For Your Own Protection(23)

‘Looks like they popped open the door with a crowbar,’ the older officer noted. ‘See these marks here,’ she said, pointing at two dark scuffs on the white doorframe. ‘They use the crowbar to push the door sideways in its frame, and if the full lock isn’t on and the door has a bit of give in it, then it just pops open. That’s why you should always double-lock these doors. See the extra hook locks here, top and bottom? If they’re engaged, then the door will hold firm.’

‘I usually do that,’ Rachel replied, cursing herself silently for not doing so this time. What were the chances that the one time she didn’t engage the full locking mechanism, she’d be targeted by burglars?

‘It happens a lot,’ the officer said, noting Rachel’s displeasure with herself. ‘One of those things, unfortunately.’

But was it just one of those things? Rachel wasn’t so sure. She thought back to Michael’s coded warning. And the creepy man in the bookshop.

Could it all be connected?

They entered the living room.

Rachel realised there was nowhere to sit, as the sofa and chairs were covered with debris. ‘I’ll just clear this,’ she said, snatching up as much as she could hold and dumping it on the corner table after righting it.

‘It’s okay, Rachel, really,’ the second officer said. ‘We can stand.’

‘No, no, sit down.’

There was now space for them, and they took their seats, surrounded by the wreckage of Rachel’s home.

‘Have you noticed if anything is missing?’ the older officer asked, her eyes sweeping all four corners of the room.

‘I haven’t,’ Rachel replied. ‘Not yet, anyway.’

‘Of course,’ the officer said. ‘I realise you haven’t had much time. But there’s nothing obviously missing then? Car keys, car, purse, cash, electronic equipment?’

‘I’m not sure. I haven’t been around the house yet. But my iPad is over there, with the TV, they haven’t been taken.’

‘Is it okay if we have a look around?’ the same officer said, already making to stand as Rachel began to nod. ‘Please, you can wait here. We’ll only be a minute.’

Rachel waited in the armchair as the two policewomen stalked around the flat. She heard them muttering from the bedroom next door, but couldn’t make out what they were saying.

They re-entered the living room and settled back down on to the sofa.

‘They really turned the place upside down,’ the younger of the two officers noted, her only words since she’d first introduced herself. She looked to be in her early twenties, probably close to Rachel’s age, with mousy brown hair with blonde highlights, and very blue eyes.

Rachel picked up on her surprised tone. ‘Is that unusual?’

‘It’s a little bit unusual.’

‘In what way?’

‘Well, house burglaries fall into several main types. There’s the opportunistic break-in, where an offender might notice a front door open and do a smash and grab. Then there’s the variant, where the offender might know a potential weakness, such as with your door. Again, it’s usually a smash and grab, sometimes targeting car keys that are often left by the entrance. They exploit the weakness, grab the keys and car, and they’re gone. And then there’s those who are prepared to spend more time in the property. They’re still looking to be inside for as little time as possible, but it could be some minutes as they move about, taking as much of value as they can.’

She let the silence settle.

‘But this doesn’t fit any of those,’ Rachel said, filling the void.

‘No, it doesn’t.’

‘So what type of break-in is this?’

With a glance between them, the older officer picked up the conversation. ‘Rachel, when we see such destruction, in our experience there is often just one explanation: the perpetrators were looking for something.’

‘Looking for something?’

‘Do you have any idea what someone may have been looking for? Do you have anything of special value in the flat? I don’t mean just financially. Do you have anything here that someone else might want to get their hands on?’

Rachel trawled her mind for an answer. It seemed ridiculous to think that someone had targeted the flat for something in particular. ‘I can’t think of anything.’

‘What do you do, Rachel, for your work? Anything dealing with sensitive information?’

‘I work for VisiON, the marketing company. We work on quite commercially sensitive projects, of course, but I don’t think someone would go that far. I’ve never heard of it happening to anyone before.’

‘Do you work on the projects at home? Store things on your home computer, for example?’

‘Sometimes. But we’re limited to what we can work on outside the office. If it’s something deemed highly sensitive, like when we were involved in the run-up to the London Olympics, then we can only work at work, if you know what I mean.’

‘What about your partner? We saw the photo in the bedroom,’ the officer explained, registering but unable to read Rachel’s expression.

‘Alex. He died two weeks ago.’

‘Oh, we’re so sorry.’ She looked down at her notebook. ‘May I ask how he died?’