Nobody answered.
I knocked again, harder.
“Mark, open the door!”
Silence.
His car was gone. The blinds were open, but the house looked empty.
There were no lamps, no pictures, and no furniture visible through the front windows.
A little later, another neighbor saw me pacing outside and came over.
Her name was Janice.
She lived across the street and seemed to notice everything that happened on our block.
“Are you looking for Mark?” she asked.
“Yes!” I said. “He had a birthday party in my backyard this weekend. Do you know where he is?”
She looked confused.
“Party? There wasn’t any party.”
I just stared at her.
“We saw him loading all his furniture into a moving truck Saturday morning,” she said. “Honestly, it looked like he was moving away.”
I felt my stomach tighten.
“But… he was supposed to be having people over.”
She slowly shook her head.
“No. He spent the entire weekend digging in your backyard. That’s all he did.”
I walked back into my house, completely unable to make sense of what I’d just heard.
I had barely sat down when someone rang my doorbell.
I opened it to find two police officers standing on my porch.
“Well, ma’am,” one of them said, “I think you know why we’re here.”
He gave me a serious look.
“Would you mind if we came inside?”
I stepped aside and let the officers enter.
The taller one introduced himself as Officer Gerald.
His partner was Officer Beckett. Both of them kept their expressions neutral, but I could tell they were watching me closely.
“Can I ask what this is about?” I said.
Officer Gerald glanced toward the back of the house.
“We received a report about suspicious digging on this property.”
I let out a breath that sounded almost like a laugh.
