Vivien K. Wilk

A loud crack woke Grace from her sleep. Confused at first, her hands panicked for a light source. It was a moment before she realized she had fallen asleep watching TV again. Her cell phone was by her side. She almost tossed it off the couch in her search. Feeling her heart beating in her chest, it took a few tries before she turned on the flashlight. Immediately she let the cone of light wander over the area. Was she just dreaming? Everything seemed to be the same as when she lay down on the couch. And it was completely silent around them. Grace rubbed her upper arm with her hand. The cold made the fine hair stand up on her skin. She was still listening into the night.

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TAP ..... TAP ..... TAP ...... TAP ........

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Were those steps?

 

TAP ..... TAP ..... TAP ...... TAP ........

 

An icy shiver ran down her spine. This time she was sure that she heard something. Alone in the dark, only with the light of the cell phone. Did the noises really come from below? Was the one on the way up. Something moved in the corner of her eye. Grace spun around. Illuminated the corner. But there was nothing. The shadows played their tricks. While the steps below sounded again. It took her everything to get her legs off the couch. Shivering, she managed to move towards the living room door. Her hand clasped around the cell phone. With bated breath, she continued to listen to the footsteps. To take a different path, if she even suspected that they were coming in her direction. She made it to the door and dared to look out. The hallway was empty. She couldn’t see the area below. But now she was absolutely sure that she wasn’t imagining the steps. She could still hear them. A crash echoed through the house. Grace pressed her hand to her mouth to keep her from screaming at the last moment. Whoever was down there sounded like they were taking the place apart. Grace’s hand shook when she picked up her cell phone and tried to call the police.

Shit ... what’s the Irish number?

For a second, she debated asking Google. But she couldn’t get a word out, and her fingers were trembling too much. It would take her hours to enter the question. She quickly opened the phone function and dialed the number she had used the most here. It rang. It seemed like an eternity. She didn’t want to think at all about what would happen if he didn’t answer. When the dial tone sounded and she heard shortly afterwards a grumpy voice, Grace was about to burst into tears.

“Mr. Steel ... someone is in the house.”

Her voice was just a whimper.

“Grace?”

She could hear the fabric of his bedclothes rustling as he probably got up.

“What are you talking about?”

“Somebody’s in the house,” repeated Grace, hoping her voice had become firmer, “I hear footsteps downstairs and they throw things around.”

“Where are you?”

“Upstairs ... I can see the stairs.”

“Stay where you are, unless someone comes up. Then lock yourself in a room. I’ll call the police right away.”

“Hurry,” Grace replied before hanging up.

She listened tensely downstairs. Most of the sounds were silent, but she could hear footsteps now and then. Did they get closer? Grace felt her whole body shiver with tension. She had turned off the light that you couldn’t see from below that someone was upstairs. The minutes seemed to drag on. She heard a few more steps. And then it was quiet. Grace noticed the cold slowly creeping into her limbs. She clenched her jaw to keep her teeth from rattling. Suddenly there was a loud knock from below, then she heard the shop door open. Shortly afterwards someone turned on the light below.

“Grace!”

Relief rolled over her like a wave and she got to her feet. She actually wanted to go downstairs, but Mr. Steel came towards her when she stood at the edge of the stairs. He immediately rushed to her and putting his hands on her upper arms.

“Is everything okay?”

Grace managed nothing more than a nod. She was still shaking all over, and she didn’t protest when Mr. Steel hugged her. It felt good to lean against him. Warmth flooded her body and tears came with it. They probably stood there for a few minutes while Grace cried into his coat.

“Björn?”

A female voice from below made Grace flinch and collected herself again. She hurriedly wiped away the tears while Mr. Steel smiled at her and then looked down.

“Did you find something, Ava?”

“No intruder. But someone was down here. You should check this out.”

“We are on our way.”

Mr. Steel turned to her again. He raised his hand and offered it to assist her. Still feeling very unsteady on her feet, Grace reached out and let him help her down the stairs.

