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Back We Were Killers Once Save as PDF
Chapters (65)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Notice
  3. Dedication
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Three
  7. Four
  8. Five
  9. Six
  10. Seven
  11. Eight
  12. Nine
  13. Ten
  14. Eleven
  15. Twelve
  16. Thirteen
  17. Fourteen
  18. Fifteen
  19. Sixteen
  20. Seventeen
  21. Eighteen
  22. Nineteen
  23. Twenty
  24. Twenty–one
  25. Twenty–two
  26. Twenty–three
  27. Twenty–four
  28. Twenty–five
  29. Twenty–six
  30. Twenty–seven
  31. Twenty–eight
  32. Twenty–nine
  33. Thirty
  34. Thirty–one
  35. Thirty–two
  36. Thirty–three
  37. Thirty–four
  38. Thirty–five
  39. Thirty–six
  40. Thirty–seven
  41. Thirty–eight
  42. Thirty–nine
  43. Forty
  44. Forty–one
  45. Forty–two
  46. Forty–three
  47. Forty–four
  48. Forty–five
  49. Forty–six
  50. Forty–seven
  51. Forty–eight
  52. Forty–nine
  53. Fifty
  54. Fifty–one
  55. Fifty–two
  56. Fifty–three
  57. Fifty–four
  58. Fifty–five
  59. Fifty–six
  60. Fifty–seven
  61. Author’s Note
  62. Acknowledgments
  63. Also by Becky Masterman
  64. About the Author
  65. Newsletter Sign-up

I mounted the motion detectors in the front and back entryways while Carlo was at another meeting with Elias Manwaring and the science professor whose name I couldn’t remember. This was good because Carlo would have offered to help and he is not really as good as I am with either ladders or power tools.

I tested the motion detectors, which came equipped not only with football stadium lights guaranteed to illuminate the front and back yards for twenty-five feet out and to the sides, but also were connected to a closed circuit camera. This might sound high tech, but it’s no more than parents are using with nanny cams. Everything was working. I was not content, closing the barn door after the cow … but no use crying over … I managed to stop my mother’s platitudes from ganging up on me before I went any further.

All the outdoor stuff was battery powered, but electrical wiring, I must admit, is not among my gifts. Luckily someone was available to come out the same day and install the indoor security. His ringing the doorbell set off the pugs, who bounced their bodies sideways against the screen door. When I answered the door he shouted over their barking, “I probably shouldn’t mention this, but you couldn’t have better security than these guys.”

“These guys? They’re pugs. Who’s afraid of pugs?”

“There are too many houses without dogs to take any chance going into one with. They might alert the neighbors. They might be small but they still have teeth. On top of that, you have two of them.”

I didn’t bother to tell him that we’d already been broken into and they hadn’t helped much that day. For the first time I wondered why not. Probably because the house is so well insulated the neighbors wouldn’t hear the dogs barking, I thought first. Then I thought, so why didn’t it deter the vandals, thieves, punks, whatever they were, the way the alarm guy said they would? Then I thought, who knew us and the pugs well enough not to leave the house alone and go to one without dogs, where there was no chance of being attacked?

I would think more later, but for now I told him to go ahead with the alarm system, which he installed within an hour. He showed me how to program it with a passcode, and explained how the sheriff’s department would be alerted if it went off. I knew all this but I let him talk. I’d been dealing with security my whole life. The only difference is that I had let my guard down living here with Carlo, in Jane’s house.

That made me remember the doorbell played Eine kleine Nachtmusik. Call it petty, small-minded, insecure, what have you, but this was one reminder of Jane I could eliminate. I mentioned it to the security guy.