Chapter 31: Preparation

It's amazing what you can get used to. Jane and I had become habituated to staying away from home as much as possible. The problem was that we had to go home sometimes, and it was uncanny how Jr. or John could be there when we were. They went through phases when they were over continually and then would only be there sometimes. They crossed the line again not too long after St. Valentine's day. It was a period when they never seemed to go home. We got home and were the only ones there for a change when Jane yelled at me from our room.

"Brett our door wasn't locked. My key wouldn't fit, and the knob just turned."

"Huh?"

I bent down to find the lock had been drilled out.

"Asshole. God I wish we could just leave now. I hate them."

"Me too," my sister agreed.

Inside it was obvious to us somebody had looked through everything. Jane found out her birth-control pills were gone. She sort of panicked then. As I held her trying to tell her it would be all right, I noticed some white dust on my desk. Jane noticed my looking at it and asked, "What's that?"

"I'm not sure," I said walking over and pinching some in my fingers.

"Oh my God! Brett!" My sister screamed, "Look!" She pointed at the vent over the desk, and looking up I didn't see anything.

"What?"

"Come here and look, it's a camera."

I backed up, and I could see the shiny lens. It really surprised me, so much I did not get really mad until I had removed the camera, which was recording, and sat down. I lifted it up to smash it on the floor when I thought better. These things were expensive.

"Jane, lets keep it and act like we know nothing about it. We go get another lock and see what they do. This is worth like a thousand dollars I think. I say we sell it."

"You mean play dumb?"

Grinning I said, "Yeah."

Jane laughed and said "That will really drive them nuts won't it?"

"Yeah, I bet Mom doesn't know about the camera, so John can't say a word can he?"

"We need to go get more pills though. I will need one in the morning."

"Lets go then. I am taking this with us though."

After getting Jane more pills we went to the G's. I needed some advice as usual. Jane was putting her extra pills in our lock box, and I was having them hang onto the camera for a while.

"Mr. G. I need a lock that can't be drilled out."

He raised an eyebrow at that and said, "What do you want to lock?"

"Our room. They drilled out the locking doorknob I got."

"Hmm, those deadbolts are sort of expensive, and if they do drill it out, it just gets stuck locked and you will have to pay for a locksmith to open it up. I got a better idea."

"What?"

"We will make you an old fashioned lock. Go get yourself a new doorknob and come back by. And we will put one on your door."

I left and got one real fast while Jane stayed there. Mr. G. was waiting for me with Jane. I could tell by the look in her eye Mr. G. had come up with something sneaky.

Mr. G. installed a flat iron bar and brackets to hold it and drilled a little hole to stick a bent metal rod to move it with as our key. It was kind of tricky to work, but we got the hang of it.

"There. They will have to kick the door down to get in there now, and it won't be easy. These old houses have solid wood doors, and I made sure the brackets are anchored to a stud. Lock your window and they'll truly have to break in to get in."

Jane laughed and gave Mr. G. a hug, and we both thanked him. We agreed to act as if we did not know anything about the camera unless Mom knew about it. If she did then we really were not sure what we were going to do. I was being a little paranoid I guess when I had Jane pack like half her clothes up and I mine along with all our camping gear, and we took it over to the G's. Jane knew what that meant. If Mom was in on this, we were leaving.

That evening we stayed at home. I really wanted to test John and Mom. When he saw we were home he left soon after without saying a word. Mom was not yet home and I am sure he wanted to give us lots of room to hang ourselves with. It was not hard to act 'normal' with him around when Mom got home. We just avoided him like usual. He seemed to be in his 'nice guy' mode though, and Mom was her normal self. It did not look as if she knew what was going on. The night passed quietly.

The next day Jane and I left before Mom or John got up. We were both excited and a little nervous. I really did not know what John would do to get in our room. Would he bust the door down or wait? It turned out her waited. The knob I got this time was for an entry door and was much tougher and harder to open. The old one was easy. Sure he could have got past it, but he chose to wait. Mom was her normal self so I was fairly confident she knew nothing about it. John however used our Mom to get a key. She asked for one, and I could not think of a good reason not to give it to her. So John then had a key which I was sure included his son.

We still had him out maneuvered. Mr. G's lock was still there, and he could not really complain that he could not get in our room. John ended up losing his temper and battered the door down one afternoon while nobody was home. The hinges gave before the lock did.

I just kept on driving as usual when we saw his truck out front when we got home from school and did not come back until Mom got off work. They were both there when we came home and sitting on the couch waiting for us.

"Brett, Jane. Did you guys take something from John?"