Should Have Looked Away by Philip Cox

Another call, but the crime scene officers will remain here until they’re done.’
    ‘No problem,’ said Chrissy. ‘Thanks for all your help.’
    ‘You take care now. And remember to secure your door and back yard. And get an intruder alarm.’
    ‘We will,’ Chrissy said, walking the officer to the door.
    ‘This is all we need,’ Will said as she returned.
    She ran her hands through her hair again. ‘Yeah.’
    ‘And the hits keep rolling in,’ Will added. ‘Godammit!’
    *****
    The forensic team finished about seven-thirty, the last tasks they performed being the taking of Will’s and Chrissy’s fingerprints and DNA sample. Will pointed out that their Midtown North colleagues had already taken a DNA sample, but the CSI explained that it would make any investigation speedier if he could take a sample too. Not entirely convinced, Will complied. The CSI said there was no need to bring Jake and Louise home that evening to take their samples; either Will or Chrissy could take them to the station house over the next few days.
    Once the police had left, Chrissy said she would walk round to Mary’s house and pick up Louise. Will said he would start to clear up downstairs and start a list of what was missing. He had been doing this for about ten minutes when Jake arrived.
    ‘Hey,’ Jake said, looking around the mess. ‘You and Mom had a party or something?’
    Will sat up. ‘No, we’ve had a break in.’
    ‘My stuff!’ Jake yelled and rushed upstairs.
    ‘Don’t worry,’ Will called upstairs. ‘They didn’t touch your room.’
    Will carried on clearing up; Jake came back downstairs a couple of minutes later.
    ‘They didn’t touch my stuff.’
    ‘That’s what I said. Nor Louise’s.’
    ‘Yours and Mom’s room’s in a mess, though.’
    ‘I know.’
    ‘What did they take?’
    ‘Can’t tell yet, apart from fifty bucks Mom left in the kitchen.’
    Jake paused, watching his father clean up. ‘I’m going upstairs to watch TV.’
    Will looked up. ‘Don’t put anything about this online, will you? Not yet, anyway.’
    Jake nodded. ‘Okay.’
    ‘I mean it.’
    ‘Relax. I said I wouldn’t.’
    ‘Thanks,’ Will said. ‘You eaten?’
    ‘Had something at Clyde’s,’ Jake replied, running back upstairs.
    It did not take Will long to clean up downstairs: most of the mess was superficial – just a matter of putting books back on shelves and papers back in drawers. Then he went upstairs. He put his head round Jake’s bedroom door: his son was playing a computer game.
    Jake looked up. ‘Don’t worry, Dad: I’m not uploading crime scene photos onto Facebook or anything.’
    Will nodded. ‘Good,’ he muttered and went into their bedroom.
    As with downstairs, the mess probably looked worse than it was. Much like Jake’s room at the best of times.
    He was halfway though clearing up when he heard Chrissy and Louise return. He went downstairs to meet them.
    ‘Hello, Loulou,’ he said as his daughter ran up to cuddle him. ‘How is she?’ he asked Chrissy.
    ‘Fine. She doesn’t know anything’s happened.’
    Will nodded. ‘Good. Jake’s home, by the way. He’s in his room, playing on his consul.’
    ‘Has he eaten?’
    ‘He said he had something at Clyde’s.’
    ‘Mary gave her something to eat, but you haven’t eaten anything, have you?’
    Suddenly Will realised he was hungry. ‘No. No – I haven’t. I’ve done down here; I was just upstairs clearing up our room. I’ll just go finish off.’
    ‘I’ll fix us something momentarily. Is anything…?’
    ‘Not yet.’
    Back upstairs, Will continued clearing up. They kept very little in the way of valuables in the house: passports, and other documents were in a filing cabinet kept in a closet under the stairs: that had not been touched. Up here, there were just a couple of watches and some jewellery of Chrissy’s. He looked around the drawers and the floor. No jewellery, no watches. Bastards. Not much monetary value, just