The salesroom was a battlefield. Overturned books, shifted shelves and decorations that had been spread on the floor. It looked less bad in the cafe, but someone had spread the entire contents of a sugar bag on the floor. Grace’s heart paused for a moment as she let her gaze wander over the chaos. Until now, it had just been unreal that someone had been in the store with her. But as much as she wanted to, she could no longer push the truth away. Her legs gave way, and she sank onto the last steps of the stairs, hand over her mouth. She could see Mr. Steel’s worried look as he bent down to her, but she just shook her head.

“Are you sure no one is here anymore?”

His voice sounded angry.

“I searched all the rooms and checked the door. Everything locked and empty,” replied a woman.

Somehow Grace hadn’t really noticed her in all the chaos. She was wearing a police uniform. Ava was a tall, dark-skinned woman who had her black hair pulled back strictly to fit under the police hat. Her brown eyes studied the scene thoughtfully, as if she were already thinking about different scenarios. Her radio cracked, and she gave a quick confirmation that she didn’t need any help. Then she turned to Grace.

“Good evening Miss Lindman. I know it’s a terrifying situation, but I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you a few questions.”

Grace only nodded in response, but apparently that was enough for the police woman.

“Could you see anything of the intruders?”

“No ... I ...”, she took a deep breath, “I only heard them from above.”

“And then you called Mr. Steel.”

“I didn’t know the number of the police.”

Grace looked away, embarrassed, but Ava only gave a friendly smile.

“I can understand that. Since the doors were all locked, I have to ask you who else has keys to the shop besides you.”

“My aunt’s two employees ... Sidney Miller and ... Kyle ...”

Grace searched her memories, but she couldn’t remember if she’d ever heard Kyle use his last name.

“She means Kyle Hunt”, Mr. Steel helped at that moment, “And I still have a key. For emergencies.”

Ava nodded as she took notes.

“If either of them had reason to devastate the place like that.”

Grace bit her lower lip. She didn’t want to say it because she could understand Kyle, but he’d been so angry she wasn’t sure he couldn’t have done something like that.

“Miss Lindman? It would be very important to know if you have any suspicions.”

“Kyle was furious. Because I’m going to sell the place. He stormed out.”

She felt bad about her words. But at the same time she noticed Ava and Mr. Steel throwing questioning looks. Was there anything she didn’t know about?

“Did anyone overhear this argument?”

“Sidney and ... what was his name ... I do not know. The others called him Mel. I think Mr. Hagreth was gone when we had the argument.”

“Mel ...”, Ava let out a deep, annoyed sigh, “It’s probably Mel Cox.”

“Just because he was here doesn’t mean he was up to something,” said Mr. Steel.

It was obvious that he was trying to calm Ava down. But she only snorted.

“I beg you, when does he not have his hands on some shady things. Excuse me, Miss Lindman, but Mel Cox has a pretty long criminal record with us. Especially for theft.”

“If somebody wanted to steal money, then they would hardly have been lucky”, Grace replied. “The money always goes into the safe in the evening.”

“I’ll talk to him and Kyle Hunt. I’ll take a few more photos of the crime scene and of the garden, if there are any traces. But I’m afraid I can’t do more than that, Miss Lindman. With whom could you stay? Or who can keep you company? “

Grace was about to shake her head when Mr. Steel cleared his throat.

“I can stay. As long as it doesn’t bother you, Grace?”

For the second time it was Mr. Steel who saved her, and Grace nodded hastily. One thing she knew with absolute certainty was that she didn’t want to sleep alone in this house. She hastily wiped new tears from her eyes.

“All right. Then try to get some sleep. If you have something, take something to calm you down. After something like this, it is normal that the body does not come to rest. But sleep will do you good with processing the events. “

Ava put away her notebook and then smiled encouragingly at her.

“We’ll find whoever did this. I wish you a quiet rest of the night.”

With that, she handed Grace a business card before Mr. Steel escorted the policewoman out. He locked behind her, then returned to Grace.

“How about I make us some herbal tea? I remember Evellyn drinking one after stressful days.”

“Sounds good,” Grace replied.