Gina Cresse - Devonie Lace 05 - A Deadly Change of Luck (4 page)

Craig looked in the direction I was pointing.  “Sure,” he said, flipping the switch.  I heard the faint hum of the fan motor as it began to turn slowly.

I fanned my damp face.  “That’s too slow.  Let me see if I can speed it up,” I said, reaching for the chain to change the speed.  I pulled once, then twice before I felt an adequate flow of air.  “That’s better.”

After about ten seconds, I noticed a ‘tick-tick’ sound coming from the fan.  I tried to ignore it, but it began to get annoying.  I looked up at it to see the pull-chain knob swinging back and forth, clanging against the glass shades.

“It’s out of balance,” Craig explained.  “Want me to turn it off?”

I shook my head.  “I’ve heard you can tape a penny to the top of one of the blades to fix it.”

“Ever try it?” Craig asked.

“No.  Think it’ll work?”

“I don’t know.  It’s worth a try.”  Craig reached into his pocket and pulled out a penny.  “Here.  I’ve got some electrical tape in my tool belt.”

I turned the fan off and moved a kitchen chair over to a spot under the fan and stood on it.  “I wonder how I can tell which blade needs the extra
weight?
”

Craig handed me a piece of tape. 
“Trial and error.
  I’ll work the switch if you work the penny.”

“Okay.”  I reached over my head and felt the top of a fan blade.  “Yuck.  It’s all dirty up here.  I need to wipe it off or the tape won’t stick.”

“Here’s a rag,” Craig said, handing me a dishtowel.

I wiped the dust off of the first two fan blades.  When I got to the third one, for some reason, it was fairly clean.  “This one’s not too bad.  I wonder why?” I said, running my fingers along the top of the blade.  I felt something stuck to it.  “What’s this?”  I used my fingernails to peel the tape off the blade.

“What is it?” Craig asked.

I studied the small slip of paper.  “It’s a lottery ticket.”  I stepped off the chair so I could see it in better light.

“Lottery ticket?
  That’s weird.  Why would someone stick it to the fan?”

“I don’t know.  It’s old.  About six months.”

“You don’t suppose
—
“ I
started.  Craig and I exchanged glances.  We inspected it closer.  I turned it over.

“Look.  It’s not signed or anything.  It says tickets must be claimed in one-hundred eighty days.”

Craig calculated its age in his head and on his fingers.  “We have five days left.”

I handed him the ticket.  “This is crazy.  It’s probably not even a winner.”

“Right.
  Someone just taped it up there to…to… balance the fan,” Craig said.

He flashed me an eager grin.  “Come on.  Let’s check it out,” he said, taking me by the hand and leading me toward the door.

We rushed home and logged onto a California State Lottery website.  We searched for the numbers drawn for the day of our ticket.  I felt my face go flush as I read the numbers. 
“Oh my God.
  Oh my God.  Oh my God,” I repeated as I fanned my face.  Craig joined my chanting as we both danced circles around the room.  The
ticket was worth fifty-eight million dollars and we had only five days before it expired.

Chapter
Three

C
raig and I
lay
in bed staring at the ceiling.  Neither of us could sleep.  “Tell me again what we’re supposed do?” I asked.

“You already signed the ticket and made copies of both sides.  In the morning, we’ll take it to the lottery district office and fill out a claim form.  After that, our job’s
gonna
get hard.”

“Hard?”

“Yeah.
  We’ll have to decide how to spend it.”

I smiled and glanced over at the clock.  It was past one in the morning.  I don’t know why we even tried to go to sleep.  “You know what I’m going to buy first?” I said, holding my hand up and staring at its silhouette in the faint light of the moon through the window.

Craig reached his hand up and laced his fingers with mine.  “What?”

Before I could answer, we were both startled by the ringing of our phone. 
“Hospital?”
I said.

“Probably.
  I’ll get it.”

Craig picked up the phone.  “This is Dr. Matthews.”

I continued staring at the outline of my hand, dreaming of the days to come.

