No sooner had Fred hung up than the phone rang again. It was patrolman Jack McCarty.
"Remember Jenny Nachman said your house was the second break-in today?" he told Dean. "The other one was at Mrs. Byrne's place, out in Sherwood Forest. Jenny didn't recognize the address. She hasn't worked on the other case...."
McCarthy spelled out the details. Cynthia and Randy discovered the break-in when they returned from church shortly after lunch. The place had been ransacked but nothing appeared missing. Two neighbors reported seeing a black car near the house. As soon as Dean hung up, he telephoned the Byrne home.
A man answered. Dean identified himself and asked for Cynthia. It was Phil Riley, the Byrnes' next-door neighbor.
"Cynthia's over at our place. I just came over to pick up a sweater for her. She tried to call you this afternoon."
"How is she?"
"Poor kid, she's pretty shook. It's been a tough couple of weeks," he answered.
"I couldn't agree more," Dean said. "I was with her in Norfolk when they popped the sheet on the wrong guy." Dean asked to have Cynthia call when she felt up to it but he didn't mention that someone had broken into his home too.
"It could have been a coincidence," Fred said after Dean hung up. "Those things happen."
"Only in your mystery stories, not in Parkside," Dean answered disgustedly.
"But why the Byrne place?"
"If they were tailing me, they must have seen me drive out there. Maybe they thought that was the place where we had Baratto stashed. They wouldn't have any idea who Cynthia was. I just feel like a bastard for dragging her and her son into something that has nothing to do with them." Dean paused. "I'm thankful she and Randy didn't come home in the middle of it."
Neither said much before calling it a day. They both had earned the rest.