Chapter 4 - The Intruder On The Patio And The Dropped Wallet
The heavy thud from the dark patio froze everyone in place. Elena instinctively pulled Lily off the bar stool, shielding the little girl behind her slender frame, while Evelyn stepped smoothly in front of them both, her seventy-year-old posture remarkably rigid and commanding. Arthur cursed loudly, abandoning his defensive stance, and lunged toward the open glass door. He stepped out onto the moonlit stone patio, his black tuxedo blending into the shadows as he scanned the manicured lawn and the dense perimeter hedges.
"Who's out there?" Arthur demanded, his voice echoing off the brick exterior of the house. "Show yourself right now, or I'm calling the police!"
A low, guttural groan answered him from the direction of the garden shed. Arthur rushed forward, his shiny dress shoes crunching on the gravel pathway. As he rounded the corner of the shed, the ambient light from the kitchen window illuminated a figure sprawled awkwardly on the damp grass. It was a man in his late twenties, dressed in a dark hoodie and jeans, clutching his right arm with a grimace of intense pain. Next to him lay a shattered terracotta flowerpot—the source of the second crashing sound.
"What the hell are you doing on my property?" Arthur shouted, grabbing the intruder roughly by the collar of his hoodie and hauling him to his feet with surprising strength.
"Get your hands off me, man!" the intruder hissed, wincing as Arthur jerked him upright. The man’s face was pale, half-hidden beneath the shadow of his hood, but his eyes darted frantically toward the open kitchen door where Elena and Lily stood watching. "I wasn't stealing anything! I was just trying to get away from the street!"
"You were lurking outside my house, breaking things, and spying through my windows," Arthur snarled, his anger reigniting with a dangerous fury. "You're coming inside right now, and we're letting the authorities sort you out."
"Wait, Arthur, stop!" Elena’s voice cut sharply through the night air as she stepped out onto the patio, leaving Lily safely inside with Evelyn. She pointed down at the grass near the shattered flowerpot. "Look at what he dropped."
Arthur glanced down. Half-hidden in the damp mulch was a sleek black leather wallet that had apparently fallen from the intruder's pocket during the scuffle. Without thinking, Arthur released the man’s collar, reached down, and snatched the wallet off the ground. He flipped it open, expecting to find a driver's license belonging to some local delinquent or professional thief.
Instead, the beam of the kitchen light caught the open cards inside. Arthur froze, the color draining from his face for the second time that evening. His hands began to shake violently, causing the leather wallet to slip from his fingers and hit the gravel.
"Recognize it, son?" Evelyn asked coldly, stepping out onto the patio to join them, her blue dress sweeping the stone flags. She looked down at the open wallet with a gaze filled with deep, sorrowful disappointment.
The intruder gave a nervous, high-pitched laugh, rubbing his bruised arm. "Yeah. Tell your brilliant husband to check the contents. Because that's not my wallet. That belongs to the man who paid me five hundred dollars to break into this house tonight and destroy your precious office computer."
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Arthur stumbled backward, hitting the brick wall of the house, his breath coming in ragged gasps as he stared in absolute horror at the person whose photo ID was clearly visible inside the spilled wallet—his own business partner.
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