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“Who’s that?” Tessa wondered when the doorbell went. Eric said nothing. He was deep into his paper checking the racing results. Tessa went out of their small living room and towards the front door, where Eric could hear her talking to someone. There was the sound of the door being closed, the safety chain being taken off and the door opening again. “Eric,” she said a moment later as she came back in the living room, “it’s the police. There’s been another burglary. They want to know if we’ve seen anything.”
Eric folded his paper and stood up. “Come in, officer, please. Who is it this time?”
“The Bartlett’s at number 42,” said the policeman in front of them.
“Oh no,” said Eric. “Such a nice couple as well. I hope they didn’t lose much. When did it happen?”
“They went away on Monday for the holiday period, and when they came back, they found that someone had broken in and they’d been burgled. We’re doing a door to door, asking if anyone’s seen anything out of the ordinary between Monday 23rd and today.”
“Oh, not that I can think of. Can you Tessa?”
“Well, no. I popped round to Mrs. Duncan’s on the 24th for a couple of hours. She lives on her own, you know, and I’d been baking mince pies, so I took a few round to her. She appreciates a bit of company every so often.”
“Don’t forget you went to help with Christmas dinner down at the homeless shelter.”
“Oh yes. But no. No, that’s not right. That was on the Saturday, on the 21st, before the Bartlett’s went away. I know, because Mrs Bartlett brought some old clothes over in the morning for me to take in.”
“And this homeless shelter Mrs Dawkins. Where is it exactly?”
“In the town centre. The one on Central Way.”
“And you don’t discuss your neighbours holiday plans with anyone there?”
“Well no. Why would I? Even if I did, they wouldn’t know who my neighbours are. Mrs Bartlett does give me stuff for them, from time to time, but she doesn’t actually come to help out. They don’t even know where I live. They only have my mobile number and email address to contact me by. So no, it’s no-one at the shelter, either staff or the homeless.”
“And no-one followed you home?”
“Well, no. I use the bus, and believe me, the people in that place are only interested in their dinner.”
“What about the other helpers? Did you travel back with any of them?”
“No. I’m the only one lives out this way. I’ve sometimes caught the bus with Simon, but he gets off way before me, so he doesn’t know my address at all. And on the 21st, he stayed later to help finish clearing up.”
The policeman made some notes before turning his attention to Eric. “What about you, sir. Have you seen anything that you can think of?”
“Not off hand. I do go out a lot. Walk the dog at least twice a day, go to the pub, the shops, that sort of thing. I can’t think of anything that I saw out of the ordinary though. The only people I saw were people I recognised as being from round here, other dog walkers and the like. As far as I recall, that is.”
“Can you remember who these dog walkers were?”
“Well, no, not exactly who, when and where. That blond woman with the bichon frise…”
“Melanie Wilkes, number 37,” put in Tessa.
“Yes her, well she’s usually out in the mornings when I go out, and I sometimes see her in the evenings. I probably saw her.”
“I think she was burgled six months ago”
“Yes, she was, wasn’t she? On holiday in the Algarve at the time. I remember now. Then there’s Tom, the guy with the three pugs.”
“He lives on West Lane, doesn’t he?”
“Could do, somewhere round there at any rate. Well I usually see him. If not him, then it’s his wife walking the dogs, except she can’t keep control of them like he does. And then there’s the young couple with the setter.”
The police officer made some notes before interrupting. “But you didn’t see anything unusual? Anyone who you wouldn’t normally see around here?”
“No, no-one I haven’t seen a dozen times before.”
“It’s very quiet round here you know,” put in Tessa.
“Except for these break ins. That’s the tenth we’ve had over the past year, and the third in the run up to Christmas. Always when the homeowner is away.”
“I know,” said Eileen, “it’s quite disconcerting. Makes you feel unsafe. That’s why we have chains and bolts on the doors.”
“Hmm, I noticed. But you’ve never been burgled yourselves?”
“Well, no,” said Eric. “But then we don’t go away.”
“Any particular reason?”
“Well there Benji for a start,” said Tessa.
“Benji?”
“The dog. He wouldn’t cope with kennels.”
“And then there’s my blood pressure,” added Eric. “Makes travel insurance so expensive.”
“Besides,” added Tessa, “we’ve done lots of travelling in the past. Don’t need to do it now, at our time of life.”
“What about family? Do you have any family at all? Might they have seen anything?”
“We’ve got a son, Malcolm, but he lives in Australia with his family.”
“And you don’t go to visit him at all?”
“Oh, we have in the past,” said Eric. “But as I explained, travel insurance is too expensive for me to travel that far again.”
“Besides,” added Tessa, “last time we went out, he kept being called out to work, so we didn’t see much of him at all. So now we skype most weeks, and he and his family try to get over here every other year. They’re coming next summer hopefully. Then we’ll get to spend proper time with him.”
“Anything else you can think of,” the young officer asked.
“I did see a program once where it was one of the bin men”, said Tessa. “A bin man worked out the house must be empty because the bin hadn’t been used for two weeks.”
“Yes,” replied the officer, “but they were only away for a few days, and a neighbour says they put out the bin for them and brought it back in.”
“Just a thought.”
The police officer finished writing his notes, before turning to the couple. “Right, I’ll be off. I don’t think there’s anything else I need to ask you, though if you do remember anything, let me know.”
“Will do officer.”
They showed the young policeman out and watched as he went next door.
“Good job Roger Heart’s retired”, said Eric after a while. “He’d have recognized me straight away.”
“Mmm. All the stuff stashed at the allotment then?”
“Yes. Quite a good haul really. Some nice pieces there.”
“Serves her right for being such a flashy cow.”
“Yes, well we’ll have to keep it hidden until the fuss dies down. I’ll take it over to Frankie in the new year. It’ll get less than on eBay, but some pieces are quite distinctive, so let him take the risk. We should still make a tidy sum. Then we can send the money to Malcolm to fund his next visit.”
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