Finding Sarah by Terry Odell

kitchen. A small home office occupied
what would otherwise have been a breakfast nook. No indications anything was
amiss.
    Beyond the kitchen, he found a
small service porch, more a laundry and storage space than anything else. He
unlocked a door to a flight of stairs that led down to the backyard, noticing a
matching staircase from Maggie’s apartment. Randy rattled the knob, swearing
softly under his breath. Might as well not be a lock at all.
    A quick check of the closet and
bathroom showed no signs of an intruder. Telling himself it was cop nerves that
had his pulse racing and his mouth dry, he retraced his steps to the hall where
Sarah waited. She raised her eyebrows at his approach.
    “Nobody’s here,” he said. Her
eyes were fixed on his holster and he resnapped it. “You were here last night,
right?”
    “Yes. I had no reason to think
there was anything wrong.”
    “Did the man Maggie described
sound like anyone you know?”
    “No. I mean, I’m sure I’ve met
dozens of people who fit that description, but I don’t know them
personally.”
    “Let’s try to go over everything
you did. When we go inside, I want you to take your time, look around, and see
if there’s anything that seems out of place or doesn’t feel right.”
    “Even thinking someone was in
here gives me the creeps.” He saw her shudder and took her elbow to support her.
    She smiled up at him. “You can
relax. I’m not going to pass out on you.”
    Randy removed his hand, far from
relaxed. Sarah entered the apartment, stopping inside the door, and recapped
her movements of the evening before. “Nothing seemed unusual except the
computer message.”
    “What message?”
    “An error message when I logged
on about not shutting down properly. I didn’t think that much about it—it’s not
the first time I’ve forgotten the computer’s stupid rules.”
    “Would you remember what files
you worked on?”
    “Sure. The shop files and my
email. I made some tea and went to bed.”
    “Anything seem out of place
anywhere else?”
    Sarah stood in her entryway and
stared through her apartment, and Randy knew she was trying to look beyond her
familiar surroundings. “Nothing seems different,” Sarah said.
    “What about the kitchen. Anything
wrong there?”
    Sarah crossed to the room and
opened a few cabinets. “No, it looks normal. I cleaned up, which means I
probably removed any evidence if he’d been in here.”
    “Bedroom?” Randy followed her to
the short hallway that separated the living area from her sleeping quarters.
    Sarah checked the closet and
looked in her dresser drawers. “I put my stuff away last night and got dressed
this morning. Nothing seemed weird. I have to admit, I’m not the neatest when
it comes to putting away my laundry, but I don’t think anyone’s taken anything.”
    “So you’d say your clothes are
where they belong?” He hesitated, but he had to ask. “Your underwear?”
    She jerked her head around and
stared at him. “Why are you interested in my underwear?”
    “I’m not, but sometimes—”
    “Sometimes what?”
    Randy couldn’t answer right away.
    “Oh, God.” She yanked the top
drawer open again. “You think he might have been someone who got his jollies
from women’s underwear.”
    “It’s not uncommon. But in this
case, no, I think he came here to get what he could from your computer and left
everything else pretty much alone.”
    The expression on Sarah’s face
said she didn’t believe him, but he kept his gaze steady and moved on with his
questions. “When you logged on, aside from the error message, were your files
intact? The same as they should have been?”
    “I entered the day’s receipts and
everything seemed normal enough. I have backups of everything on disc.”
    “If you don’t mind, I can look to
see if I can tell when these were last opened.”
    “Go ahead.”
    Randy sat down in front of the
computer and powered it on. “You used the computer last night. I’m