THE HEAT GOES ON... August (Part 163i)

THE HEAT GOES ON… August (Part 163i)

With the kids still at Elle’s parents I had hopes for some ‘fun’ when we got home but the best I could get was a “maybe in the morning”. Lying in bed I couldn’t help but think of the panty peek I’d gotten and, if the friendship with Marty and Janie grew, the opportunity for more… or at least some clothesline panty viewing. When Elle got up for her 4am visit to the bathroom she saw flashing red lights out on the road. She couldn’t tell what was going on so came and got me up. It was something happening at the empty house next door so I put on pants and headed that way. There were two police cars. One was still in the road out front of the house and the other at the foot of the driveway. I knew a few of the local cops and saw my neighbor John’s brother so asked him what had happened. All he’d tell me was the other cop had been driving by and thought he saw some light from inside the house. Knowing it was empty and for sale he called for a back-up. They had just done a check around the house and hadn’t found anything suspicious. I didn’t like the thought of someone prowling right next door and decided not to tell Elle. I knew she’d freak out and come up with some wild ideas. Back in our house I just told her that the police would periodically check on empty houses. She was sleepy and didn’t ‘push’ me on the subject. However, the thought of activity of that nature so close to our house didn’t let me sleep all that well.


 The thought was still on my mind when daylight finally came. By then I was in no mood for ‘amour’ so got up and ready for church. The rain had turned to more of a drizzle which was better than what it had been but if it kept up would make for an uncomfortable afternoon of sailing. I hadn’t heard anything from Andy, the real estate guy I’d put Donald, the owner, in touch with. I had to pass his office on my way home from church and saw he was open. I stopped to see if anything was happening with the property. Elle and I’d seen one couple there but without Andy. He laughed and said the owner was out of his mind and asking way too much money. Something was bothering me about what Ed, the cop, had told me. He said that they done an exterior inspection and that was it. I remembered back to when “Big B” and I’d been working on his race car and had seen some light from what was supposed to have been an empty house. We’d found evidence that somebody had been in there when we inspected the interior. So, I asked Andy if I could take a look at the house but didn't tell him the real reason. He said I could and pulled a set of keys off the peg board behind his desk. I told him I’d return them around noon when I would be on my way to the sailing club. He laughed again and said there was no rush to return them.


Back at home Elle had decided she wasn’t going to race that day what with the rain and the fact there didn’t appear to be much wind. I teased her about it saying she was a ‘wimp’, that true sailors raced in all kinds of weather. I remember her saying something along the lines of “you can be stupid if you want…” as she headed out to pick the girls up from her mother. The timing couldn’t have been better because it gave me the chance to slip next door and do a walk through the house without having to explain to Elle. The key was for the front door. I felt funny because it was maybe only the second or third time I’d entered that way. There were a few pieces of furniture in the living room and I couldn’t figure out where they’d come from. There was a table and a few chairs in the kitchen and that was it for the first floor. Upstairs was a different story as there were a couple of single beds located in one room and a double in another but that was all. There were no sheets or other linens on the beds but from the doorway I could see something on the floor on the other side of the double bed. It turned out to be a small canvas like bag and some clothes next to it. I approached not having any idea what might be in it and as I turned the corner of the bed I could see the neck of a bottle sticking out. I started to pull it out and laughed as I read the label… “Thunderbird”… a cheap wine that had been popular back when I was a teen. Standing there it was obvious that the cop had seen something but hadn’t followed through on it. I kicked at the clothes next to the bag and saw a shirt and a couple of white pieces of material. Being cloudy outside and with no real light I couldn’t tell what they were at first. A second kick at the pile and I recognized one of the pieces as being a bra. With that discovery I bent over to pick up the other piece. Just as I was about to unroll it to inspect it the thought came to me that I might be messing with evidence if it ever came to making an arrest. I definitely remember holding the panties and staring at them, a pair of what appeared to be pink cotton panties. In spite of that thought it didn’t take long for me to decide to take the clothes and bag. At the bottom of the stairs I started to wonder how whoever it was had gotten in and looked into the living room again. The Northwest corner was very dark and the reason was the shrubbery had become overgrown and covered one of the windows in that area. I thought about how I’d tried to help Celia, the lady who lived there when we bought our house, clear some of it away but hadn’t ever finished the job. I knew the cops had said they’d checked the house and hadn’t found anything amiss but then began to wonder just how much effort they’d put into it. I walked over to the window and could see the locking latch wasn’t in the locked position. I also noted that I couldn’t see much of my house from where I was standing.  If someone had been in the house and unlocked it before leaving and then come back they would’ve had relatively easy access. Being dark and with the overgrown shrubs it would’ve been almost impossible to have seen them at night.


There were a lot of thoughts going through my head about that time. I knew the proper thing to do was to call Andy, the real estate agent, and tell him what I’d found but was hesitant to do so. I can’t give a valid reason why but what I did do was to latch the window and then check all the other ones on the first floor. Now, a bit into the ’mystery’ of the situation I decided to check out all the rooms to see if anything else had been left behind. Since there wasn’t much there it was fairly easy. It appeared the only room that had been used was the one bedroom. A check of the kitchen didn’t turn up anything at all. The refrigerator, still running, was empty and there wasn’t any food in the pantry. By the time I was ready to leave I was satisfied there wasn’t much to worry about.


I took the bag and the clothes and headed for home. Thankfully, Elle wasn’t back with the kids which gave me a few minutes to look into the bag. Of, course, the first “look’ went to the panties. I knew they were cotton from when I’d picked them up but I was truly disappointed when I found no identifying label with only a small tag on the waist elastic that read “36”, the waist size. There was minimal staining and a whiff of the crotch didn’t put forth anything interesting. The bra was well worn and the writing on the label had disintegrated. The shirt was definitely for a male. The only other thing worth anything in the bag was a small flashlight. I stood in the garage and questioned myself if all the effort had been worth it.

Nothing special but I did add them to my "stash"...

To be continued...