Ghosts of Christmas Past

Chapter Three

"Hang on." Dadcop gave her another one of those looks and got out of the car. He got something from the trunk and then opened the back door and handed it to her. It was one of those aluminum foil blankets people use when they go camping. She took it and shook it out to unfold it around herself. "I'm sorry. I'm getting mud all over your car."

"You're not the first person to get mud back there," Dadcop said. He nodded at the house. "You live there very long?"

Drivercop was talking to their dispatch on the radio, and she tried to keep the sniffling down to a minimum so he could hear. She shook her head. "A couple of hours."

Dadcop still watched her, though his eyes flicked to the road now and then. "Bad first day, right?"

"Bad week," she agreed.

"Well," he said. "Leo is on his way, so at least you'll be inside soon."

"Thank you," she said again. Now that she was warming up, she was embarrassed at her state of dishevelment. She had, after all, been tossing and turning even before coming out to get covered with frozen mud. She probably looked deranged.

She brushed her hair back from her face, only realizing after that she had just smeared mud into her hair.

Drivercop smirked in the mirror, then nodded toward the approaching headlights.

"Here we go." Dadcop stepped out as Leo's truck pulled into the driveway. To her chagrin, there were no door handles in the back of the cruiser, so she couldn't get out.

"Just wait," Drivercop said.

Emily watched as Leo conversed with Dadcop, every now and then peering at the car as if he were trying to see inside. Then they stopped talking and both walked to the car. Dadcop opened the door for her.

Leo was not thrilled about having to come out in the middle of the night. That was understandable. Emily was prepared for that. However, his disgusted recoil at the sight of her was downright insulting.

"You okay?" He held a hand out to her as she got out of the car, as if it were obvious to him that she couldn't take a step without falling in the mud.

"Fine." She shrugged away his help. She had to remind herself not to be disagreeable. After all, she was the one who had to call him to come out in the rain in the middle of the night. But she couldn't help herself. "The door locked behind me for some reason."

"What were you doing outside?" He frowned. "It's after three."

"I was just..." The look on his face—the one that said there was no sane reason for that—suddenly annoyed her. "Know what? None of your business."

He looked surprised and baffled at the same time. So did Dadcop.

"The problem is the stupid door shut behind me and locked me out." She pointed up at the house. "Are you going to let me back in?"

"Yeah. Let's go look at the door." He dropped his offer of a hand and gave Officer Dadcop a nod. "Thanks for helping her out."

"Yes, thank you," Emily said sincerely.

Dadcop nodded and started back toward the car. "Hope you have a better day tomorrow."

She turned and waved a hand toward the house. Leo was ahead of her and didn't see the gesture, but she couldn't help the anger. "You need to fix that door. That's just not accep—"

The curtains in the big window at the front of the house moved, as if someone had been watching from there.

"Someone's in the house!" She gasped and stopped so suddenly she almost stepped backward. "Did you see it?"