Leroy, William and J.J. all put their weapons away and William reached over and turned off the oven.
“Okay, J.J., can you check that doorbell? It looked like it has video,” said Leroy.
“I would need the phone or to hack into it. Hacking is easy but the phone would be even easier,” said J.J.
Leroy asked, “How does the hallway look? Any signs of a struggle?”
“Don’t know. We were more concerned with the possibility of someone still being here,” answered William.
“Well, let’s have a look,” said Leroy as he headed toward the hallway.
Leroy was the first to get there and could see a couple of coats hanging on hooks and the one closest to the door was empty.
“Looks like he may have taken the dog for a walk,” said William pointing to the empty hook.
“With a pizza pocket in the oven?” asked Leroy.
“Maybe not,” said William.
“There she is,” said J.J. as he scooped up a gaudy red iPhone from the floor.
“That’s convenient,” said William.
“Not convenient. Nobody these days forgets a phone on purpose unless it’s on purpose,” said Leroy.
“What?” asked William.
“You know what I mean,” said Leroy.
J.J. knew the passcode to Mr. Claus’s phone because he had set everything up for him. He had already logged in and was looking through the photographs.
“This is odd. There is a picture of a human male and two dogs,” said J.J.
“So it’s a robbery?” asked William.
J.J. answered, “Well, no. Maybe. But what is strange is that one dog is without a leash and looks a lot like Peanut. And Peanut’s leash is not on the hook where it obviously goes. The other dog, which is black, and definitely not Peanut, is on a leash that looks like it’s suspended in mid-air.”
“Suspended in mid-air? Let me see,” said Leroy.
He took the telephone from J.J. and looked at it.
“There is someone holding that leash that is not captured on film. Well not film but there’s no image of her,” said Leroy.
“How do you know it’s a her?” asked William.
“Well, it’s either an alien or a witch. And my money is on witch,” said Leroy.
“It could theoretically be a man,” started J.J.
Leroy snapped, “None of that pronoun bullshit right now. I’m all for that and all, but right now we need to find Mr. Claus and the best bet is a female witch.”
“Just sayin’,” said J.J.
“Sorry, man. I just get a bad feeling that this is considerably more complicated than just a few missed phone calls,” said Leroy.
J.J. looked back at the phone and swiped and tapped a couple of times.
“It looks like he captured everything on audio,” said J.J.
He pushed the screen on the phone and they listened to the whole interaction between Mr. Claus and the intruders.
“See what I said, it’s a Veronica. And she isn’t captured on film,” said Leroy.
“That makes things more complicated,” said William.
“And I don’t want to make it even worse, but I recognize Buddy,” said Leroy.
“Worse than a witch?” asked William.
“Yes, because Buddy is not Buddy. His real name is Denny Jensen and he is one B-A-M-F,” said Leroy.
