The Liar

He lifted the lid, began to poke around. He was no computer geek, but he knew enough to get by.

It didn’t take long to discover someone had hacked in, downloaded his files. Bank, bills, e-mails, the works.

“What the fuck?”

He spent the next twenty minutes cursing and changing all his passwords, all his codes and user names. Anything he could think of.

What he couldn’t think of was what someone would want with his data.

He spent more time sending out an e-mail blast—friends, family, business contacts, anyone on his list—telling them his data had been compromised and not to respond to anything from his old e-mail address.

After checking every door and window, he took the laptop with him upstairs.

Better security, he thought, on his data, on his house, had just bumped up to top priority.

An hour after he’d woken, he tried to settle down again, listening to every creak, every rattle of wind. Just as he started to drift off, the dog woke and began to whimper.

“Yeah, it figures.” He shoved up, pulled on pants again. “Might as well make the rounds, Snickers.”

When he did, the beam of his flashlight picked up a clear footprint in the soft ground beside the gravel of his drive.

•   •   •

“YOUR BLACK EYE’S just fading, and you had a break-in?”

Matt dealt with touching up the paint while Griff installed the last of the trim in Ada Mae’s new master bath.

“More of a walk-in. Pain in the ass having to change passwords, send out notifications, then spend damn near an hour in the police station this morning with the report. Doesn’t make sense, and I’d’ve put it down to house-settling noises if it hadn’t been for the laptop being closed.”

“You’re sure you left it open?”

“Sure enough. Plus it was warm, and I hadn’t used it in hours. Then the footprint. It wasn’t mine, Matt. Size twelve here, but this was bigger. And I heard a car.”

“What did the cops say?”

“That’s another reason I’m late getting here. I went back with Forrest, and he took a look around, took pictures of the footprint, for all the good that’ll do. It wasn’t straight vandalism. I’d already figured if it had been, to look for someone in Arlo Kattery’s family or one of his pals.”

“Well, it’s not like you’re rolling in it, but you’re pretty well set. Somebody figured, hey, this guy bought this big old place, and he’s driving a new truck.”

“Because that asshole wrecked my old one.”

“Still.” Matt shook Snickers from his boot laces, gave the tennis ball Griff had dug up a little kick to send the pup chasing it. “It sounds like somebody figured they could siphon off from your accounts, something like that.”

“They’re out of luck on that now. Pisses me off, somebody walking into my house like that. Looks like getting a dog was . . . fortuitous. Word of the day.”

“Fortuitous my ass.” Matt grinned, gave the ball another gentle kick. “How many times have you cleaned up after him so far?”

“A couple.” Maybe five or six. “But he’s getting it. He’s going to be a good job dog. He doesn’t freak at the nail gun. And he’s going to get big. A big dog puts off people who want to walk into your house at two in the fucking morning. You ought to get one, then he’d have a pal.”

“Living in an apartment, remember?” Matt climbed onto the stepladder with brush and bucket. “I’m thinking about maybe starting a house, though.”

“You’ve been thinking about maybe starting a house since we got here.”

“I’m thinking more since I’m going to ask Emma Kate to marry me.”

“If you’re going to do that, you should . . . What?” Griff nearly bobbled the nail gun as he came straight up on his knees. “When? Wow.”

“Yeah, I know.” With a slightly dazed look in his eyes, Matt grinned. “While you were dealing with the cops this morning, I was watching Emma Kate get ready for work. She’s making green smoothies, and—”

“Don’t mention your famous green smoothies.”

“If you’d drink one every morning, you’d reap the benefits.”

“I don’t understand people who eat kale, much less drink it. You decided you wanted to marry her because of green smoothies?”

Matt pushed up the brim of his ball cap, and now dazed became dreamy. “I looked at her. She’s barefoot, and a little grumpy, hadn’t done her makeup yet. She’s wearing khakis and a blue top, and the sun’s shining through the window. I thought, This is what I want, every morning.”

“Grumpy Emma Kate and green smoothies?”

“Every morning. I can’t see past a time I don’t want just that. So I thought you’d go with me after work to buy a ring. I’m going to ask her tonight.”

“Tonight?” That was enough to bring Griff fully to his feet. “You’re serious? Don’t you want a setup?”

“I’ll get some flowers. The ring’s the setup. I don’t know her size, but—”

“Make a template. Go back home, dig out one of her rings, make a template to take to the ring place.”

“I should’ve thought of that.”

“What are you going to say?”

“I don’t know.” Matt shifted on the ladder. “I love you, will you marry me?”

“You gotta do better than that, man.”

“You’re making me nervous.”

“We’ll think about it. Go make the template.”

“Now?”