‘Don’t come back home’ — he warned me. I called a plumber to fix a leak in the basement. About ten minutes after I left, he called me, his voice serious: ‘Ma’am, who else is down here with me?’ I froze and told him that no one else was in the house. But before he could answer, the call was cut off.
The autumn morning arrived with that peculiar Illinois chill that settles into your bones, the kind that makes you grateful…