Page 8 of Snowbound Threat

“Did she ever leave town?” Caleb gripped the wheel, like that was a perfectly innocent question to ask.

“Only for vacation.” Pops shifted in his seat. “Her best friend lives over in South Dakota, so she drives and visits Meg and her family for the 4thof July every year.”

As Caleb looked over the house as it stood now, and the expanse of field between it and the road, he saw the front door fling open and a second later Tessa ran out. She looked around frantically as if she was missing something. Her movements jerky and tense.

Caleb grabbed the wheel with both hands and turned the corner onto her dirt track, spraying gravel. Thankfully there were no other cars on the highway, so he didn’t cause an accident. Whatever was going on with Tessa, Pops would want tohelp her out. That was the reason he was now speeding down her lane toward where she stood.

As soon as he stopped, Pops hopped out of the car. Moving faster than Caleb had seen him do since he got back.

Caleb jogged over in time to hear Pops say, “What’s going on, Tess?”

She pushed the hair back from her face, her elbows splayed. “My dad was supposed to be home by now, but I can’t get him to pick up the phone. Someone was in the house earlier. While I was at your place.” She dropped her hands. “I thought it was just a delivery, but when I looked it shows they actually broke into the house.”

Caleb said, “Did they take anything?”

She shook her head. “Nothing was missing, but everything is just…off. Like someone went through all our stuff.”

“You think they were looking for something?”

“I guess.”

Caleb motioned to the open front door. “May I?”

“Should we call the police or something?” Tessa asked.

“Give me a second first.” Caleb strode to the front door and stepped inside, the familiar scent of the preacher’s house washing over him in a way that hit him with nostalgia.

He and Noah had come here with Pops every Sunday for lunch after service. The two men had been friends for years. Caleb was pretty sure that his father and the preacher had been good friends as well, close in age.

Back then it hadn’t hurt that Tessa had been at the table. It didn’t matter what card game she taught them, she always won. But she seemed to do it in a way that made the whole thing hilarious and enjoyable.

Caleb wandered through the house, seeing what she’d meant. It did look like someone had gone through everything.He stopped in the study where the preacher prepped for his messages and looked around.

Had whoever was in here uninvited taken what they came for, or did they leave empty-handed?

Chapter Four

Tessa didn’t know what Caleb was doing in her house. Sure, he was a federal agent, but what did that mean? Did he have information she didn’t about her father going missing?

Tessa didn’t even know if her fatherwasmissing. Right now he was only several hours late coming home from town. Usually he called if something delayed him, but she hadn’t heard anything, and he wasn’t picking up the phone no matter how many times she called.

The whole thing was unusual on its own. Add someone breaking into the house and things were downright strange.

She turned to Pops, who said, “I’m going to walk around outside. See if I can see anything.”

“Thanks.” She wandered through the house, finding Caleb in her father’s study.

This was a place she came if she needed a quiet spot and he was out, the couch in the corner the favorite place for each of them to sit and think. From that spot she could see the sunrise every morning. One day she was going to turn the back of the house into a four season porch, but that hadn’t happened yet.

Caleb stood behind the desk facing the wall. He swung out the painting hanging there and revealed a safe inset into the wall.

“What is that?”

He glanced back over his shoulder. “Looks like a safe to me.”

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “What I’m saying is I’ve never seen that before.”

And she cleaned this room, the same as she cleaned the rest of the house. She’d never found a safe, or any hidden anything. She took care of it all but it wasn’t like she took down hanging pictures—she just dusted the top of them once in a while. She’d only have seen the safe if the picture ever fell off the wall.