Damage to her bedroom? Her sanctuary?
She ran into the room then came to a hard, dead stop.
Rick cursed harshly behind her, his voice dangerous, icy, but all Hannah could do was stare in humiliated horror.
Okay, she didn’t have an active sex life. She had a few toys. Well, several adult toys actually. A vibrator, a soft gel dildo, and a little egg-shaped clitoral vibrator.
The clitoral vibrator hung from the fan over her bed, twirling lazily as she stared at it in agonized humiliation for long seconds.
The gel penis-shaped toy was stuck to her dresser mirror where the words whore had been printed in block letters with red lipstick. And her vibrator? It had been shoved into the ripped lips of the huge teddy bear that sat in a chair beside her bed. A gift from one of her brothers.
There were police officers in her bedroom. They stared with her, their gazes shifting from her as she stared around the room, shame burning through her.
“How did someone have time to do this?” Rick asked, his voice so icy, so stone cold that even Hannah flinched.
“Sheriff Grayson.” An older man dressed in a rumpled suit stepped forward.
“Detective Dickerson, how the hell did someone have time to do this before your men arrived?”
“Response time between break-in and our arrival was fifteen minutes,” the detective stated. “The security attempted to call Ms. Brookes’s contact number and when she di
dn’t answer they alerted us. According to the security logs, her pass code was punched into the alarm an hour before the break-in, though. How long has she been with you?”
“Longer than that,” Rick stated as Hannah turned to the detective in shock.
“No one has my code.” She shook her head in confusion. “No one. Not even my brothers or parents.”
The detective shook his head, his lips flattening as he rubbed at his temple for a second.
“Someone knew what the hell they were doing, then,” he said. “There are devices that can get past this system, but your normal burglar doesn’t have them. Who wants to get at you that bad, Ms. Brookes? Bad enough to do this when they found you weren’t here.” He turned and looked around the room before returning his gaze to her.
“I’m just a teacher,” she whispered.
“Any parents threatened you? Harassed you?”
“Nothing.” She shook her head fiercely.
The questions didn’t stop. They were insistent, probing. Hannah couldn’t take her eyes off her bedroom as the detective interrogated her.
Other than the toys that had been displayed, nothing else seemed to have been disturbed. They had found the most humiliating things and used them to hurt her.
But why?
As she answered the detective’s questions she fought to understand. As far as she knew she didn’t have any enemies, she told the detective. No, she hadn’t argued with anyone lately. No, she wasn’t dating anyone and hadn’t in more than a year. Until tonight, Rick injected.
It went on and on until she felt as though she were going to scream in frustration. She just wanted them to leave. She wanted everyone out of her home so she could hide the evidence of her loneliness and lick her wounds in peace.
“Well, we’ve dusted for prints.” The detective finally rubbed at his nose as he stared around the room again. “If we find out anything, we’ll let you know. But honestly.” He shook his head again. “I doubt we’re going to. Someone was pretty thorough here.”
“Thanks, Will,” Rick was saying. “Could you let me know what you find, as well?”
“Sure thing. I’d suggest you get her out of here for a while. Get the doors fixed and install some additional security.”
Hannah shook her head. She wasn’t going anywhere.
“She’ll be at my place,” Rick stated.
“No.” She tried to inject a mea sure of strength in her voice, but she heard it shake, heard the tremor in it herself.