Jealousy Junction by Cathryn Grant (rosie project .txt) 📗

me, hugging herself, her whole body trembling. A moment later, she began crying, torrential sheets of tears that made my heart ache for her.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and tapped the non-emergency number for the police. “I’d like to report—“ Suddenly, Tanya was beside me, trying to pull the phone away from my ear.

“No. Don’t call them. He’s not here, so it doesn’t matter. He just messed things up. I can replace the passport…it was upsetting because it’s so invasive, that’s all. I didn’t mean to lose it like that.”

I continued talking while she tried to grab my arm, but in the end, I kept hold of the phone. I was told an officer would be out shortly to have a look around and take a report.

When I hung up, Tanya began crying.

Chapter 14

Officer Morales arrived alone, and I led her upstairs to my bedroom. Jerry had returned to making tea, oddly unfazed by the fact someone had been in the house, that someone had prowled through the bedroom we shared, touching our things, stealing my sister’s passport. I’d looked through the drawers while we waited for the police and hadn’t noticed anything else missing, but it was hard to know for sure. It’s not like I had a mental catalog telling me the location of every single item I owned.

Tanya followed the officer and me up the stairs but hung back near the bedroom door.

Officer Morales walked around the room. She looked into the bathroom and then returned and stood for several minutes staring at the bed and the open suitcase beyond. Finally, she took out her phone and tapped a few times.

“What time did you go out?”

“About seven,” I said.

“Six-forty-five,” Tanya said.

“And you got home at?”

“A little after nine,” I said.

Officer Morales tapped it into her phone. Then she proceeded down her list of questions, entering each of my responses, as well as Tanya’s corrections.

“You have a security system?”

“Yes.”

“Was it engaged?”

“Tanya had to come back in for something. She’s not familiar with it, so I think she forgot to enter the code when she left.”

“I did not,” Tanya said.

“So you’re not sure?” Officer Morales asked.

“I’m sure,” I said. “How else would someone get in?”

Officer Morales looked at Tanya. “Are you sure you locked the door as well?”

Tanya glared at the officer, then me, clearly angry that she’d been caught in her major screw-up.

“Anything missing?”

“Tanya’s passport. Nothing else that I know of, yet.”

“Any other rooms disturbed?”

“The suitcase had been in the guest room, so it’s a little strange he moved it up here.”

“Let’s check it out.” She put the phone in her pocket and waited for Tanya and me to go first.

She followed us through the house, checking window and door locks. Everything was secure, as I knew it would be, but I let her do her thing. Except for the absent suitcase, the guest room was undisturbed.

“So it looks like he, or she, just walked in the front door,” Officer Morales said. “And as far as we can tell, it wasn’t a robbery.” She glanced at the wireless speakers and a decorative jade box I had on one of the living room shelves. “Any idea who might want to be searching your things?”

“This guy’s been following me, watching the house, and he was asking questions about me at the store I own. I reported it when I saw him outside the house, and two officers came out. They looked, but they couldn’t find him.”

I could feel the heat of Tanya staring at me, willing me not to tell the officer the complete story—that my sister knew who this guy was. Or thought she did. I glanced at Tanya, wondering what I should do. I didn’t want to live with my angry sister. I’d seen her furious several times over the years, and she could make life very uncomfortable. She wasn’t violent, but her moodiness and tirades were unbearable. Now that I was thinking this way, I realized I was starting to feel trapped with her in my house. She’d settled in quite nicely and seemed to have no plans to even think about when she might figure out a direction for her life.

The weight of it was suddenly too much. The first few days, seeing her again, talking and laughing together after all those years apart, had been fun. But I didn’t want to live with her. And I sure didn’t think it was my job to support her. When did a guest stop being a guest and become a lodger?

I decided to wait. The police needed to look around the neighborhood, figure out a way to confront him. Checking whether he had a record in California wasn’t going to make a difference right now. The thing was to catch him and talk to him, but he was as slippery as Tanya had said. He almost seemed like a ghost, some other-worldly being with the power to dissolve into nothing before your eyes.

“Any idea who he is?” Officer Morales asked.

I shook my head slightly as if minimal motion would make my lie less significant.

“Ever seen him before?”

“The two times he followed me, and every day since when he’s been staring at my house.”

“You’ve never seen him around Liars Island other than that?” the officer asked.

“No.”

“Can you give me his approximate height, weight, age?”

“Over six feet, maybe 190 pounds?” I glanced at Tanya. Her eyes were closed, her face tilted toward the ceiling. “I’m not sure how old. All I can say is over thirty, I think, and under fifty.”

“I don’t suppose you have a hair color?”

I shook my head.

“Any facial hair?”

“Not that I could see.”

“He was out there just before you arrived.” I turned to Tanya. “Wasn’t he?”

She nodded, her eyes open and staring past me.

“They’ve been patrolling more frequently,” I said. “But so far, he’s never there when a police car comes by.”

“He sounds experienced at evading enemies and authorities,” she said.

“It’s really upsetting. My boyfriend went out and tried to talk