looking for a house for after they got married—she lived in a duplex next to her parents, and he had a small house he’d bought his third year on the force. But that house wouldn’t be great for raising kids. He’d like to be on the lake, because he liked to fish and hike, but those homes might be too pricey for them on a cop’s salary. Here, though, they could bike in good weather to the lake, and the homes were more affordable. Maybe they could get an older place like this one and fix it up together.