“Bob?” Craig said into the phone.

“No.  It’s okay.

“Yes, I’m a doctor, but that’s not why you called.  What’s the matter?

“You did?  Is he still there?

“No, no.  Keep Tiger inside.  I’ll call the police.

“Okay.  Thanks for the call.  Bye”

I switched on a lamp.  “What is it?” I asked.

“That was Bob.  He said there’s someone in the house,” Craig said, punching more numbers into the phone

“You’re calling the police?”

“Yes.  Then I think I should go over there.”

I was already out of bed, looking for my jeans.  “I’m going, too,” I announced.  Craig frowned at me.

He finished his call to the police while I laced up my shoes.  He pulled a clean shirt from the closet and started on the buttons.  “Where’d you put the lottery ticket?” he asked.

“In the desk drawer,” I answered.

“Locked?”

I nodded.  “And I put the key back in its hiding place.

“Good.  Let’s go.”

Craig drove us to Rancho Costa Little.  All the way over, I kept thinking about the ticket. 

“Don’t you think it’s weird that someone keeps breaking into that house?  It’s not the kind of neighborhood for that.  I think someone’s looking for the lottery ticket,” I said.

Craig gave me a worried look, but didn’t answer.  We parked in front of the house.  A police cruiser met us at the driveway.  An officer stepped out of the car.

“Did you report a break-in at this address?” he asked.

“Yes,” Craig answered.  “We don’t live here.  The neighbor called us at home.  He said he saw lights moving around inside.”

The officer studied the house from the sidewalk.  “You have a key?”

“Yes,” I said, handing it to him.

“Wait here.  I’ll check it out.”

Craig and I waited in the driveway while the officer entered the house.  A few minutes later, he returned.

“No one in there now, but the place is torn apart.  You want to check to see if anything’s missing?” he told us as he handed me the key.

“The place looked that way when we bought it,” I explained.  “I’m not sure I could tell you if anything was missing.  This is the second time today that someone broke in.”

“I didn’t see any sign of a forced entry.  All the windows are closed tight.  Both doors were locked.”

I looked at the key in my hand.  “I think I’ll have the locks changed first thing in the morning.”

The officer opened his car door.  “That’s probably a good idea.  I’ll make a few drive-bys tonight.  Maybe we can catch the guy.” 

Craig and I inspected the house.  It looked
pretty much the way we’d left it—
a mess.  Before we left, I taped a note to the window of the back door.  It read:
DON’T BOTHER.  IT’S NOT HERE ANYMORE
.

Craig walked up behind me and read the note.  “You think it’ll keep him out?”

“I don’t know.  If he’s after the ticket, he’ll give up soon anyway.  He’s got to know the time limit is about up.”

On the way home, we talked about having the locks changed on the house first thing in the morning.  I told Craig I’d take care of it.  Then we talked about taking a trip somewhere.  Europe. 
Tahiti.
  Australia.

“You know where I’d like to go first?” I said.

“Italy?” Craig guessed.

“Wyoming.”

“Wyoming?  Why?”

“I’ve never seen Yellowstone.  And after that, I’d like to go to Kentucky and watch the running of the Derby.”

“Kentucky Derby?
  That’d be fun,” Craig agreed.  “Then we should go to Nashville to visit the Grand Ole
Opry
.”

I smiled.  “I didn’t know you liked country music.  I’d love to go.”

“I never told you I play the banjo?”

“You?
 
Really?”

“Sure.  People mistake me for Earl Scruggs all the time.  Those guys who played
“
Dueling Banjos
”
in
Deliverance
?  I almost got the part, only I was too cute.”

I laughed.  “You are too cute.  Are you serious?  Do you really play?”

“Yes,” he insisted. 

“Hmm.”
  I smiled and eyed him sideways, wondering if he was pulling my leg.  “Where would we go after Nashville?”

“I’ve never been to New England in the fall.”

“Oh, yes!  I’ve always wanted to see the turning colors.  And then maybe Niagara Falls,” I continued.

