Page 35 of Little Bitter Truths
I reached the front door and pounded on it.“Mia, open the door!”
A scream came from inside the house, followed by the sound of Coco barking.
Giovanni stepped past me, raised his gun, and fired, shattering the glass on one of the front windows.We climbed through, making our way through the dark to Mia’s room.I pushed the door open and saw Mia sitting upright in bed, clutching the sheets, her eyes wide with terror.
“Someone was just … someone was here,” she gasped.“Standing right there, right where you’re standing now.”
“Which way did they go?”I demanded.
“As soon as you started pounding on the door, they ran.I think they went out the back.”
I rushed down the hallway, through the kitchen, and into the backyard.But I found nothing and no one.
Behind me, Giovanni stepped outside.“Do you see anyone?”
“No.”
He swore under his breath.
I turned back toward the house, frustrated.Giovanni suggested he drive through the nearby streets again while I stayed with Mia, but it wasn’t long after I went back inside that he joined us.
“Our front tires have been slashed,” he said.
I pulled my phone from my pocket, my pulse hammering in my ears.At last, everything clicked into place.Mia had been the target from the beginning.Wren’s death hadn’t been the end of anything.It had been a mistake.And tonight, the killer had returned to correct it.
14
The patrol units arrived, and the neighborhood went from dead quiet to lit up in a wash of red and blue.Mia sat on the front porch wrapped in a blanket, and Coco was at her side, keeping watch.
I stood near the front steps with Giovanni while one of the officers moved through the house and another swept the backyard with a flashlight, even though the intruder was long gone.
A few minutes later, Foley’s SUV pulled up behind one of the patrol cars, followed by Whitlock and then Silas in the coroner’s van.Foley stepped out first, looking irritable, tired, and in no mood for surprises at two o’clock in the morning.Whitlock walked toward him, tipping his head at me along the way.
Silas approached, glanced at the shattered front window, and then at Giovanni and me.“That’s one way to make a speedy entry.”
Giovanni smiled like he was taking pride in his work.“I agree.”
Foley joined us on the porch, saying, “At this hour, I’m almost too tired to ask how you and Giovanni came to be sitting outside Miss Bennett’s house in the middle of the night.”
“Almost?”I asked.
“Don’t push it.”
“Let’s all take a moment to appreciate the bright side,” Whitlock said, stepping up to join us.
Foley turned toward him.“There’s a bright side?”
“Mia’s alive,” Whitlock said.“That’s something, is it not?”
“You’re right.Miaisalive, and she’s safe.Now then, how did you and Giovanni end up here tonight, Georgiana?”
“I had a bad dream, and it didn’t sit well with me.”
“And this bad dream led you to drive across town in the middle of the night?”
“That’s the short version.”
Foley looked torn between irritation, concern, and the urge to commend me for trusting my instincts.“All right, tell me what happened after you got here.”
