The Gordon home was every bit as large as the Sawyer estate next door. It had an older feel to it, though. In fact, Shauna couldn’t help but expect to see a ghostly figure watching out of one of the third floor windows. She could swear she felt eyes on her as she followed Liz’s car up the drive.

As a cop, she never ignored that feeling, but she did have to admit, she thought this time she was just letting her imagination run wild. The house looked too much like the setting of a horror movie to stop her brain from going there.

She glanced up at the house again before getting out to approach Liz. She’d instructed Liz to wait for her in the car. Liz rolled down the window now.

“Liz, is anyone in the house?” Shauna asked.

The girl looked at her phone screen for the time. “Yes. The cook should be in there getting ready for dinner.”

Shauna had a flash of a long formal dining table with only Liz seated in the middle of it, empty seats stretching out on either side of her. “All right. Sit tight here. I’m just going to check the house and then I’ll come out and get you. You keep the car running and the doors locked.”

It was likely overkill, but Shauna didn’t care. She didn’t want any surprises.

She rang the bell and introduced herself to the cook, who ended up being a small thin woman who might have been in her fifties with a fit frame. She looked like she could easily run ten miles.

Shauna explained what was going on and, after the woman looked over Shauna’s shoulder for assurances from Liz, she let Shauna into the house.

Clearing a house like that took some time, but Shauna had the chance to scan the grounds and check that the back doors and windows were secure. She also walked through the second and third floors of the house quickly.

When she was finished, she poked her head into the kitchen. “Ms. Tiede?”

The woman looked up from a pan where she was sautéing something that smelled fantastic.

“Yes?”

“I just wondered if you could tell me what’s up on the third floor?”

“Mostly storage. There are some guest rooms up there, but they’re closed up from lack of use.” The cook frowned. “I think there’s a sitting room up there, too, but that’s not really used, either. I don’t know when anyone was up there last.”

“And the basement?”

“Oh, that’s mostly empty. I think Liz spends time down there, though.” She shivered. “It’s creepy if you ask me. There’s an old fireplace that a grown man can stand in. And a giant furnace that looks like it belongs in a horror movie. Liz had a TV and couch put down there.”

Shauna nodded, then went to check the basement. She would leave the attic for later.

A flick of the light switch showed what the cook had meant. It was eerie and old. The fireplace looked like you could put an entire tree in it back when it was in use. It was empty now. The large furnace looked more like some kind of oven, dark and brooding like a squat giant in the corner. 

A small table sat next to the couch and television the cook had mentioned. Shauna looked at the papers on the table. Homework.

She went out to get Liz. She would get the girl settled, then go check the third floor as an extra precaution.

The house was surrounded by a manicured lawn, with the small carriage house turned guest house at the back of that. Behind that, there were woods, but Shauna knew there was a pool and tennis courts through the woods. It was back there that the land connected to the clubhouse that Jonathan Sawyer’s parents had built for their son.

“For the most part, you can pretend I’m not here, Liz,” Shauna said to Liz as she led the girl into the house. They had left Liz’s car in front of the house. There had been a freestanding four-car garage off to the left side of the house and she knew that was where the cook’s apartment was located.

“I’ll stay down here,” Shauna continued. “Let me know if you want to go outside at all.”

Liz frowned. “I need to take Fiona out.”

“Your dog?” Shauna asked, remembering Liz had found the threatening note when she’d taken her dog out. “Okay, let’s do that now.”

Liz went to the kitchen and came back with the small ball of fluff Shauna had seen laying in a corner of the kitchen. The dog opened dark eyes, blinking at Shauna from her perch in Liz’s arms. Shauna didn’t know what kind of dog she was, but somehow, she hadn’t pictured Liz with the poof ball. The girl struck her as more of a golden retriever type of person.

They went to the back of the house and stepped out onto the lawn where Liz let the dog loose while Shauna let her gaze cover the lawn and the trees beyond.

“I want to check the third floor of the house when we go back inside,” Shauna said to Liz as the girl watched the dog sniff in the grass.

She didn’t get anything more than a shrug in response.

“Then, you can do whatever you want and I’ll stick mostly to the main floor, but you let me know if you need me. Zach is trying to get ahold of your parents.”

A smirk came at that. “Good luck.” The vulnerable Liz seemed to be gone and the walls back up.

“Do you talk to them regularly?” Shauna had a feeling she knew the answer.

“Sometimes.”

“I bet you’ve been to some great places.” She assumed Liz traveled with them during the summer and on breaks.

“Whatever.” Liz rolled her eyes and picked up the dog. “I’ll be in my room.”

Shauna nodded and looked up to the windows on the third floor as the girl walked away. She would double check the front and back doors, make sure the alarm was on, then check the upstairs rooms.

Then she’d see if Liz wanted to come down for dinner. She needed to see if she could get that kid to open up. The only problem was, she had zero experience with kids, and teens were a mystifying mystery to her. Though, she guessed they shouldn’t be. She’d been one herself. Had she really ever been that moody?

She shook her head as she headed indoors. She should have told Zach to come watch Liz. He at least knew how to deal with the mood swings of a teenage girl.