Saltwater Secrets - Amelia Addler Page 0,7

what if someone really was in there? And she went barging in without any pants on?

She paused at the door and listened. She couldn’t hear anything – it was totally silent.

“You’re just being paranoid,” she muttered to herself before pushing the door open.

Still, she held her breath for a moment when the door opened, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. The light was on, which was odd, but maybe she’d forgotten to turn it off?

There was no time to think about that now. She dug out a pair of jeans and threw on a different top – something that didn’t have flour and water splashed onto it. She then stood in front of the mirror and managed to brush her hair and make a neater ponytail before she heard a knock on the door.

Man, he was fast.

“I’m coming!” she yelled before taking one last look at herself in the mirror. It’s not that she was terribly vain, but Matthew had seen her far too many times in a disheveled state. He really was going to start thinking she was crazy if she couldn’t occasionally look put together.

She pulled the door open to find him standing in his sheriff’s uniform. It didn’t matter how many times she saw him in the uniform…every time she felt a little stunned.

“Hey, thanks for stopping by. Come on in.”

“Any time.” He stepped inside, towering over her. He looked even taller in her own house for some reason. “So what happened?”

“Well,” she said, trying to keep her tone even, “I was baking and I heard something – again, it was probably nothing. But now that it got into my head that someone might be unhappy with me, I just think that I’m a little – you know, paranoid.”

“You’re not paranoid. I think you have every reason to be cautious. Where do you think the noise came from?”

“Oh – I think back in my bedroom, but I already went and looked and no one was there.”

“Can I take a look?” he asked.

“Sure.”

She led him back to her room and as soon as she opened the door, realized with horror that her sweatpants were sprawled across the floor. She tried to casually pick them up. “Sorry for the mess.”

He smiled politely. “It’s not messy at all. Much cleaner than my house the other night. And as much as I like to blame any mess on the dog, he really only goes after the toaster.”

Jade laughed and watched as he slowly walked around the room before getting to the back window.

“Where does this go?”

“To the backyard.”

“You don’t have a second floor, right?”

“Right.”

He used one hand and lifted the window open. “Do you always leave this unlocked?”

Jade frowned. “I don’t think so? I didn’t know it was open…”

“Hmm. Okay. And did you know that your garage door is open?”

Jade stopped. “It is?”

Matthew nodded. “Yeah – wide open, and your car’s on the street.”

“Yeah, that’s because the guy that we rent this house from was supposed to clear out the garage. He has a bunch of stuff in there that he’s storing – but he hasn’t gotten around to it and we can’t even fit a car in there.”

Matthew narrowed his eyes. “Interesting. So you didn’t open the garage door today?”

Jade shook her head. “No, not on purpose. Unless Morgan did? But she’s been gone all day.”

“Do you have a garage door opener in your car?”

“I do…”

Matthew nodded. “It’s not uncommon for openers to be stolen when cars are broken into. And then the burglars use it to gain access to the home.”

Jade gasped. “I never even thought of that! Hold on – let me go outside and check my car.”

Jade put on shoes and Matthew followed her outside. She gasped again. “Oh my gosh! It’s gone. I had it on the visor, I didn’t even notice it was missing!”

“So I don’t want to scare you,” Matthew said with a sigh. “But it does seem like someone may have gotten into your house today. They might’ve assumed that you weren’t home and when they heard you…”

Jade’s hand darted to her mouth. “They jumped out of the window and into the backyard?”

Matthew nodded. “That would explain why they didn’t close the garage. You didn’t hear it open?”

“No. It’s pretty quiet. And I was working until recently; I wear headphones so I can drown out any distractions.”

At that moment, Morgan pulled into the driveway. Jade tried not to allow her face to look too concerned about the terrifying discovery they just