Should Have Looked Away by Philip Cox Page A

sentimental. Chrissy had a necklace which had been her grandmother’s, and Will had a watch left to him by his father.
    He finished clearing up and went downstairs. Louise was asleep on the couch. Chrissy was in the kitchen, cooking.
    ‘French toast?’ she asked.
    Will nodded and slumped onto a stool. He yawned.
    ‘How was upstairs?’ she asked.
    ‘All the jewellery and watches gone.’
    She paused from mixing the eggs. ‘Shit. Damn them.’
    ‘Quite. But it could have been a lot worse.’
    ‘I know.’
    ‘Look, I’ll take her up to bed, then I’ll fix that door. Something temporary, just for the night. I’ll get someone in tomorrow.’
    After they had eaten, Chrissy said she wanted a bath. While she was upstairs, Will fixed the door, and wandered around the yard. The fences looked secure, but maybe not high enough. The bastards must have stood on something the other side and climbed over. Done the same on the way out: Will had a small bicycle shed next to one of the fences: that would need moving.
    He was right about one thing, though: it could have been a lot worse. For one thing, Chrissy and Louise or Jake on his own could have interrupted them; or a lot more than some jewellery and money could have been taken.  And God knows what could have gone on in Louise’s room.
    Just lousy timing.
    But as Will went indoors he had a niggling feeling that, despite what the police said, the events of the last two days might not be unconnected.

TEN
    As Will sat on the subway to work the next morning, he stared blankly out of the window. As the train paused at the five stops on his journey, some commuters on the platforms met his gaze, but he stared right past them, his eyes focussed on the far end of the station walls.
    What the hell was going on, he asked himself. It had been years since he last had any contact with the police: seven or eight years back, he was approaching a pedestrian crossing on some back street. A woman started to cross, and rather than come to a complete stop, he slowed down to around 5mph for the last few yards before the crossing, to avoid the need to come to a complete stop. Once the woman had gotten to the other side, he picked up speed again. He had no sooner passed the crossing when he heard the whoop of a police siren, and a cop on a motorcycle flagged him down. The cop told him he should have come to a complete stop, and he was lucky he was being let off with a warning on this occasion.
    And now, two days running, he could not have gotten more involved with them without being arrested himself. Being questioned, giving written statements, and now being the victim of a crime. His mother used to continually quote an adage which said that things come in threes: what could happen today?
    He roused himself from his daydreaming as he reached 42 nd Street. Walking the last three blocks, he tried to make sense of what had been going on. By the time he had arrived at the office, he had still not done so.
    He was the first to arrive that morning, so let himself in, made himself a cup of coffee and went into his office. On his desk, May had left a note, giving details of a client who had called after he left yesterday. He glanced at what she had written, then dropped it back onto his desk. That could wait.
    Will stood by the window, and looked down at the street below, full of traffic slowly heading for Tenth Avenue, and people, milling around like ants, rushing to and fro, trying to get to work, or home, or the shops. How could Sunday and Monday be connected, he thought. Sunday he was a witness, the attackers never saw him as he was hiding in the stall…
    Or did they?
    ‘What am I going to do?’ he whispered to himself, rubbing a hand over his chin. They didn’t see him in the men’s room, but they could have been watching somewhere at the mall, seeing him go outside, see him call the police, see him talk to the police.
    See him talk to Chrissy and Louise…
    What if they saw them leave, and