Kates friends part 4

The door firmly closed behind her Kate looked down at the floor in front of her and then to the rest of the room. Well this was going to take forever to clean up. Best get started then ‘cause the sooner I start the sooner this can all be forgot and life can return to normal.

“Arrg” Kate hit the off button on the alarm. Whatever the time was, it was just too damn early. She opened her eyes to read the clock. Eight thirty...oh hell that was way late; she should have been up an hour ago. She groaned this was not good. She pulled on her running gear, splashed some water on her face and started towards the door. At the last minute she stopped and surveyed the room. Ummm everything seemed okay. She went over to the window and opened the curtains, moved her African violet towards the sunlight, and walking across the room straightened the magazine pile and ran her hand over the throw on the sofa pulling it straight, yeah, now everything was right.

It had taken her hours to clean the place up. The burglars seem to have emptied just about every draw and cupboard and anything that couldn’t withstand the throw to the floor had been broken. So many of her CD’s and DVD’s had just fallen out of their cases but were still intact, however the TV was history. For whatever reason they had seen fit to actually break the screen, but that and the door were really the only casualties. Her mountain bike was gone as were the few pieces of jewellery and the small amount of cash she had left on the table but really and truly all they had done was make a mess. She had been lucky most of her stuff was still there and not broken, even her medication hadn’t been taken. Well it wasn’t like she had anything of interest but still people did strange things and if they didn’t know any better they may have thought they were worth taking. She’d made a list of everything that was missing and was surprised at how little there was on it. She’d have to deliver that to the station later but for now she needed to run.

She closed the door behind her and gave the door push. Yes it was locked.

“Morning”

She jumped bashing her hands into the door. Jeeze, who was that? She turned around to see a woman at the door opposite. “Oh morning.” She started down the stairs.

“How’s the tidying going? Did they take much?”

Kate looked up again. The woman looked uneasy. “Not so much. What about you?”

They started down the stairs together and matching step for step she started talking. “Oh they trashed the place; just about everything was thrown everywhere. I just can’t believe that people would do that. It was like they just wanted to break stuff. I mean the TV is gone and the stereo and laptop but they broke our plates. Just threw them on the floor and our clothes... I mean sure break in and take things of value but why just break stuff? I still can’t believe that no one heard anything; they must have made so much noise. You know they just emptied our cupboards, just threw our things into the walls. The noise they must have made”

Kate stared at her, blimey she had gotten off lightly at least most of her things were still intact.

“Yeah Gary said the police hadn’t found anyone else at home. I guess it was because it was the middle of the afternoon but you’d think someone would have seen or heard something?”

Kate was not surprised, people rarely saw or heard anything in her experience especially when it came to other people. Oh sure they saw this bruise or that cut but didn’t or wouldn’t put two and two together. They’d hear this or that argument, things being thrown, but passed it off as a one off, even when it was happening every week, but they would never actually say anything and when asked would shrug and say it was none of their business. Yeah people generally just looked out for themselves, well the ones she knew anyway, that was just the way the world worked; bad things happened to good people and you just had to suck it up and get on with things. She looked up to see the woman watching her. She shrugged.

“The police are useless they’re never going to find out who did this.”

She shrugged. “No, probably not”

Keys in hand the woman stood still and looked across the road lined with parked cars.

“So see you around.” Kate didn’t wait for a reply and started jogging off down the road towards the park. One foot then the other the rhythm felt good but it was hard going and her late night wasn’t helping. She passed people walking, only a short run today she thought, and she entered the park, not time for anything else.

Kate sat staring at the computer screen her eyes unfocussed it was just a blur. She looked away from her corner of the office at her closest, they were either on the phone or typing or reading and here she was staring at her screen. Oh this was no good she was going to have to get some air. She turned to her neighbour who was staring intently at the papers spread across her desk. “Sally I’m sorry.” She pushed her chair away from the desk. “I need a break.”

Sally looked up and smiled. “Sure take as long as you need. Rough night?” She put head back down to what she’d been reading.

“Yeah something like that.” She stood up, her back really ached now, too much bending.

“Sorry to hear that. There’s no rush for that you know.” She looked up at Kate.

Yeah she knew, but it would be nice to get it done. It felt good when things were finished but there was no point doing a bad job of it, it needed to be accurate. She grabbed her coat from the peg by the door and headed outside onto the roof terrace. The breeze hit her face as she opened the door to the little garden. It felt good, enlivening just what she was in need of. She rubbed her eyes and stretched.

“Hey, got a light?”

“uuh no sorry.” She shrugged and sidestepped.

“Oh well, I need to quit.”

She smiled and nodded taking another step towards the far side.

“So what’s your excuse?”

“Huh?”

“Well for being out here...Smokers corner an’all.”

She looked around at the other people and they were all smoking. “Oh I just needed some fresh air...” She coughed. “Okay I needed some air; I was falling asleep in there.”

“Arr so late night then?”

She sighed. “Yeah, my place was burgled I was up late getting it straight.”

“Oh I’m sorry to hear that. Did they get much?”

She looked down and kicked the gravel at her feet. She really didn’t have that much and it was more that someone had been inside her flat and not only that but that had meant that the police had been there to. Yet more people. She shrugged. “Nah not so much. They messed it up pretty good but nothing was really gone.” She took a few more steps away from the man.

“That’s lucky.”

“Doesn’t feel lucky, I spent hours clearing up.”

“Oh sorry I didn’t mean...I just meant that you don’t have that much to replace. Someone breaking in that’s awful.”

“Yeah well it’s all done now and only a few things to replace, it just feels odd knowing that someone came in a looked at all my stuff.” She paused.

“Hey Kate...”

She turned towards the person calling her and saw Sally walking towards her waving a mobile. “Kate, your phones’ ringing.”

She started towards her.

“You do know that talking to yourself is the first sign of madness don’t you?”

She frowned and reached for the phone. No one ever rang her, well hardly ever. She didn’t recognise the number although it was local.

“I’ll see you back inside.”

She stared at the phone. “Yeah” She waved her away. Who was it?

“Hello, it’s constable Perry.”

“Right.” She blew hard. It wasn’t them but what was this about.

“Yeah well we’ve found some items that we think might be yours”

Oh, the guy from yesterday. Fairly tall, short sandy hair, charcoal eyes and fit like a martial arts fanatic. “Really?”

“Yes really, surprised us too, but it does look that way. If you’d like to pop by the station and have a look.”

“Oh okay, today?”

“Well the sooner you do the sooner you can have them back but when ever suits you just ask at the desk.”

Really, oh dear. “Right.”

There was a pause. “You don’t sound too keen. I’d have thought you’d want to get your stuff back.”

“Yeah well it doesn’t really feel like my stuff anymore. Some guys’ had his mits all over it and it’s not like it’s going to be in the same state as when it left my place is it?”

“No maybe not but if it is yours there’s more chance that we’ll find out who did it and the sooner you come and identify it the more chance we have.”

She knew he was right and yet it still felt like the intruder was with her. He was still poking his hands into her life and making her do things she didn’t want to. She was still suffering in a way that he wasn’t. She put the phone down and headed inside. Well she couldn’t do that until later she had work to do now.