Episode 88 – Revised - Harry returns to the office

Harry had to give Angela the benefit of the doubt, more so to not let her think that he was starting to find holes in her story, and to let her know he had suspicions about whether Al was dead, or not dead.

It was no surprise when she ended the conversation and got up,  She had a meeting to go to, and he could remain as long as he felt he needed to.

He had to admit after she’d gone, he felt rather sheepish when he discovered she had washed and ironed his clothes.  Hardly the behaviour of a deceitful accomplice.

Or was it Corinne was right, and he had difficulty in seeing through bad women?

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 it had been described to him and that he assumed was because either Corinne or Felicity had cleaned it up.

It was 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 the mess didn't exist.

He went in, closed the door behind him, and then took a quick look at the extent of the break-in.  There appeared to be no damage to the furniture, his books were returned to their shelves, but in the wrong places, files likewise in the cabinet, and, at a guess, 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 an opportunistic break-in.

No doubt in his mind it 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 with a re-zoning request for it to be turned into a number of possible projects, an entertainment centre, a five-star hotel and shopping mall, and luxury apartments.  He remembered reading about it in the paper some months ago, but couldn't remember the details.  Then, when he went to retrieve the file he’d started, he found it missing.  It had the newspaper cutting, and search documents on the address.

They wanted to erase any information he had, and had he not lived, that would have been an end to it.  That he had might be cause for concern, because he was not going to let the matter drop.

Another search showed his computer was missing, presumably taken by the thieves.  It was a good thing he had everything backed up in the cloud.  The thief hadn’t taken any other items that would have netted him or her quite a tidy sum. 

Taking it was a futile exercise because there was nothing on the computer that would be useful to them.  He never kept notes on there, but in tangible files with handwritten notes.  Old style.

Then another question popped into his head; had Corinne or Felicity called the police about the break-in?

He sat down, putting his new cell phone on the desktop.  He was going to call Felicity; he just needed to consider what questions to ask.

Before he could, the phone rang, vibrating loudly on the desktop, snapping him out of his reverie.  He hadn't realised he'd momentarily closed his eyes.

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 were.  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.  But while I have you on the phone, 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 you were poking your nose into matters that he thought didn’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, well, not yet for certain.  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 were aware of.  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