Had someone gone through the boxes? Someone who wouldn’t have known to put a Tanach at the top of the pile?

Someone is in the basement. Gabe is sure of it this time, isn’t relying on squeaky doors or hunches to confirm it. He can hear the rustle, the impossible movements, and his fingers tighten into a fist around a mallet he found in the kitchen.

Rivi had gone to Abba’s house with Penina yesterday, and she’d denied hearing anything. But that’s Rivi, who would gladly stick her head in the sand rather than face unpleasant truths, and Gabe takes her report with a grain of salt.

Because there’s definitely someone in the basement.

He creeps forward, pushing the door open slowly so it doesn’t make any noise to alert the intruder. It’s not that he hasn’t been in danger before. In his work, there’s always the risk that he might be attacked by peoples hostile to visitors, and he’s had his share of incidents. But it feels different, unnerving, to face that kind of danger in the quiet house that had once been home.

Carefully, he edges down the stairs. One of them creaks, giving him away, and he hears a quick sound, a sudden scratch of… nails against vinyl? And then, a flash of movement, what must be feet racing toward him, though they sound all wrong.

Gabe swings his mallet instinctively, but he misses. The person is already past him — strangely small and close to the ground, but there’s no time to think about that. He bounds up the stairs after him and sees—

A squirrel, climbing to safety in the open credenza.

Gabe’s shoulders slump and he feels very, very ridiculous. “I’m not telling Rivi about this,” he says aloud.

It takes a few more minutes to chase the squirrel out of the house, and then he returns to the basement, flicking the light on. There’s no sign of upheaval beyond a nasty-looking chewed up bookcase and droppings on the floor. No one has been in here since his last cleanup day, as far as he can tell.

Except.