Harry was not surprised
when he opened the door to the office and saw the lack of mess in front of him. He was surprised to see that it was not as
bad as it could have been and that he assumed was because of either Corinne or
Felicity had cleaned it up.
More than Corinne ever
did at home, he thought, remembering the old days when he lived at home and the
bribery involved to clean their own rooms, all of them except Corinne.
Her mother gave up
asking just closed the door and pretended it didn't exist.
He went in, closed the door behind him, and then took a quick look at the extent of the damage. Little to the furniture, books back in the
wrong places, files likewise in the cabinet, it appeared whoever paid his
office a visit was looking for something specific.
In his office, it
didn’t take long to realise the paper he had stuck to the bottom of the drawer
had been removed. The edges of the tape
were still there, so it was safe to assume the visitor had found what they were
looking for. Everything else had been to
convince the police it was a random robbery.
So the break-in was
solely about the address.
Why?
It was just an empty
block.
Was there something
special about it?
It was down on an area
of the docks that was slated to be turned into a number of possible projects,
an entertainment centre, a five-star hotel and shopping mall, luxury
apartments. He remembered reading about
it in the paper some months ago, but couldn't remember the details. He would have to find the paper or look it up
on the internet.
Another look showed his
computer was missing, presumably taken by the thieves. It was a good
thing he had everything backed up in the cloud.
Or it could be locked away. The
thief hadn’t taken a few other items that would net him or her quite a tidy sum. There was nothing on the computer that would
be useful to them. He never kept notes
on there, but intangible files with handwritten notes.
Old style.
Another question; had
Corinne or Felicity called the police about the break-in?
He sat down, putting
his cell phone on the desktop. He was
going to call Felicity, he just needed to consider what questions to ask.
The phone rang,
vibrating loudly on the desktop, waking him. He hadn't realised he'd drifted off.
He looked at the
screen.
Corinne.
He answered the call
putting it on the speakerphone. “Corinne. Where are you?”
“At Uni for the moment,
got an assignment to finish. Just wanted
to know how you are. The hospital said
you discharged yourself despite their advice.”
“I had to get back to
work. I can’t justify you doing anything
considering the danger”.
“And I told you I can
take care of myself.”
“I disagree but I'm not
going to argue with you now. A couple of
questions. You've been to my office, did
you call the police?”
“Apparently Felicity
did. She told Sykes. I think he’s annoyed that you were poking your
nose into matters that don’t concern you.
You know the standard police warning for civilians.”
Harry thought that
amusing considering he had no idea which case had provoked the kidnapping,
torture and attempted murder.
And aside from that, it
was best, he thought, not to tell her it was about that empty block, something
both, as far as he was aware, neither she nor Sykes was aware of.
For the moment.
He knew he needed more
information before he could go to Sykes with it.
“Something, I think,
you should also take heed of. Anything
else I should know?”
“Yes. Dad is coming to see you. He managed to wring your office address out of
me. Sorry.”
And before he could
comment she disconnected the call.
Damn. His father was the last person he wanted to
see.
© Charles Heath 2016-2019
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