Sixteen
I saw the cop car drive away as I walked around the house, looking for evidence of a break-in. Beyond the broken glass near the back door, I didn’t find anything suspicious. I went into the house and opened every door and window. It actually didn’t smell much worse than times I’d burned something on the stove. I stood outside, anyway, under the back porch light, and called Debbie North. Figured since she was in the cleaning business, she might know who could come into the house and see what was smoke damaged and what wasn’t.
“Doesn’t sound like you’ll have much smoke damage,” she said after I told her what happened. “Though it’s sometimes hard to tell. Maybe your clothes. I’d call the insurance company either way. They might pay to get your clothes cleaned, etc.”
“I can put my j
