the narrow front porch, the door in the neighboring cottage opened.
“Eli?”
He didn’t know the man who stepped out, dragging on a light jacket as he crossed the short patch of lawn.
“Mike O’Malley,” he said as he held out a hand. “I’ve been keeping an eye out for you.
The voice on the phone, of course. “Abra.”
“She’s with us.” He gestured toward his house. “She’s okay—mostly it just shook her up. There are a couple cops down at Bluff House. You’ll want to talk to them. I—”
“Later. I want to see Abra.”
“Back in the kitchen.” Mike led the way.
“Did he hurt her?”
“Shook her up,” Mike repeated, “scared her. He had her in a chokehold so she’s a little raw. But it looks like she hurt him a lot more than he did her. He gave her some bruises, but she made him bleed.”
Eli registered the pride in Mike’s voice, assumed it was meant to be reassuring. But he wanted to see for himself. Needed to see.
He heard her voice as they turned out of a cozy living room and into a wide-open kitchen/great room. She sat at a table in a baggy blue hooded sweatshirt, thick pink socks on her feet. She looked up, a combination of sympathy and apology on her face. Surprise replaced it when he knelt at her feet, took her hands.
“Where’s the ring?”
“Shut up.” He scanned her face, then lifted his fingers, gently, to the raw marks on her neck. “Where else are you hurt?”
“I’m not.” Her hands squeezed his, in gratitude, in reassurance. “I’m not. He scared me.”
Eli looked to Maureen for corroboration.
“She’s okay. If I didn’t think that, she’d be in the ER, whether she liked it or not.” Maureen pushed up, gestured toward the coffeepot and whiskey bottle that stood side by side. “Which do you want, or a combination thereof?”
“Coffee. Thanks.”
“I’m sorry we had to call you, sorry we had to upset your family,” Abra began.
“They’re not upset. I told them the power was out, and I wanted to come back and check on things. I’d decided to come back tonight anyway.”
“Good. There’s no point in them worrying. I don’t know if anything was taken,” Abra continued. “The police said nothing looked out of place, but what do they know? These two wouldn’t let me go down and walk through. Maureen’s pretty scary when she’s in protective mode.”
“If there was a burglary and something was taken, what would you do about it?” Maureen stopped, held up her hands to Eli. “Sorry. We’ve been in that loop for the last half hour.” She handed Eli coffee. Before she could offer milk or sugar, he downed half of it black.
“I’ll go down, talk to the cops, take a look.”
“I’ll go with you. First,” Abra said when Maureen started to protest, “I defended myself, didn’t I? Second, I’ll have police and Eli. Third, I know more about what’s in the house and where it goes than anybody but Hester. Who isn’t here. And last?”
She rose, hugged Maureen fiercely. “Thanks, not only for the socks, but for looking out for me. Thanks.” She turned to hug Mike in turn.
“Come back here and sleep in the guest room,” Maureen insisted.
“Sweetie, the only reason that asshole was interested in me was because I came into the house when he thought he had it to himself. He’s not going to come sneaking into mine. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“I’ll make sure she’s all right,” Eli said. “Thanks for the coffee . . . and everything else.”
“She’s got Mom worry genes,” Abra told him when she stepped outside with Eli. “We all know this wasn’t about me.”
“You were the one attacked, so it’s very much about you. I’m driving.”
“I’ll follow you in my car, otherwise you’ll just have to drive me back.”
“That’s right.” He took her arm, steered her to his car.
“Fine. Everyone’s got Mom worry genes tonight.”
“Tell me what happened. Mike didn’t give me the details.”
“When the storm rolled in, I couldn’t remember if I’d closed all your windows. I aired out the house today, and couldn’t remember if I closed the window in Hester’s gym. It nagged at me, so I went down to check. Oh, I took a container of turkey stew—with dumplings—down while I was at it.”
“Speaking of Mom genes.”
“I prefer ‘helpful-neighbor genes.’ The power was out. I feel stupid now as I didn’t think twice about it, or the fact that it hadn’t been out in the area, at least not five seconds earlier. I was just annoyed.