Chapter 35

Lights were coming on up and down the street, heads poking out of doors, as Damon and Bella went to meet the patrolmen.

"Detective Salvatore"

Said one of the patrolmen, grinning.

"So you're the half-naked man we were told not to shoot."

Damon scowled down at Bella. She cuddled BooBoo closer.

"You're carrying a gun. I didn't want them to shoot you by mistake."

Daisy and George Flowers came down their sidewalk and stood peering at the flashing lights. They were both wearing robes over their nightclothes; Mr. Flowers wore bedroom slippers, but Mrs. Flowers had put on rain boots. Mrs. Flowers craned her neck and came closer. Across the street, Bella could see Mrs. Holland come out her front door. Damon heaved a sigh.

"I checked the house, it's been trashed, but no one is in there. You guys take over while I go put on a shirt."

He said to the patrolmen. Mrs. Flowers had edged close enough to hear him. The witch beamed at him.

"Don't bother on my account,"

She said.

"Daisy!"

Mr. Flowers said in rebuke.

"Oh, hush, George! I'm old, not dead!"

"I'll remind you of that the next time I want to watch the Playboy Channel,"

He growled. Bella hid a snort in BooBoo's fur. Damon coughed and strode into his house, keeping his gun held low against his leg so their bright-eyed old neighbors wouldn't spot it and get too excited.

Bella became aware of the speculation in the neighbors' eyes as they studied her. She kept BooBoo cradled to her chest. She didn't reach up to check her hair, either, because she knew it was a mess. The rain had wet it, then she had wallowed in bed with Damon for a couple of hours; it was probably sticking out in spikes. Given Damon's state of undress…. Well... She imagined the conclusion they were jumping to was pretty damn accurate. Thinking about the neighbors was easier than thinking about her house.

After her first horrifying glimpse of the kitchen, she didn't know if she wanted to see the rest of the house. This, coming so soon after the trauma of Rebekah's death, was almost more than she could bear so she concentrated on other things, such as the way Mrs. Flowers winked at her when Damon came out of the house wearing a neat oxford shirt with the tails tucked into his jeans and his badge clipped to his belt. She wondered if he had put on underwear.

"Are you official?"

She asked, eyeing the badge.

"Might as well be. I'm on the scene, and we're all on call after eleven."

She gaped at him.

"After elev - what time is it, anyway?"

"Almost midnight"

"Poor BooBoo,"

She said in horror.

"Could you try to find some of his food and let me have a can, so I can feed him?"

Damon looked down at her, the expression in his dark eyes telling her he knew she was avoiding facing the reality about her house, but also saying that he understood.

"Okay, I'll find something for him."

He glanced over at Mrs. Flowers talking in low tones with her fellow witch.

"Daisy, why don't you and Eleanor take Bella in my house and put on a pot of coffee, okay?"

"Of course dear."

With Mrs. Flowers and Mrs. Holland flanking her, Bella went back inside Damon's house and into the kitchen. She put BooBoo down and looked around with interest, since this was the first time she had seen much of the house.

Before she had been rushed through the ground floor and even upstairs, they hadn't bothered to turn on a light until she was getting dressed. The bedroom was fairly lavish but mostly basic and judging by the quick look she had given the living room it was also basic. The kitchen, like hers, had a small table and four chairs occupying one end of it, and the stove was about twenty years old. The refrigerator, though, looked brand new, and so did the coffeemaker. Damon had his priorities.

The place definitely needed a woman's hand even if the only woman around was as tasteless as herself. Mrs. Flowers efficiently prepared the coffee and turned on the machine. Bella became aware of a pressing need.

"Um. Do you know where the bathroom is?"

"Of course, dear,"

Said Mrs. Holland.

"The big bathroom is the second door on the left in the hallway, and there's a small bathroom opening off Damon's bedroom."

Funny that they knew that when she hadn't, but then it was difficult to explore much when one was flat of her back with a two-hundred-pound man on top of her.

She chose the big bathroom, because it was closer, and carried her purse with her. Hurriedly she stripped off her clothes, used the facilities, then found a washcloth and washed away the evidence of four hours of sex. She used his deodorant, combed her hair - which was indeed sticking out over her head - and redressed.

Feeling more in control, she returned to the kitchen for a much-needed cup of coffee. BooBoo was wrapped in a ball in Mrs Holland's lap.

"It's terrible about your house, dear, but wonderful about Damon. I take it congratulations are in order?"

The white haired Mrs. Holland asked while stroking the cat's fur

"Eleanor, times are different now. Young people don't get married just because they've been jumping each other's bones."

Admonished Mrs. Flowers.

"That's what I've been saying"

Bella grumbled under her breath unheard by the two older ladies.

"That doesn't mean they shouldn't,"

Said Mrs. Holland severely. Bella cleared her throat. So much had happened that she could barely comprehend it all, but the hours in bed with Damon stood out clearly in her mind.

"He did ask me to marry him,"

She confided.

"And I said no"

"Oh, my! That's wonderful! When's the wedding?"

Mrs. Flowers beamed at her also choosing to overlook her refusal. What is it with people in this town not understanding the word 'no'?

"You'll have to have a bridal shower, Where's a pen and notepad? We have to make plans"

Said Mrs. Holland

"But I don't -"

Bella began, then saw the expressions on their faces and stopped in mid-sentence. She had a feeling she was going to get married whether she liked it or not. A bubble of incredulous laughter escaped her lips but choked it back as one of the patrolmen stepped into the kitchen carrying two cans of cat food.

