Never Go Home by L.T. Ryan

town.”
    “Hey, man,” I
said. It always worked. “Came down for Jessie’s funeral.”
    He nodded.
“That’s a tough one, huh? Were you two still close?”
    “Hadn’t
talked in over ten years. With some people, that doesn’t matter.”
    “I suppose not.”
He turned away, stopped and looked back at me. “Just be careful what you touch.
Boss might want to dust later.”
    I ignored his
advice and picked up the phone and hit redial. If whoever did this was stupid,
they might’ve used the phone. An answering service for Sean’s firm picked up. I
placed the phone on the cradle and went to the kitchen.
    Nothing
appeared to be disturbed in the room. Pots and pans hung from a rack over the
stove. All the small appliances were in the same place as they’d left them. I opened
the fridge, nothing appeared out of place in there either. I pulled open the
freezer and stood in front of it for a minute.
    Something
about the kitchen wouldn’t let me go. I spent a minute staring at the sink.
Nothing jumped out at me. Whatever caused the feeling, I couldn’t place it.
    I jogged up
the stairs and checked out my room. The bed was unmade. The sheets had been
tossed in the corner. The closet door was open. Inside, anything that had been
on a shelf or hanger was now strewn about on the floor.
    But nothing
seemed to be missing.
    I left the
room and went into Sean and Deb’s. It was even more of a mess. Dresser drawers
sat on the floor, upturned. Clothes were everywhere. I opened her jewelry box.
It was filled with necklaces, earrings and rings. Diamonds, gold, gems. None of
it touched. Sean had a couple thousand in cash in his nightstand.
    Why go to so
much trouble and not take anything?
    The only
answer I could come up with was that they weren’t looking to take anything .
Only one thing.
    What had Sean
gotten himself into?
    When I looked
at it honestly, Sean and I knew little about each other. We spoke once a year
at best. He could have been into any number of activities, legal or not, and I
wouldn’t have a clue. I knew a few people who might be able to tell me. But I
didn’t want anyone to know I was in Florida, much less the United States.
    I left their
room and took a glance at Kelly’s. Nothing had been disturbed there. At least
whoever broke in had some sense of moral code.
    In all I’d
killed about twenty five minutes checking out the house. I went out front, sat
down on the porch. The sun ducked behind the house, shading the lawn and
driveway. It had cooled off a bit, but there was no breeze and the humidity was
still a killer.
    Another
fifteen minutes passed before April pulled up in her patrol car. She got out. I
stood and walked toward her. We met halfway.
    “They doing
OK?” I said.
    “As good as
you could expect, I suppose,” she said.
    I nodded,
said nothing.
    “You check it
out?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Thoughts?”
    “Someone was
looking for something, but only that one thing.”
    She nodded.
“Question is, did they find it?”
    “Hard to
tell.”
    “Is it?”
    We stared at
each other for a minute.
    “Listen,
Jack, I’m not trying to point fingers here or anything, but I’ve heard rumors.”
    “Rumors?”
    “About you.”
    “What about
me?”
    “The things
you do.”
    “Which are?”
    She sighed
and turned away. “Come on, follow me.”
    We walked
inside. She dismissed the two men in there. I still didn’t catch the name of
the guy I played football with.
    He said, “See
ya around, Jack.”
    “You, too,” I
said without making eye contact. I continued toward the living room. Sean had a
wide, deep worn leather couch. I fell back into it.
    April closed
the door and joined me. She took a seat in a more contemporary chair across
from me.
    We stared at
each other. Neither of us spoke. It became uncomfortable. Was she waiting for
me to spill my guts about my life?
    I was about
to get up and go into the kitchen when she broke the silence.
    “Did you ever
work for the CIA, Jack?”
    I shrugged