Jonas picked up the fragments of the camera and poked the miniature gears and servos in his palm. The slam of a car door caught his ear. He grabbed the ringing phone and walked over to the window.

“Cindy?” He pushed the blinds and saw a woman in a black suit jacket and glasses walk up to the door.

The phone made the grating sounds of beeps, static, and distorted audio.

“Jo . . . ear *static*—me? —lo?”

“Cindy? My signal is breaking up, I can’t hear you.”

“*static*—as? Jo—”

Silence, the call dropped.

Jonas checked his phone and noted the lack of bars. How was that possible? He had installed a signal booster to his router years ago. He turned on the TV and saw that the channels were coming through clearly, so service wasn’t down. Something was interfering with the signal, he was sure of it. Jonas turned off the TV and peered out the window again.

No sign of the woman, just a black limo parked out front.

He heard a faint ticking and rattling.

“What is that?” He put on a pair of sneakers, thankful that he napped in his clothes. Jonas leaned against the wall and peeked out of the doorway. The house was quiet and empty, except for the gentle hum of the air conditioner. He stepped into the hallway and heard the sound of ticking again, like coins jingling in a wallet.

He followed the sound to the front door and watched the door knob jiggle up and down as if possessed by a poltergeist. His eyes widened and his heart thumped frantically against his chest. A glint of light caught his eyes and led them to the key rack hanging beside the door. He glanced at the rattling door knob then back to the keys.

He exhaled and his breath trembled. Jonas ran for the door and yanked the keys off the rack. The key ring caught on the hook and dropped everything to the floor. He cursed at himself and dropped to his hands and knees.

Tik, tik, tik, the doorknob went and his fingers couldn’t distinguish which key was which.

“Where the hell is it?”

The door burst open and slammed into Jonas’s arm, knocking him to his side. A woman’s leg stepped through the gap and Jonas kicked the door against it. She kicked back and pushed her way into the living room, towering over Jonas. He grabbed all his keys in a tangled heap and bolted for the garage. The woman reached out for his collar, but the fabric slipped out of her fingers.

Jonas entered the garage and slammed the door shut behind him. He stared into the jumbled mess of keys and pried them apart, searching for the ones to the garage. The door opened behind him and he quickly slammed it shut. He jammed the key into the lock and twisted hard until it clicked.

Jonas found the rectangular keys to the Saleen S7 sports car and pressed the unlock button. The lights flashed and he jumped into the driver’s seat and locked the doors. He pressed his index finger into the remote garage door opener, then started the engine. The woman crashed through the house door and stomped her way into the garage.

As the garage roll-up continued to rise, Jonas panted and watched the woman. He felt like a trapped cow waiting to be branded by a farmer. She grabbed a leaf blower from his rack of lawn tools and quickly walked up to the driver’s side window.

“C’mon, c’mon!” Jonas tapped his hands furiously against the steering wheel.

A sliver of sunlight crested at bottom of the roll-up, but the woman was already next to his window.

She raised the leaf blower to her shoulder, reeled it back, and smashed it through the window.