As Leah drove toward work, the tension gripped and then ebbed each time she glanced at the dog. The pup looked up at her with trusting eyes, and a few more bricks vanished from the wall.
When the two entered through the back entrance of the clinic, Gail laughed. “I almost sounded the alarm when I saw the black dog was gone, then decided to wait until you arrived.”
Disappointment tugged. “Did the owner call?”
“No.”
She rubbed Charlie on the head. “His loss, my gain.”
“I don’t hear disappointment in your voice.”
“If he really wants her back, it’s not for me to stand in his way.”
“Bull.”
“What?”
Gail laughed. “You’re not giving that dog up.”
Leah shrugged. “I could if I had to.”
Gail studied the dog, clearly happy to be at Leah’s side. “I suppose she’ll be the newest vet pet.”
“I’ll keep up with her. I might need a bit of help if I’m in surgery.”
“Doc Nelson brings in Spike. As long as they get along, we should be fine, and Spike’s a softy. We also have a spare crate and food to get you started.”
She rubbed Charlie’s head. “Thanks.”
“So why the change of heart? A few days ago, you were against a dog.”
Not a dog. Bringing someone into her life and closer to harm. She was tired of being afraid. “We all evolve.”
Charlie settled on the couch in the reception room, behind Gail, and Leah began her morning routine of seeing patients. The worries of the last couple of weeks eased, and it seemed as if the stresses melted. Here, she felt safe.
Leah was doing a routine physical on a female pit bull when Gail poked her head in the exam room door. “Got a minute?”
“I’ll be right there.”
“Better come now. Your neighbor is on the phone.”
Leah finished the injection with the dog and looked at the client. “I’ll be right back.”
She hurried to reception and picked up the phone. “This is Leah.”
“Leah, this is Julia.”
“Julia?”
“I live next door. You gave me advice about a sick pug right before Christmas. I waved to you this morning.”
The woman’s face didn’t come to mind but she remembered the dog. “Right. Julia. What’s up?” She hesitated and then recalled the dog’s name. “Roscoe not feeling well again?”
“He’s fine. I was just wondering. Are you moving?”
“What? No, I’m not moving.”
“I didn’t think so, but there’s a moving van in front of your town house. I told the guy you aren’t moving, but he has a signed work order to move out your furniture.”
Leah imagined the floor wobbling under her feet. “What! I’m not moving.”
“The movers are loading boxes as I speak.”
Leah gripped the phone, leaning into the receiver as if it would convey more desperation. “Julia, do me a favor and call the cops. I’m headed home right now.”
“Will do.”
Leah explained the situation to Gail and then, grabbing her coat, hurried to her car. She drove home, running more than a couple of yellow lights. When she pulled up in front of her town house, a yellow Ace moving van was parked in her driveway. The back of the truck was open, the ramp lowered to the ground. Three large-muscled men stood in front of her door talking to two uniformed cops.
Leah parked in front of the house and ran up to her door. “What’s going on here?”
A tall uniformed officer broke away from the movers and came closer to her. “Are you Leah Carson?”
“That’s Leah,” Julia said.
The officer ignored her neighbor. “Are you Leah Carson?” “I am. What’s going on here?”
“Do you have identification?”
“This is my house!”
“Ma’am, we need to be sure.”
With trembling hands, she dug into her purse and fished out her wallet. She plucked out her newly minted Tennessee driver’s license with her Nashville address and handed it to him. He studied her name. “Would you mind waiting right here?”
“Why?”
“Just need to check out a few things.”
She folded her arms over her chest, irritated that she had to go to such lengths to get people off her property. But as much as she wanted to rant and rail, logic called and told her to calm down. “Sure. Go ahead.”
She glanced at her neighbor and the movers, who looked confused and annoyed. As the officer slid behind the wheel of his car with her license and typed into his computer, she looked at the movers. “Who sent you here?”
The tallest, a dark-skinned man with broad shoulders and flecks of gray at his temples, said, “The work order came in two days ago.”
“Who put in the work order?”
“I don’t know. All I know is that we were supposed to pack the whole place up and move it.”
“Move it where?” The tone of her voice spiked with anger and fear.
He glanced at his work order. “A storage facility north of town. There’s a unit waiting to take the furniture into storage.”
“Can I see your work order?”
“Sure.” He lifted the clipboard at his side and pulled off the top sheet. “This is what I had in my assignment box last night.”
She read over the order, keying in on the vital information. It was her name, address, even her phone number. Paid in full. Her gaze skipped to the last line. She wanted to know who had issued the order. The name was Leah Carson.
She gripped the strap of her purse as if it were her lifeline. “This doesn’t make sense. I didn’t order this move.”
He flipped through the pages and held up a paper with her name and the last four digits of her credit card number. “Your name is on the credit card receipt.”
The order had been placed last week. Before the bank had shut down this account. “I didn’t order any of this!” she said, louder than she’d intended.
She took the receipt, her stomach tightening with nausea. The bank hadn’t called her about this expense, but then, why would they? It was a local buy and not extravagant, and it had been made before they’d issued a new card. She’d have picked up on it when her credit card statement came in at the end of the month, but that would have been too late to stop today’s fiasco.
A black SUV pulled up behind the police car, and she instantly recognized Alex Morgan as he got out. The folds of his overcoat caught in the wind, revealing his badge and gun as he strode toward her.
She was glad to see him in an odd sort of way. The officer got out of his car and Alex spoke to him for several minutes. His gaze locked on Leah, and he strode toward her in long confident strides.
“Want to tell me what’s going on?”
His calm frustrated her. She wanted him to be upset and screaming. “I don’t know. I got a call from my neighbor asking me why I was moving.”
“Why’re you moving?”
“I’m not moving! I didn’t order this.” She held the now-crumpled work order in her fist. “My name is on the form, but I didn’t authorize it.”
“She paid for it,” the mover said.
“I didn’t pay for it willingly.” She looked at Alex.
“Someone skimmed my credit card and used it for the purchase. This is so classic Philip!”
Alex turned toward the officer. “I think we can establish that this is a mistake.”
The officer nodded. “Sounds like it.”
The lack of conviction in his voice irritated her, as if he was suggesting that she was lying. She glared at the officer as Alex stepped between them. He turned to the movers. “Whatever you took out, put it back.”
“I got to call my boss.”
“You can do that right after you put what you removed back.” Steel coated each syllable.
The movers glanced at each other, then headed toward the back of the truck. They spent the next fifteen minutes moving boxes back into the house. Leah noticed most were marked KITCHEN.