"Detective Salvatore sent these over"

Thanking him with a smile she popped one open, poured a generous amount on a saucer and watched as BooBoo hopped on the table and daintily began eating, while she stroked him and took comfort in his warm, sinuous body.

Tears seared her eyes, and she covered them with her other hand, concentrating on the cat. When she hadn't been at home, the maniac had taken out his rage on her possessions. While she was grateful beyond telling that she had been in Damon's bed rather than her own, she couldn't risk BooBoo and her laptop with her book and Phil's -

The car. Oh, my God, the car.

She sprang to her feet, startling BooBoo so much he jumped down from the table and hid behind the couch in the living room.

"I'll be right back"

She told Mrs. Flowers and Mrs. Holland and then ran outside.

"Damon!"

She yelled.

"The car! Did you check the car?"

Her yard and Damon's were full of neighbors. Since the Bug was sitting right there in her driveway, startled faces turned toward her. Damon came out on the kitchen stoop. He glanced at the garage and jumped from the stoop. Together they ran to the garage. The door was still padlocked.

"He couldn't have gotten in, could he? He's not made out of smoke!"

Bella asked in an agonized whisper.

"Maybe he wouldn't have tried, since your car was sitting in the driveway. He probably thought the garage was empty. Is there another way in?"

"No, not without knocking a hole in the wall."

"Then the car is okay."

He put his arm around her and walked her back toward the house.

"You don't want to open the door with all these people watching, do you?"

She gave an emphatic shake of her head.

"We can put the car in my garage, if you want."

She thought about it. At least it would be close to hand and whoever was doing this didn't know about the car in the first place, so it should be safe.

"Okay. We'll move it when everyone leaves."

She heaved a sigh of relief and sort of sagged against him. He hugged her then sent her back to his kitchen and the care of Daisy and Eleanor.

It was dawn before she was allowed to enter her house. She was surprised at the amount of attention given to what was essentially vandalism, but she supposed Damon was responsible for that. Of course, he didn't think it was just vandalism.

Neither did she.

She couldn't. Walking through her house, looking at the destruction, she noticed immediately how personal it all was. Her television hadn't been touched - strange, since it was an expensive item - but all her dresses and underwear had been shredded. Her jeans and pants, however, hadn't been touched.

In the bedroom, her sheets and pillows and mattress had been hacked to pieces, her perfume bottles broken. In the kitchen, everything made of glass had been broken, all her plates and bowls, glasses, cups, even the heavy lead-crystal serving trays she had never used. And in the bathroom, her bath linen was untouched, but all her makeup was destroyed. Tubes were smashed, powders dumped, and all the compacts of eye shadow and blush looked as if they had been stomped, then ground to pieces.

"He destroyed everything feminine"

She whispered, looking around. The bed was kind of generic, but her bed linen was feminine, in soft pastels with lace-trimmed edges.

"He hates women,"

Damon agreed, coming to stand beside her. His face was grim.

"A psychiatrist would have a field day with this"

She sighed, exhausted from lack of sleep and the sheer size of the task before her. She glanced at him; he hadn't had any more sleep than she had, which amounted to nothing more than a couple of short naps.

"Are you going to work today?"

He gave her a startled look.

"Sure. I have to get with the detective working Rebekah's case and bring him up to speed on this."

"I'm not even going to try to work. It'll take a week to get this mess cleaned up."

"No, it won't. Call a cleaning service"

He put a thumb under her chin and tilted up her face, looking at the bruises of fatigue that shadowed her eyes.

"Then go to sleep, in my house, in my bed, and let Mrs. Flowers oversee the cleaning. She'll be thrilled."

"If she is, then she's in dire need of therapy"

Bella said, once more surveying the wreckage of what had been her home. She yawned.

"I also need to go shopping, to replace everything"

She leaned against him and looped her arms around his waist, reveling in the freedom to do so, reveling also in the way his arms automatically went around her.

She suddenly stiffened. She couldn't believe she hadn't once thought about Bonnie and Caroline tonight. Her brain must be misfiring, that was the only explanation.

"I forgot about Bonnie and Caroline! My God, I should have called them immediately, warned them -

"I did"

Said Damon, folding her back in his arms.

"I called them last night. They're okay, just worried about you"

She yawned and relaxed against him once more, letting her head nestle on his chest. She was exhausted but couldn't stop her thoughts from circling like buzzards around a fresh kill. If she couldn't wind down, she would never be able to sleep.

"How do you feel about medicinal sex?"

Interest lit his eyes and she chuckled against his shirt.

"God, you're easy"

_PM_

"The evidence techs didn't find a usable fingerprint"

Damon told Rob Brewster a couple of hours later.

"But they did find a partial shoe print. Looks like a running shoe; I'm trying to get a make on the brand by the tread pattern."

Detective Brewster said what Damon already knew:

"He broke in intending to kill her, and trashed her place instead when she wasn't there. You got a fix on the time?"

"Between eight P.M. and midnight, roughly."

Mrs. Holland kept a close watch on the street, and she said she hadn't seen a strange car or anyone unknown to her before Damon himself had arrived home. After dark, everyone was inside.

"Lucky she wasn't at home."

"Yeah"

Damon didn't want to think about the alternative.

"We gotta start running down those personnel files at SPC Inc"

"The CEO is my next call. I don't want anyone else knowing that we're checking the files. He can have them pulled without anyone questioning him"

Rob grunted.

"By the way, the M.E. has released the body. I've contacted her brothers"

"Thanks. We need to have someone videotaping the funeral."

"You think he'll be there?"

"I'm betting on it"