Death by Equine by Annette Dashofy (read this if txt) 📗

“Nothing else is missing here. But nothing’s intact either.”

Greg made more notes and then led them through the rest of the downstairs rooms, all untouched. “This doesn’t make sense.” He started up the stairs. Jessie and Meryl followed. “Someone went to a lot of trouble for a few CDs and DVDs. Why smash all the electronic stuff? Why not take it too?”

Jessie was about to offer Milt’s theory about portability when Meryl spoke up. “Have you asked Vanessa?”

Greg stopped three steps shy of the landing, turned, and looked down. Not at Meryl, but at Jessie. “You just had to share your suspicions with everyone, didn’t you?”

“Not everyone.” She wanted to tell him she no longer believed Vanessa was the culprit, but he didn’t give her a chance.

“Why would Vanessa smash all your stuff?”

Meryl stepped between them. “Maybe the fact it was Jessie’s was reason enough.”

This time Meryl was the recipient of Greg’s angry-cop face.

“Vanessa’s already got her husband. Now she wants her house.” Undaunted, Meryl climbed one more step, leaving Jessie only a view of her back. But she could well imagine what her face looked like. “This seems like an effective method for getting it. I wouldn’t put anything past that twit.”

“Vanessa’s not like that. You don’t know her. She wouldn’t stoop to this level.”

Jessie wondered why he bothered debating the issue. Unless he was trying to convince himself. “Then who?” she asked.

Greg didn’t reply. Instead he turned and continued up the stairs.

Three of the second-floor rooms were easy to assess. The guest room contained a few pieces of antique furniture, and the dresser and bureau drawers were all empty except for an extra set of sheets and a blanket. Greg’s old office, likewise, was sparsely furnished and, since he’d cleared his things out, held little to interest a burglar. The bathroom remained undisturbed.

Greg and Meryl waited at the door while Jessie wandered through her bedroom. She opened drawers one at a time and noted the contents. Nothing seemed to have been displaced, but she still imagined the interloper going through her clothes.

Meryl touched her shoulder. “Are you all right?”

“Yes. No.” Jessie shook her head. “I will be.” From the top of the dresser, she scooped up the cosmetics Meryl had loaned her and held them out to her. “Thanks.”

Meryl accepted them with a silent smile.

Jessie slammed the drawer and turned to the black lacquered jewelry box with Japanese scenes painted into the glossy finish. She lifted the lid and the music box inside began to play a tune. The contents of the box, a few pieces of costume jewelry, were just as she had left them.

“Well?” Greg asked.

“It’s all here.”

“That leaves your office.” He stepped back, allowing her to pass.

Light shone through the large six-over-six paned windows, casting pools of sunshine on the littered remains. The room didn’t look any better in the daylight than it had last night.

“My laptop’s gone.” She gave the desk a closer inspection. “And my external hard drive.”

“What was on them?”

“Patient records.” As she said it, something whispered in the back of her brain, too low to make out.

Fifteen

Greg stepped into the room, his shoes crunching against the debris, sending the whispers scurrying into the darkness. He jotted in his notebook. “Anything else?”

“My printer and router are trash.” Jessie crossed to the hearth and gazed at the blackened remains of Doc’s files.

“I think this had to be done by kids,” Greg said. “They could unload the CDs, DVDs, and hard drive without drawing too much attention. Unlike the bigger stuff, which they probably had a grand old time smashing.”

Jessie’s breath slowed. Her eyes remained on the char in the fireplace. She didn’t think it was kids who broke into her house. While she’d prefer to think it was Vanessa being a bitch, she didn’t believe that either.

“It wasn’t kids.”

“Look, Jess, I’m getting tired of hearing your accusations against Vanessa.”

“I’m not talking about Vanessa.”

“Oh?” Greg struck his standard in-command stance.

Jessie pointed to the hearth. “Somebody started a fire in here.”

“Still could have been kids. Did you check the kitchen? Maybe they made themselves a snack.”

“Really? Teenage hoodlums are going to lug a package of my tofu dogs all the way up here to grill?”

The expression on his face told her he guessed not.

“Besides, there are plenty of papers on my desk they could have used. There are books. Hell, they could have torn down the curtains and torched them. No. They chose the stack of files I brought home from the track. Doc’s files.”

“That means what exactly?”

First, Doc turned up dead. Then his files on the horse that killed him had turned up missing. Now this. Jessie didn’t like the implications. “I’m not sure,” she said. “But doesn’t it strike you as odd?”

Meryl crossed to stand next to Jessie and surveyed the fireplace. “It definitely does.” She met Jessie’s gaze, a perplexed look in her eyes. It was a look Jessie rarely saw in Meryl.

Greg’s gaze shifted between the two of them. Jessie could almost hear the grinding of gears inside his head. His gaze lowered and he scribbled something in his notebook. “Anything else missing?”

Jessie did a slow three-sixty, surveying the room. “I don’t think so.”

“You know the drill. If you discover anything’s missing later—”

“I’ll be sure to let you know.”

The trio tromped down the stairs in silence. Something still whispered to Jessie. She was missing something and had a feeling it was something obvious. But the nagging voice refused to speak loud enough to be heard.

“What are you going to do?” Greg’s voice shattered the stillness she’d been trying to penetrate.

“Huh?”

“I don’t think the house should be left vacant. If you don’t feel safe, I’ll stay here for a few days.”

For one fleeting, off-kilter moment, she thought he meant with her.

“I gather you’ll stay in your office at the track?”

Her world, as she now knew it, righted itself. “Of course,” she said without missing a beat.

Meryl slung a protective arm around her shoulders. “I’ve already offered my house.”

Jessie thought of