Harry saw the slight shake of Bertie’s head and bit his tongue. I’ll just bet you have, he thought. “That’s good, Mrs. Thorne. You keep doing that and we’ll wait to hear from you.”
“Thank you for coming,” Mrs. Thorne said, as she saw them out the door.
Minutes later, as Harry drove back to the office, Bertie glanced at him. “You really believe she saw something out there, don’t you?”
“It’s possible,” he said, shrugging his shoulders.
“What makes you think that? Did you see something that you forgot to mention?”
“No.” He shook his head. “I was actually thinking about something different, about all the ways people will try to scam seniors.”
Bertie looked at him, eyebrows drawn down. “I don’t see the connection.”
“It crossed my mind that someone could be out there trying to make people jittery… maybe scared enough to buy fake security systems. I could be way off base on this, but I won’t be satisfied unless I follow up on it.”
“I see what you mean and there are a lot of seniors in that complex.”
“Right, and they’re the ones scam artists seem to take aim at. If there IS something brewing, I’d like to nip it in the bud, but I hope it’s just something completely innocent.”
“Yeah, me too,” she replied as Harry pulled the truck into the driveway. “I wouldn’t want something like that to happen to Janet Thorne… or anyone else.”
“No,” Harry agreed as they walked to the office. “As much as she annoys me at times, she doesn’t deserve that. No one does.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Two nights later Mrs. Thorne called. Harry then called Bertie as he was getting into the truck and she met him in the front parking lot of Mrs. Thorne’s building. With a quick “Hello,” they headed straight for Mr. Thorne’s apartment.
She was waiting in the hallway, beside her open door, as they stepped off the elevator. “Come on in,” she said and led them straight towards the window.
Harry noticed the dimness of the apartment right away. “I’m glad you thought of turning off the lights,” he said.
“Well, if someone is out there,” she said, “I didn’t want them to know that I – or anyone else – was in here watching them.”
“Good thinking,” Bertie said, “because this is not the time of night one normally gets visitors.”
“That’s true. And, just before I called I started seeing flashes of a very faint light. Could it be someone watching the building? Or perhaps someone is sending messages to an accomplice by Morse Code or… something?”
Once again Harry was forced to fake a cough. “I think they might be more likely to use cell phones these days,” he said.
“My goodness, yes, what was I thinking? Even young children have cell phones now.”
“Meanwhile,” he said, “you are definitely seeing something. There’s an occasional flash of something very dim out there. Wait here while I go check it out.”
A few minutes later, Bertie’s phone rang. “Do you see the light now?” Harry asked.
“No, it’s gone. It just disappeared, like Mrs. Thorne said.”
