That night Steph was sound asleep in her old bedroom—though it didn’t look anything like her old bedroom anymore since at some point her parents had decided to redecorate—when the sound of a crash awoke her.
She sat up with a jerk. Next to her, Jeff barely stirred.
For a moment she wondered if she was dreaming, but then decided that she had indeed heard a loud crash and the sound of broken glass. Almost as if a window had been smashed.
Unable to sleep unless she knew what was going on, she slipped from underneath the covers and moments later was in the corridor, listening intently. And there it was: another loud crash! This time it came from the end of the corridor, where a window looked out across the drive.
She hurried in the direction of the sound, and as she did, a door opened to her left, and her dad appeared.
“What’s going on?” he asked, tying the sash of his velvet dressing gown.
“Someone is throwing rocks through the windows,” she said.
“Christ,” said her dad, and together they made for the window.
It was as she had surmised: two panes in the multi-pane window had been destroyed, rocks lying on the carpet amongst the shards of glass.
“Careful,” said her dad as she bent down. “Don’t cut yourself.” Then he uttered a loud curse, and when she looked where he was pointing, she saw a person running away from the house. It was too dark to see who it was, but she could have sworn it was a man from the way he was moving.
“We have to call the police,” she said immediately.
“Don’t worry, I will,” her dad assured her.
Behind them, soft steps alerted her of the presence of her mom, who was coming up the stairs.
“What’s going on?” she asked. “What are you two doing up?”
To Steph’s surprise, her mom was fully dressed. “Where did you come from?” she asked.
“I couldn’t sleep so I went for a walk,” said her mother, who shared a meaningful look with her husband before becoming aware of the broken glass. “Oh, my God, what happened!”
“Someone threw a couple of rocks through the window, that’s what happened,” said Steph’s dad angrily. “We saw him running off just now.”
“Yeah, Mom, you probably just missed him,” said Steph.
“Oh, will you look at my nice table,” said Mom, pointing to the pretty piecrust table which had been positioned in front of the window but was now covered in glass. One of the rocks must have hit it, for it had fallen over, taking down the ponytail palm which it had supported. “That used to belong to my aunt Mabel.”
“No letter,” said Steph’s dad, who’d crouched down to examine the rocks.
“It’s only in the movies that they wrap a letter around a rock and throw it through the window, Dad,” said Steph. “And you better don’t touch anything. The police will want to look for fingerprints on those rocks.”
“Fat chance they’ll find anything,” Dad grumbled.
Suddenly Steph became aware that her brother was missing.
“Where’s Kevin?”
“Sound asleep, probably,” said Mom. “You know your brother. You can fire off a cannon next to him and he still won’t wake up.”
A door opened at the end of the corridor and a male figure stumbled out, looking sleepy and bleary-eyed. It was Jeff.“What’s going on?” he asked, stifling a yawn.
“Someone is throwing rocks through the windows now,” said Steph.
“Oh, no,” he said as he joined them to assess the damage. “And here I thought you didn’t have criminals in Hampton Cove.”
“Well, you better think again,” said Dad grimly. “And the worst criminal of all is that bastard Beniamino Kosinski!” And he actually shook his fist as he said this.
CHAPTER 11
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Once again Odelia had been called upon to assist Stephanie Felfan in a matter of grave concern. This time a stone or stones had been thrown through a window of her family’s residence where she was staying. And since her dad had called 911, we showed up on the Stewart family doorstep bright and early, this time accompanied by Chase, in his capacity as an officer of the law.
When we arrived, remnants of the incident were partially scattered across the drive, and when we followed Steph up the stairs to the third floor, more glass could be seen, and also the two stones or rocks that had caused all the damage.
“Why do people throw stones at other people’s windows, Max?” asked Dooley, as we both studied the scene with some astonishment. Mostly Chase deals with murder and all manner of mayhem, but a knocked-out window was definitely a first.
“I’m not sure,” I said. “To make a point, maybe?”
“What point could that be?”
And there he had me. What point could this nocturnal intruder possibly have wanted to make? He hadn’t even left a note to state the reasoning behind his initiative, or made a phone call claiming responsibility, like terrorists do.
No, to be absolutely honest this stone business was as much a mystery to me as it obviously was to our humans.
Chase stood scratching his scalp, and Odelia stood looking dumbfounded.