She heard the door shut downstairs, followed by the sound of footsteps.
Oh my God. Someone was in her house.
She slid out of bed and grabbed her cell phone from the nightstand. The alarm signal stopped, and the house fell silent again.
Her heart started thumping in her chest when she heard a man’s voice downstairs.
“We’re good to go,” he said.
Victoria moved silently into her walk-in closet, a space almost as large as her bathroom. Her laundry hamper was tucked between the wall and a row of long dresses. Sliding past the clothes, she crouched down and hid behind the hamper.
Her hand was trembling as she dialed 9-1-1 on her phone.
A woman’s voice. “9-1-1, what is your emergency?”
Victoria whispered, her words coming out in a rush. “My name’s Victoria Slade. I live at 1116 North Garner. Someone’s broken into my house.”
“Is the intruder in your home right now, ma’am?”
“Yes, I think there are two of them. I’m hiding in a closet upstairs and—” She paused, hearing something that made her palms sweat. “Someone’s coming up the stairs. I can’t talk—they’ll hear.”
“Ma’am, I’ll stay on the li—”
Victoria turned the volume on the phone all the way down and covered the speaker with her hand. Through a small space in between the hamper and the wall, she could see the closet doorway.
She held her breath as the footsteps on the hardwood floors grew louder.
A man dressed in dark clothing came into view in front of the closet. He paused, and then reached for his hip and pulled out a gun.
“You sure she hasn’t been home?” he called out to someone, in a gruff voice.
Another guy stepped in front of the closet. “Yeah, I’m sure. Why?”
“The bed’s been slept in.”
“So? You make your bed every fucking day? Come on, let’s get to work.”
She heard the second guy walk out of her bedroom, but the man with the gruff voice stayed where he was, gun in hand. From behind the laundry hamper, she watched as he moved toward the master bathroom across from the closet and turned on the light. He paused in the bathroom doorway, and then headed for the closet.
He reached in and flipped the switch that turned on the light.
As light flooded the small room, Victoria saw that he wore a black mask with openings at his eyes and mouth. He stepped inside the closet.
Her heart began to beat so hard against her rib cage she was afraid he might actually be able to hear it.
She stayed absolutely still, praying he didn’t see her through the gap between the hamper and the wall.
A soft whirring sound came from the other side of the closet.
The man spun around, pointing his gun. Then he relaxed when he spotted a brown case, her automatic watch winder, sitting on a shelf. Tucking the gun into the holster at his hip, he walked over, opened the front of the case, and picked up her watch. He examined it for several moments, flipping it over in his hand, and then pulled a medium-sized cloth bag out of the front pocket of his black hoodie. After dropping the watch inside, he moved on to the jewelry box that sat next to the watch winder.
With his back to Victoria, he spent what felt like an eternity rifling through the jewelry box, then picked it up and dumped the entire contents into his bag. Something fell to the floor with a clink against the hardwood floors, and he crouched down to pick it up.
There was a loud crash downstairs.
Victoria started at the sound at the same moment the masked man shot up to a standing position. He shouted to his partner, “What the fuck was that?”
She heard a loud commotion downstairs. Someone shouted, “Police!” and then—
A gunshot.
Instantly, the intruder was out of the closet. Suddenly remembering the cell phone in her hand, Victoria put it to her ear. “Hello?”
“It’s okay, Victoria. I’m still here. Help is on the way,” the 9-1-1 operator said.
The unwanted memory washed over her with the force of a tidal wave, carrying her back to a stranger’s voice on the other end of a phone line, all those years ago.
Hang in there, Victoria. Help is coming, I promise.
Suddenly, she felt . . . off. The space between her and the hamper began to contract, closing in on her. The air seemed stifling hot, and she felt dizzy.
“Victoria? Are you there?”
The voice sounded faint, far away, and she couldn’t tell if it was real or