Chapter 7: The Back Door

The man who came through my back door wore pack black from collar to boots, and he did not bother to be quiet.

I watched him on the little screen with my thumb already over the card in my other hand.

I was in the baker's spare room above the bread racks, with a twin on each side of me and the baker asleep in the chair by the door.

I did not go down.

I called the number on the card instead.

Torin picked up before the second ring.

"Someone is in my shop," I said.

"The camera is on. The children are with me next door."

"Stay where you are," Torin said.

"Is the door locked?" he asked.

"Yes," I said.

"Keep it that way. Forty minutes."

He hung up, and I heard an engine start behind his voice.

On the screen, the man had already crossed the shop floor.

He pried the till open with a knife and did not take the money.

He pulled the office drawers out and tipped them on the floor.

It took him a long time to get to the kitchen, and I watched every minute of it.

When he found the second drawer by the walk-in, he lifted the receipt rolls and held up my dead grey phone to the light.

He looked at it.

He put it in his jacket and went out the way he had come.

Orin turned over beside me and said, without opening his eyes, "Is it the big man?"

"No, baby."

"Okay."

He went back to sleep.

I eased out of the bed and went to the back window.

Below, in the alley, the man was kneeling by the iron barrel where the baker burns pallet scraps.

He was pouring something from a can into the barrel, and he had the phone in his other hand.

Then three black SUVs came around the end of the alley with their lights off.

Torin was out of the first one before it stopped.

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