alarm during the day since she had a complete view of the property from her perch in the loft. The system had several zones, depending on what time of day it was.
“Wonderful. I’m sure Buddy will be very happy. Do you want to start today?” Ellie asked.
Colleen thought for a moment. She had to finish putting Mitchel’s things together and could use some extra time.
“That would be great. Do you mind if he stays for more than an hour? I have some things I need to do, and I’d rather not have to do them in front of Jackson.” Colleen hoped she hadn’t said too much.
“No problem. He can stay in the yard as long as he wants. I don’t know who will get tired first, him or Buddy.” Ellie chuckled softly. “And, listen, I want to apologize for turning down all of your lovely invitations, but I am really up to my eyeballs with work.”
“What do you do? If I’m not being too pushy,” Colleen asked.
“I work in IT. I’m what you might call a computer geek—one of those people who does online chats when you have a problem with your computer. I also work with software companies, doing beta testing on new programs. Pretty boring stuff, really.” Ellie wasn’t lying about the computer part. The “boring stuff” was definitely an exaggeration.
“I am not that tech-savvy. Just the basics,” Colleen said.
“That’s why there are dweebs like me.” Ellie chuckled.
“I won’t keep you from your geeking. It was nice talking to you, Ellie. And thanks again for the Buddy-Jackson connection.” Colleen was surprised at how easy it was to talk to Ellie. She seemed so “normal.”
“Nice talking to you, too. Enjoy your day.” Ellie hung up and put the burner phone on a shelf. Maybe she would keep this one just for Jackson and Colleen. She hadn’t made any other calls with it so far.
Besides her weekly calls to her mom and Kara, and maintaining her fabricated life, she felt a connection to Colleen. Maybe it was because she knew more about her than Colleen realized. Being a crackerjack computer geek, Ellie could be a good hacker when necessary. She knew that what she did was illegal at times, but her life depended on it.
Ellie had over a dozen repair calls that day. Mercury must be in retrograde, she thought to herself. A normal day usually brings five or six, lasting about an hour each. That day, it was one huge problem after another. Before she knew it, the buzzer at the gate rang. She looked at her watch. It was 3:20. She looked out the back window and saw Jackson with his baseball glove and a ball and buzzed him in. The gate shut behind Jackson, just as Hector had planned.
Ellie noticed a police car pull up in front of Colleen’s house. She hoped there wasn’t anything wrong. She pulled out the binoculars and watched a policeman climb the front steps, carrying a package under his arm. Colleen had a smile on her face as she let him in. Ellie was relieved. Now if they could just get that creepy husband to stop parking his car on their block.
Ellie turned to look out the back window again. Buddy and Jackson were running all over the yard. She was glad Hector had cleaned up after Buddy that morning. She’d hate for Jackson to go home with doggie doo-doo on his shoes.
Feeling a bit neglected, Percy jumped up on one of Ellie’s desks and started knocking things over. For a feline, he was quite a character. Most cats are agile and can walk around almost anything without disturbing it. Not Percy. It was his mission to disrupt whatever you were doing. And if you weren’t paying enough attention to him, he’d find something to bang or slam. As annoying as it might seem, it always made Ellie laugh.
“You are such a goofball!” She picked up his fifteen pounds of fur and rubbed her face in his neck. Even though he had to sit on her lap at every opportunity or lie on top of the very newspaper she was reading, he didn’t like to have his four feet dangling in her arms, and he started to squirm. She set him down on the floor, and he immediately jumped back on one of her consoles and tossed a computer mouse onto the floor. “And you know that’s called a mouse, don’t ya?” He gave her a loud meow in return.
“Now scoot. I