Picture You Dead

48

Sunday, 27 October

Twenty anxious minutes later, during which Harry had downed a double espresso while standing near the foot of the stairs still brandishing the carving knife, they heard a car pull up outside, and saw blue flashing lights through the glass panels at the top of the front door.

Two officers came into the house, a tall, burly man who introduced himself as PC Alldridge and a shorter police officer whose warrant card showed PC Dave Simmons. Freya explained they’d recently been in a broadcast of the Antiques Roadshow, at which they’d shown a painting that might possibly be of very high value.

‘Has that been taken?’ Simmons asked.

‘No.’

‘Is anything missing?’

‘We’ve not had a good look around, but if someone was going to break in that’s what they would most likely have been after.’ She led them through into the lounge and pointed the painting out to them.

Over the next fifteen minutes the two police officers made a thorough search of the house, opening all wardrobe and cupboard doors, as well as checking the loft, then the garden, the shed and the greenhouse.

Back inside the house, PC Alldridge said, ‘You have a CCTV camera at the property. Is it active?’

‘It is,’ Freya said. ‘But it’s pretty basic – we’d have to take the card out and look through it on a computer.’

Alldridge nodded. ‘That will take you a little time. I think we’ve established there isn’t any intruder present in your house now – are you both comfortable with that?’

‘We are, thank you, officers,’ Harry said, glancing at his wife for confirmation.

‘And you’ve not been able to establish that anything is missing?’

‘Not that we are able to tell so far,’ Freya said.

PC Simmons was looking puzzled. ‘It’s possible you might have surprised the intruder by arriving home unexpectedly.’

‘At a quarter to two in the morning?’ Freya replied sharply.

Simmons looked nonplussed. ‘Perhaps you should do a careful check on all your possessions to make sure nothing is missing – any watches, jewellery, anything like that.’

He gave them his card. ‘When you’ve checked, if you find any valuables have been taken, get in touch immediately.’

They thanked the officers and saw them out into the night.