December 1
Cordelia decided to leave Wayne home this round. She didn’t need his judgement and he needed plausible deniability.
Dressed in dark jeans, a dark coat, and a black beanie, Cordelia looked in the mirror and realized she looked the part of a cat burglar. She pulled the hat off her head and shoved it into her pocket…probably best to not look like she was up to no good. Instead of the hat, she opted for a red scarf and wrapped it around her neck and up over her mouth. Maybe this way she wouldn’t look suspicious, but also wouldn’t be very recognizable.
“Here we go.” She said as she walked out of Sophia’s house and made her way toward Joe’s on foot.
It was mid-morning. School was still in session and most people had made their way to work. She figured this would be the best time of day for low traffic.
She made it to Joe’s and cast a few inconspicuous glances around to make sure no one was close by before she took off up his driveway.
She went to the front door and made a show of knocking (just in case anyone was watching). The door was locked and obviously no one came to let her in, so she snuck around to the back yard and started peeking inside the windows.
The kitchen and dining room were at the back of the house. Joe probably wasn’t a typical bachelor, the house didn’t look overly messy, in fact it looked rather organized. His table had a newspaper, stack of mail, and a ready-for-use mug on it. His kitchen counters had very few items on them, save a couple of stacked dishes. Though Cordy couldn’t tell if the dishes were clean or dirty from her vantage point.
She tried the back door, but it was locked too.
“Maybe he has a key…” Cordy considered and started looking for any obvious hiding places. Under the flowerpot, under the oddly shaped rock, along the door trim…no, no, no.
She decided to try the detached garage. Still being careful that neighbors didn’t spot her snooping around, she made her way over. There were no windows to the garage, but there was a door. She tried the doorknob and wasn’t surprised to learn that it was also locked.
Cordy was about to get frustrated when she took a second look at the knob of the garage. There was no deadbolt, it was just a knob with a center key lock.
“Nancy could pick this lock.” She convinced herself as she pulled her phone out and started looking up How To videos. She found a video that showed a fancy maneuver with a credit card and gave it a try. After a couple attempts and some frustrated grunts – it worked!
The door swung inward and Cordy stepped inside the garage. She held up her phone for light until she found the switch and flipped it on.
Light flooded the garage and revealed a Jeep parked inside, in the center of the space. Cordy looked the vehicle over. It was recently washed and looked like it was regularly used, so this wasn’t a project vehicle parked inside – this was likely Joe’s main mode of transportation. Unless he had a second vehicle or left by another means. A rental vehicle? A friend? A coconspirator? Against his will?
Cordelia opened the car door and glanced around the interior. She dropped the sun visor and found what she was looking for. A set of house keys fell into the seat, and she snatched them up!
Cordy made her way to the backdoor of the house again and let herself inside with the keys. The door swung in without any groan or creak, on its perfectly maintained hinges. Joe was starting to strike Cordy as a bit of a perfectionist.
The mail stack on Joe’s counter looked like it was a few weeks’ worth. Seems like someone may be getting Joe’s mail for him after all. Cordy decided to check through it carefully, just in case there were any interesting items.
One interesting item stood out, an invoice from Randy…Cordy slipped it into her pocket. She was already trespassing, why not add mail theft on top of it?
She carefully moved through Joe’s dining room and kitchen, then into his living room. Nothing was standing out to her as unusual…apart from the tidiness of everything.
Finding nothing helpful on the main floor, she decided to move to the second floor. At the top of the stairs was a loft which had been turned into a library. Actually, a library probably wasn’t the appropriate word for it. It was a shrine. To books.
Cordy stopped and stared in awe for a long moment. This library, though in a humbler setting, was every bit the love letter to books as Jasper’s grand library was. With floor to ceiling built in bookshelves and display cases, Joe’s books were lovingly nestled into the folds of organizational perfection. The spines of each book were perfectly aligned with the others, as if he had measured the lip of space on each shelf to be absolutely certain. There was very little dust on any of the volumes because Joe kept an air purifier in the space. The room itself was a work of art.
Cordelia caught herself wondering how Joe could have left this behind, if he had stolen the tome and bailed for a new life. He clearly loved his books very much. It just didn’t seem possible.
Prying herself away from the gorgeous room, Cordy stepped into the main bedroom. This was the first messy room in the house. There were clothes discarded on the bed in either a hasty attempt to dress or a hasty attempt to pack. The scene reminded her of Sophia’s room when she had first arrived in Oak Mountain. A speedy getaway of some kind had occurred.
Cordy went to the bathroom and looked for a toothbrush, shaver, cologne, etc. All were missing.
What about cold weather gear?
Cordy was on a mission now and started hunting for any cold weather clothes that may have been left behind. Careful to not leave fingerprints (you never know!), Cordy searched through Joe’s dresser drawers and closet. None.
Then something strange caught her attention on Joe’s dresser. A single mitten.
She went over and snatched up the wool item. It was a woman’s mitten, the same black with grey stitching as the one Cordy had found at Sophia’s house and had pinned to her crime board.
Cordy’s mind was spinning as she put the mitten into her pocket – she would check it back at home just to be certain it was the same.
She finished up her search in the spare bedroom but didn’t find anything.
Deciding she had stayed long enough, Cordy decided to head out and return the house keys to Joe’s Jeep. As she walked over the kitchen floor to go out the back door, she noticed a doggy bed and water bowl in the corner of the room. It was a large bed, for a large dog.
As she slipped out the back door, she wondered…where was the dog?