Once we moved, we told the contractor, “Thank you but we will take it from here.”

Since our plan was downsizing, we didn’t expect to spend a lot of time on the second floor. Nevertheless, we realized that those upstairs bedrooms depended mainly on lamps for illumination. So being “contractorless,” we called an electrical subcontractor and told them we would like to have recessed lights installed in the three upstairs bedrooms. It seems everyone in the construction business is super busy in the Nashville area these days. Home construction may be down but mega apartment buildings are going up everywhere. The subcontractor “worked us in” to their schedule sending over two workers on a Saturday.

The electrical company has done work for us many times over the years and has done a great job. They have often worked in the current and prior residences when neither we nor anyone else was in the house. We trusted them completely. I admit, however, that this time we were not familiar with every member of the crew doing the recessed light work. My wife and I needed to run an errand, and we left the men alone to complete their work with instructions about securing the house if they should finish before we returned. We were gone a couple of hours.

When we returned, the house was locked, fully secured, and the men were gone. I had to go out again, so I looked for some cash that I had left in a basket on the kitchen counter. [I have to be very careful here not to mention names. In America, you are innocent until proven guilty, and proving guilt isn’t easy without the help or stupidity of the thief.] Oops, the money was gone. So were three of my wife’s rings that were also in that basket including her 53 year old wedding band. Now getting nervous, I checked where I kept my watches and rings. Two very special rings were gone—a 22ct gold David Yurman piece with the image of a horse in black jade and a second gold ring with a carnelian carved by the German artist, Manfred Wild.

The sheriff is on the case—so is Mark Rollins because whoever the culprit is, this probably wasn’t his first robbery, and unless we catch him and put him away, it probably will not be his last. “Mariko, get your Beretta—the game is afoot.”

# # #

For more about the move and its trails and tribulations go to the prior post titled Our Next House.

For signed copies of books by Tom Collins, go to the TomCollinsAuthor.com. Unsigned print and ebook editions are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online bookstores. For an audio edition of The Claret Murders go to http://amzn.com/B00IV5ZJEI. Ebook editions are also available through Apple iTunes’ iBooks Store and Smashwords.com.
Published by I-65 North, Inc.