Lotty lay next to Ty in his spaceship-themed room. She’d claimed the right side of his bed nearly a year ago when she’d bought him a queen-size mattress. His little body managed to take up two-thirds of the bed as he rolled around and he always had to have his arm on top of her, but it was far more comfortable than the recliner in Aiden’s room where she’d spent many nights before Ty got a big bed.

The awkwardness of sharing a bed with a husband to whom she could barely speak had forced her to find reasons to sleep in a different room. It wasn’t long before they had a silent understanding that she didn’t have any intentions of sleeping in their bed. However, lately she missed the comfort of their king-size, pillow top mattress and possibly even the comfort of Jason next to her. It was ninety percent the mattress and ten percent Jason. Maybe eighty-twenty.

Lotty stared at the image projected on Ty’s ceiling. Stars and planets orbited around the central image of the time, one-twenty-three a.m. She pushed Ty back onto his side as she thought about her exhausting day. By five o’clock, she’d been completely burnt out. Jason texted saying he would be at the office all evening, so she’d pulled the boys’ blinds and curtains shut, read them a couple of books and pretended it was bedtime at six o’clock. Although she felt a little guilty, the hours of silence had been worth it. She might change her mind soon though. If the boys slept their normal ten hours they would be up at four. She needed to go back to sleep now or she was going to have another grueling day.

After another thirty minutes of trying to force her mind to shut off, she got out of bed and went down to the living room. Time to pick a hobby.

She scrolled through hundreds of pictures that popped up on her home screen. She pushed aside the feelings of failure swirling around inside her as she viewed other people’s masterpieces. A nine-layer cake with each layer a different color, perfectly stitched mermaid tail blankets, beautiful braids to create in five minutes or less, ways to organize a gorgeous Pottery Barn playroom that was nicer than her bedroom, meticulously planned busy bags for toddlers which entertained a three-year-old for seven minutes, but took eighteen hours to create. This wasn’t helping.

She closed Pinterest and opened Google. When she searched for hobby ideas, there were hundreds of lists.

A strange tapping sound outside jerked her attention away from her tablet. It was metal tapping on metal. As quickly as it began, it stopped. She shook her head. Of course she was nervous after last week. It was all in her head. There were always sounds outside, but they didn’t usually get to her.

She turned her attention back to scanning lists and found a few ideas. Gardening might be nice. Sewing would be fun since she could make clothes for the boys. Swimming could be done at the gym and count as exercise. She scribbled a few choices on a sticky note until she had two that stood out from the others: photography and raising chickens. She’d always loved taking pictures and since she lived in the beautiful Northwest, it seemed a great choice. As for raising chickens, she came across several blueprints for building her own chicken coop. Then there were all the wonderful bonuses. She’d get fresh eggs for the family and possibly for the neighbors, it would be a good way to teach the boys about work, and several articles talked about how chicken waste was high in nitrogen, which was great for compost. She may not have a compost bin yet, but if she decided to start gardening, she’d have an advantage already. Besides, she lived in Montana. What sounded more Montanan than raising your own chickens?

She heard the weird tapping again and held her breath. It was followed by something scraping and then returned to the tapping. She glanced at the front door to make sure it was locked. She let out a tiny breath of relief when she saw it was dead bolted. She moved her head slowly to the side to check the back door. She was certain if she moved too quickly, whatever was making the sound would hear her. She froze as she realized it didn’t matter if the doors were locked. The side of her house was still a gaping hole. It was covered in plastic, but one swipe with a knife could create an entrance.

She pulled her legs up to her chest, wrapped her arms around them, and focused on breathing. The sound of her heart beating rang in her ears and her sweaty palms slipped against her legs. Deep breath in. And out. Jason had installed a security system. If anyone was near the house, the motion sensors would be going crazy. No one was breaking in tonight. She buried her face in between her chest and legs and stayed in her safe cocoon.

The tapping stopped and a car-door slammed. Then a strange swooshing sound filled her ears. Was it something dragging? The sound seemed to be getting closer. Her curiosity bested her fear and she willed herself to lower her legs. She inched toward the front window on shaky hands and knees as every hair on her arms stood. She didn’t trust her unsteady hands so, without moving the blinds, she peeked through the gap between the curtain and the edge of the window.

She waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness of the night. After staring at her tablet for so long, the world outside appeared jet-black. She strained her eyes, but nothing came into focus. It didn’t usually seem this dark. The moon must be covered by clouds tonight. She crawled into the dining room and lifted the blinds an inch. Though she couldn’t see her driveway from the dining room window, it gave a better view of the houses across the cove. Everything looked normal, albeit dark.

The spotlight shining on Trinity’s garden statue was the only glimmer in the cove. Lotty had always hated that tacky half-nude effigy, but tonight the Goddess Demeter was radiant. The light reflected off her white body and lit most of the Tuckers’ driveway. Even the black truck parked in between the Tuckers’ house and the Grantham’s house was visible thanks to the topless Greek. 

She strained her eyes to get a better look at the truck. It was a Dodge and she was certain it didn’t belong to anyone in the cove. As she focused on the license plate, a man opened the driver’s side door and looked her way. Terror raced through her veins and she lost her balance and fell backwards. As she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, a blast of pain shot across the side of her face, beneath her eye. She forced her eyes open and realized she’d hit the corner of a chair by the wall. Heart racing and face throbbing, she crawled back to the window.

The man crept across the Tuckers’ yard. If nothing else was strange, the way he moved made him seem suspicious. He skulked along, dodging in and out of trees. She tried to make out defining features, but couldn’t see him clearly. She looked back to the truck and tried to make out the license plate. Too far away. Using the zoom feature on the camera on her tablet, she was able to get a clear picture of the plate. Then she tried to get one of the man, but his constant moving made every picture blurry. If only she’d taken up photography sooner, she would know how to get a clear picture. She switched to video and recorded his movements for several seconds. He grabbed something from behind the tree. Struggling with the weight, he bent down and dragged it, inching slowly toward the garage. Nausea overtook Lotty as she realized what he had. She tried to steady the camera just as he picked up a large rock from the shrub bed, walked over to Demeter and smashed the spotlight. Everything went black.