In Safe Hands (Search and Rescue #4)(70)
“I’ll call you later,” Chris said quietly in her ear. “I’m so proud of you.”
When she turned to smile at him, their gazes clung. The voices in the background faded until it was just the two of them. When Chris stepped back, breaking the moment, Daisy had to resist reaching out to him, grabbing him and keeping him with her. Instead, she contained herself and just watched as he joined the others.
Once everyone was cleared from the entryway, she gave a last wave and closed the inner door. Each dead bolt slid home with a thud, and then she reached for the bottom chain lock. Before she could touch it, her fingers stopped in midair. Instead of latching it, she left both chains hanging uselessly against the door.
Raising her fist, she gave her usual “good to go” pound. She heard the exterior door open and her friends as they spilled out, talking and laughing as they headed to all the places she couldn’t go.
Yet. She looked at the two unlatched chains and smiled. She couldn’t go yet.
Chapter 14
The knock was so hesitant that Daisy only heard it because she was standing by the door. She’d been staring at the final dead bolt for an embarrassing amount of time. Her hand kept creeping toward it, but she’d been successful so far in not touching it. The interior door was completely unlocked, and she would’ve been excited and proud if she hadn’t been so close to screaming hysterically and possibly fainting.
At the hesitant tap, tap, tap, she jumped as high as if someone had slammed into the door with a battering ram. Her finger fumbled for the intercom button, but she hit the unlock one instead. Her entire body went rigid. Illogically, her main source of panic was not that she’d just let who-knows-whom into her house, but that there were no locks between her and the open door.
The edges of her vision went gray, making her only able to focus on that bottom, unfastened dead bolt. She was frozen, not even capable of reaching forward and locking the single barrier between her and the outdoors. The outer door resettled into place with a thud, followed by the click of the lock.
That tiny sound released her from her terror-induced paralysis, and she grabbed at the door. Before she could reach the dead bolt, though, reason wormed its way through her panicky thoughts and reminded her that the outer door was now closed. Compared to her recent overwhelming surge of fear, her twinge of nervousness at not knowing who was waiting between the doors felt inconsequential.
Another timid knock, on the closer door that time, had her turning the doorknob before she’d even thought it through. As she opened the door, Daisy saw a woman who couldn’t have been an inch over five feet tall. Her strawberry-blond hair was in a pixie cut, and she was wearing black-framed glasses and a peach-colored pantsuit.
“Hello.” The woman’s voice was as tentative as her knock had been. “I’m so sorry to bother you, but I’m Natalie Sharp, with Mintle Real Estate?” Her voice went up at the end, as if asking Daisy if she recognized the name.
Daisy shook her head. The unexpected appearance of her visitor had knocked the panic right out of her, so she was able to function like a seminormal person. “Sorry. It’s not familiar, but then I don’t get out much. I’m Daisy Little.”
“Nice to meet you.” Natalie’s hesitation faded, as if the polite exchange had allowed her to regain her composure. Stepping through the doorway, she held out her hand. As Daisy shook it, she reached over with her other arm to shove the inner door closed. Despite the lack of fastened locks, it was nice having a solid obstacle between her and the outer door.
The realtor peered around as if she was checking out what parts of the house she could see. Daisy figured it was probably a professional hazard.
“Did you need something?” Daisy asked when the woman had been silently looking around for a while. “We aren’t interested in selling the house, I’m afraid.”
“Oh, no.” Natalie pulled her attention back to Daisy’s face. “Although it’s a beautiful place. If you ever are considering selling, here’s my card.” She pulled out a white rectangle and handed it to Daisy.
“Okay…?” Bemused, she accepted the business card.
Natalie gave a small laugh. “Oh, I’m sorry again. Your gorgeous ceramic tile floors distracted me. I just finished showing the house right across the street to a couple, and I was hoping you could answer a few questions for me about the neighborhood and…well, some other things.”
The mention of the place Daisy had mentally been referring to as—in a rather morbid and not very creative way—the dead-body house brought all her attention to the realtor. Her near-mental breakdown was temporarily forgotten as curiosity took precedence.
“Did you want to come inside?” Daisy asked, gesturing toward the archway into the kitchen.
“Oh, I’d love to.” Natalie was already heading into the kitchen. Giving the unlocked inner door a single glance, Daisy hurried after her guest.
“Would you like some coffee?” she asked. Although she was dying to know about the house across the street, she figured she should be polite. The realtor’s questions would probably just be the standard and boring ones, like whether there were many children in the area or if anyone threw loud parties late at night. Daisy wondered if she should let Natalie know about Corbin and his destructive tendencies.
“No, thank you. I’m not really a coffee drinker.” Natalie was closely examining the cupboard doors. “Did you recently remodel?”