Snapshot

35

Challis made himself a coffee while he waited, careful how he touched things, even using his elbow to work the door of the fridge, and hooking out the milk container with the back of his thumb. As for the coffee pot, coffee jar and his ‘old cops never die’ mug, he’d yet to meet a burglar who paused to brew coffee. He didn’t for a moment think the crime-scene techs would lift any prints other than his own-and some old ones of Tessa Kane’s-but he knew the procedure, the irony being that, since he was a cop, his place would be given more than a cursory examination.

It was too cold to sit on his sundeck, and no sun anyway, only the grey light of a winter’s afternoon, and so he set the central heating to high, sat at his kitchen table and made lists for his insurance company and CIU. Damage: jemmied back door, a broken fruit bowl (Italian, hand painted, a gift from Tessa), cracked CD covers. After a moment, he added the twin gouges in his lawn. Stolen: a jar of coins, approx. value $15; digital camera, $499; DVD player, $250; portable TV, $399; answering machine, $70; cordless phone, $79; laptop, $2500; laptop case, $60. He walked through the house again, returned to the kitchen and added: Rockport walking shoes (new), $299; Swiss Army knife (ten years old, no longer have receipt); Walkman (broken); leather belt, $45. A third walk through yielded him the bedside clock, $25, and assorted jewellery (property of late wife), value approximately $2000.

Angela had wanted to take some of the rings and earrings into prison with her, but he told her they’d be the target of the other prisoners, and so, therefore, would she. ‘They’ll tear them off you,’ he’d said, ‘or they’ll resent you. Everything will be here waiting for you when you get out.’ And she’d said, ‘But will you be waiting for me?’ and he’d had no answer to that. As for the jewellery, he’d bought most of it-a watch, a white gold necklace, emerald earrings. The engagement ring had been his grandmother’s, mercifully dead before she knew that Angela had tried to kill him.

He heard a car beyond his kitchen window and spotted Ellen arriving. The next stage would be routine: she’d assess the situation and then call for crime-scene technicians. He waited: there was a knock, and then she was standing in the kitchen doorway, concern on her face. ‘You poor thing,’ she said, making to cross the floor to where he stood by the window. He wanted her to, and wanted to cross to her, but things held them back.

She glanced about the kitchen, and then peered through the door into his sitting room. ‘When you said damage, I was expecting to see a real mess,’ she said.

He was puzzled. ‘Minor damage,’ he said, ‘about what you’d expect in a burglary.’

‘So it is a simple burglary?’

‘Looks like it.’

‘But you asked for me especially. I thought-’

‘What?’

In a rush she said, ‘I thought it might have been personal: you know, someone who had it in for you and wanted to cause major damage.’

He frowned, shook his head. ‘Well, there’s always someone, but no, this is a simple burglary, more or less.’ He saw relief on her face then, as she shrugged out of her coat and swung it over the back of a chair. He said carefully, ‘Did you think it was Alan?’

She flushed. ‘Alan? No. Well, he can be jealous.’

Challis decided to let it go, but she seemed to fill the room and his senses, and oddly to make him feel less violated by the burglary. He pulled out a chair for himself and motioned for her to sit.

When she was settled she took out her notebook and headed an empty page with the date, time and location. But then, apparently in no hurry, she pushed the notebook aside. ‘I’d really like one of your coffees.’

With relief he busied himself at the sink and cupboards. At times he passed quite close to her. Then he poured, set biscuits on a plate and sat with her again.

‘So, Hal, burgled.’

‘Uh-huh.’

He gave her a rundown on the damage and what had been stolen. ‘Plaster casts of the tyre tracks on my lawn might help.’

‘Will do,’ she said.

He reached for her hand without thinking about it. ‘There’s a reason why I asked for you.’

She raised her eyebrows, but didn’t withdraw her hand, which felt taut, bony but warm in his. Suddenly self-conscious, he jerked back. Was his neediness too apparent? Was he the subject of smirks and raised eyebrows among the female officers and civilians in the Waterloo police station? He saw himself as a clumsy man.

‘This has to be low profile,’ he said. ‘I’m in trouble.’

He saw that he’d discomposed her. To cure it she reached for her notebook, all business now. ‘In what way?’

He told her about his laptop.

‘Oh dear.’

‘I know.’

She stared at him through the steam from her mug. ‘No password protection at all?’

He shook his head. ‘I couldn’t figure out how to set it up.’

‘Dinosaur,’ she said. ‘Have you told anyone else?’

‘My insurance company.’

‘You didn’t tell them what was on the laptop?’

‘No.’

‘You’ll have to tell the super.’

Challis pushed his coffee away as if it were sour. ‘How can I? He doesn’t know about the photos.’

‘But you’ve got case notes stored on it as well.’

‘Yes.’

‘He won’t be pleased.’

‘He’s already pissed off with me. This will reinforce it.’

Ellen sighed. It was a sigh that said she commiserated with Challis, that she wasn’t so different from him, that she’d stuffed up on occasion, too.

‘Damage limitation. He’ll want damage limitation.’

Challis nodded, and they were both silent for a time, picturing McQuarrie, the man’s prim mouth, Rotary and golfing cronies, and air of satisfaction.

‘Will you tell him, or will I?’

Challis was startled. ‘I will, of course.’

‘Into the breach.’

He nodded.

‘How do I play it at the station?’ she asked.

‘Straightforward burglary, for now. Don’t mention that the laptop contained sensitive material until I’ve squared it away with the super.’

‘But if he wants it in my report, I’ll have to-’

‘Amend it. Don’t worry, I’ll cover your back.’

After a pause, Challis went on: ‘Any other break-ins reported in the area today?’

She shook her head. ‘There was one in Penzance Beach yesterday. An empty holiday house, but the next-door neighbour spotted a broken window.’

‘One burglary among many.’

She glanced at him a little coldly. ‘You’ll get the full crime-scene treatment, Hal, don’t worry.’

‘Thanks.’ He knew that simple burglaries generally didn’t attract a concerted level of investigation. ‘Have you any ideas? Does this fit a pattern?’

She shrugged. ‘There are always break-ins, Hal, you know that. Town and rural.’

Challis nodded bleakly. ‘I know.’

‘Look at what was stolen. Small items, easily shifted and stored. We don’t even know if it’s the same gang or individual. A pattern only becomes apparent when specialist goods are taken and we can track where they end up.’ She finished her coffee. ‘Better make a start.’

They went from room to room, Challis indicating the location of each of the stolen possessions, Ellen taking notes for the crime-scene techs who would dust for prints.

Perhaps it was a combination of sensations, images and memories, and the conjunction of the homely with the erotic-a bedroom, the half light, a beautiful woman watching and listening, the particular arrangement of the bones and tendons at her throat and neck, his own months of deprivation-but Challis found himself reaching for Ellen. She reached for him. Out of their clumsy collision came a long kiss and then they parted sufficiently to look each other in the eye, slightly awed.

‘I want you,’ Ellen said simply.

‘Me too.’

‘You want yourself?’

It was the kind of dumb thing you said when the ground was slippery. Challis found the bare skin at her waist and spine, and they continued to stare at each other. ‘Your hands are cold,’ Ellen said, her skin seeming to crawl at his touch and absorb him at the same time. He leaned towards her again, and that’s when a car growled over the gravel outside his window and Ellen said, ‘Crime-scene techs.’

With a ragged sigh Challis said, ‘You called them out before you came here?’

‘Biggest mistake of my life.’

He planted a hungering, regretful kiss and looked at his watch. ‘I’d better get it over and done with.’

‘The super?’

‘With any luck,’ Challis said, ‘I’ll interrupt his golf.’