“We could ride over them in a barrel.”

“And then when we get out of the hospital, we could head over to Indianapolis for the Indy 500,” I offered, with a straight face.

Craig smiled. 
“Grand Canyon?”

“For sure.
  I was there once as a
kid,
and what I remember most was how breathtaking it was.”

“So it seems we could spend a lot of time getting acquainted with America before we head off to see the rest of the world,” Craig said as he turned onto our block.

“It would seem so,” I said, noticing some strange lights in front of our house.  “What’s going on?” I wondered, straining to get a better look.

The red and blue flashing lights of a patrol car reflected on our windshield as we pulled into the driveway.  Two uniformed officers milled around the front yard, shining high-powered flashlights behind shrubs and trees. 

Craig and I quickly jumped out of our car.  “What’s going on?” Craig asked one of the policemen.

“Is this your house?” he replied.

“Yes.  I’m Dr. Craig Matthews.  This is my wife, Devonie.  What’s the problem?”

“Your alarm went off.  Security
company
couldn’t reach you at home, so they dispatched us,” the policeman explained.

“The alarm?
  Did someone break in?” I asked.

“Appears that way.
 
Got a broken window at the back of the house.
  Is that your dog in the back yard?”

“Yes.  That’s Albert.  He’s big, but he hasn’t got a mean bone in his body.  The worst he would do to a burglar is
annoy
him to death by insisting he play fetch,” I said.

The policeman laughed.  “Yeah, he kept bringing me his tennis ball when I went back there.  I called for backup.  We’re about read
y to go inside to check it out—
make sure no one’s still in there.”

I shivered.  “You think someone is in our house?”

“Won’t know till we check.
  You better stay over here out of the way till we’re done,” the officer said, leading us to a position behind his car.  Another patrol car screeched to a halt in front of our house.  I held on to Craig’s arm and watched as two officers removed their guns from their holsters and entered our house.

Craig and I huddled behind the patrol car and waited.  It seemed as though an eternity passed before the policemen came back outside.

“It’s okay.  No one inside,” one of them finally assured us.  “You folks should go in and see if anything’s missing.”

I walked close to Craig, clinging to his arm as we entered the house.  I braced myself for a tragic scene of broken glass and blank spaces where stereos and televisions used to be.  I blinked my eyes.  The house looked just as it did when we left, except of course for the broken window in the dining room.  All the electronics were still in place.  Computers exactly as we left them.  Our emergency cash stash was still in tact in the freezer, wrapped in foil.  The little bit of jewelry I own was still tucked safely away in the velvet lined box Craig gave me on Valentine’s Day. 

We returned to the room we call our home office.  I made a visual inspection of the desk.  Nothing seemed amiss.  Craig and I exchanged worried glances as I reached for the drawer and pulled.  It didn’t budge.  We both let out a sigh of relief.

“Still locked,” I said, walking across the room to the bookshelf.  I reached for the bookend high on a shelf and felt for the key we keep hidden underneath it.  The key was still there—another wave of relief.

I slid the key into the lock and turned it.  Then I slowly pulled the drawer open.  My heart sank.  Craig banged his fist on the desk.  The ticket was gone.

“Wait, I said, rushing over to the bookcase against the back wall.  I’d hidden the photocopy of the ticket in an encyclopedia.  I ran my finger along the volumes until I reached the right one and yanked it off the shelf.  I flipped through the pages. 
Nothing.
  I turned it over and shook it, but nothing fell out.

Craig
watched,
his face hopeful.  “Are you sure that’s the one you put it in?”

I nodded.  “Yes.  I put it in the L volume, for lottery.”

“Are you positive?  Maybe you put it under M for
money,
or T for ticket,” Craig offered.

“No.  I distinctly remember stuffing it in the pages between lottery and Lorenzo Lotto.”

I plopped down in a chair and chewed on my thumbnail.  This wasn’t just a bad dream
.  The ticket was gone.