Artie was standing there in his blue windbreaker, looking past my shoulder into the dark house.

“Hey Karen,” he said, his eyes scanning the hallway. “I saw the police cars earlier. Everything okay?”

“Just a little issue with the old wiring,” I said, my voice tight.

“Oh, those old houses can be tricky,” Artie said, patting the doorframe. “You let me know if you need any help. I’ve got a whole garage of tools.”

I thanked him and locked the door.

I actually turned to Keith and said we were lucky to have him.

God, I was so stupid.

The next afternoon, Detective Miller called us down to the station.

We sat in a small office that smelled of cheap coffee and floor wax.

Miller opened a manila folder and slid a piece of paper across the desk.

It was a printed receipt from an online surveillance company for $12,400.

“The buyer used a prepaid card, but they made a mistake,” Miller said.

“They had the gear shipped directly to the yellow house next door. Arthur Vance.”

I couldn’t draw a breath. My chest went entirely numb.

“Artie?” Keith asked, his jaw clenching tightly.

“We checked his home router. He’s been accessing the feed for three years,” the detective said.

“But why would he do that?” I stammered.

Detective Miller didn’t answer. He just turned his computer monitor toward us.

“We executed a search warrant on his house an hour ago. We grabbed his tablet. The cameras were still streaming to his screen when we walked in.”

He clicked a video file labeled with last night’s date.

“This was recorded at 2:14 AM,” Miller said.

The infrared footage was clear.

It showed our backyard maple tree, but then a shadow moved across the grass.

It was Artie in his windbreaker.

He walked slowly up to our bedroom window and pressed his face against the glass, staring inside at us while we slept.

In his hand, he was holding a spare set of brass keys.

“He got those keys from the previous owner’s garage years ago,” Miller explained.

“He’s been entering that house whenever he wanted.”

My stomach dropped so hard I felt sick.

He wasn’t just watching us on a screen. He was standing outside our window while we slept, deciding whether to use the key.

“We have a unit waiting at your house right now,” Miller said.