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Chapter 6

AT RITA’S HOUSE, THEstench in the carpet had gone from bad to blech. While Nate opened a window to air the place out, Dorcas searched for something to clean the carpets.

“The only things I could find were 409 and Windex,” she said as she walked into the living room. No surprise there; Rita never had been much for housework. And considering how clean the place usually was, she wouldn’t be surprised to learn her sister employed a maid service. Which kind of irked Dorcas, especially when she thought about how many hours she worked just to stay afloat. “But I did find a bottle of Febreze. It’ll have to work for now.”

Later, she’d stop by the store and buy something that could do more than cover up the smell. Hopefully, by then the rug wouldn’t have devolved past the point of no return.

After nuking the carpet, the smell was more bearable, and they turned their attention to searching the house for whatever the key unlocked. They checked every room, every closet. Even the air ducts, garage, and attic. But in the end, they came up empty.

Dorcas opened the fridge and took out two cans of soda. She handed one to Nate. “Maybe the people who broke in found it.”

“I don’t think so. If they had, they wouldn’t have bothered tossing your place.”

Good point, but it failed to make her feel better. Disappointed, deflated, she cracked open the can and walked to the living room, where she sank down on the ruined leather couch. “I don’t know where else to look.”

The expression on Nate’s face indicated he shared her frustration. Tension radiated off him in waves, while a pair of lines had taken up residence between his dark eyebrows. He opened his mouth, but whatever he intended to say was cut off by a ring of the doorbell.

He waved her off when she started to get up. “Stay. I’ll get it.”

Crossing to the foyer, he opened the door to find a short elderly woman in yellow polyester pants, a floral print blouse, and bright green Crocs. She was more wrinkled than a raisin, with a puff of thick white hair on her head and an old school flip phone pressed to her ear.

“It’s the ones who were here with the police yesterday,” the old woman said in a loud Southern voice to whoever was on the other end of the line. “I’ll call you back as soon as I finish talking with them.” She flipped the phone closed and offered a smile. “Hi, I’m Mildred. I live down the way. Sorry to bother you, but I didn’t recognize your car. With everything going on, I wanted to make sure that whoever was in Rita’s house actually belonged there.”

Dorcas appreciated the woman checking to make sure she and Nate weren’t criminals or anything, though she wondered why Mildred hadn’t done the same thing yesterday. She walked to the foyer, and Nate shifted aside to give her room to speak with the neighbor. “I’m Dorcas. Rita’s my sister.”

“I kind of figured. You’re the spitting image.” Mildred held her hand out to Nate. “And you are?”

He shook the hand she offered, a flirty smile on his lips. “Nate Flint. Nice to meet you, ma’am.”

“Please, call me Mildred.” The old woman craned her neck to get a better view of the interior of the house and placed a hand to her chest. “Oh my, they certainly tore the place up, didn’t they? Do the police have any idea who did this? I hate the thought of those kinds of people roaming our neighborhood.”

“Last time I checked, they didn’t have any leads,” Nate replied.

“That’s a shame. Poor Rita.” Mildred made a tsk-tsk sound. “How’s she handling the news of the break-in?”

“She doesn’t know yet,” Dorcas said. “I haven’t been able to reach her on the phone.”

“When was the last time you saw Rita?” Nate asked the old woman.

“Two days ago, I think. From what I could tell, she was going out of town on business again.”

That got Dorcas’s attention, especially in light of what Rita’s boss had said. “Did she actually say she was leaving on business?”

“Didn’t have to. I’ve seen her come and go enough times.”

“She does that a lot?”

Mildred gave her a look, as though judging Dorcas for not knowing her sister better. “I don’t know; couple—three times a month maybe.”

Dorcas filed the information away to make sense of later. “She didn’t leave anything with you by any chance, did she?”

“No,” Mildred said with a shake of her head. “I only saw her real quick while I was out walking my dog. She seemed to be in a hurry, so I just wished her a safe trip and told her I’d keep an eye on the place while she was gone.”

“And you didn’t see anyone around Rita’s house since she left?”