though they’ve seen a dozen burglaries since breakfast.
Joe follows them upstairs, listening to the squeaking of their leather belts that dangle with police paraphernalia. One of them takes notes and the other has a digital camera.
“Has anything been taken, sir?” asks Collie.
“I don’t know.”
“Cash?”
“I don’t keep money on the premises.”
“Maybe they were looking for drugs.”
“I’m not a doctor.”
“Kids are so dumb they don’t know the difference.”
“You think it was kids?”
Denholm has black button-shaped eyes like a sparrow. “We see a lot of burglaries like this, sir. Kids get excited. They trash the place for no reason. They shit. They’re like dogs, leaving their mark.”
“I don’t think it was kids,” says Joe.
The constable seems surprised to be contradicted. “You have a different theory?”
“Whoever did this came up the fire escape and through the window.”
“What about the office door?” asks Denholm.
“It was broken afterwards. Half the glass is lying outside, which means the door was partially open.”
Joe takes them to the office window, sliding it upwards. Stepping onto the narrow fire escape, he crouches and points to the edge of the window where the paint has been broken.
“Someone used a jimmy or a crowbar. You can see how the top latch has been bent and reattached. You might pull fingerprints from the fire escape but he probably wore gloves.”
“Gloves?”
“Yes. I think the burglar wants us to assume it was kids because he was looking for something specific. He only trashed my office once he’d found it.”
“But you said nothing was missing,” says PC Denholm.
Joe points to the spilled files. “These were taken out and searched at the desk. They were only scattered after he’d finished, which is why they’ve fallen like cards from a dealer’s shoe. The flooded bathroom and feces were afterthoughts, attempts to misdirect. You might get DNA from the feces, although it’s difficult to single out individual DNA because of the bacteria. More likely it’s not human. He picked it up in a park.”
The constables look at each other. Neither of them wants to collect a sample.
“What was he looking for?” asks Denholm.
“I don’t know. I’ll have to go through the files.”
“Did you have them backed up?”
“Of course.”
PC Collie is being summoned on his shoulder radio. He turns his head into the microphone. They’re wanted on a more urgent job. The constables make appropriate noises about catching the perpetrator, but Joe knows that’s unlikely. There is a protocol with crimes like this one. They’re only investigated if deemed solvable using “proportionate resources.” That means there must be clear evidence pointing to a suspect, such as fingerprints or CCTV footage, which makes an arrest likely. Without these factors, this robbery will be written up, filed, and forgotten.
After they’ve gone, Joe clears a space on his desk and starts sorting through the files. Someone broke into his office and tried to cover their tracks. He won’t know what they were searching for until he knows what’s missing.
7
M arnie measures time differently now. There is the period before Daniel and the period after . She has drawn up a list of resolutions since yesterday. Number one: change the answering machine message. This might not seem like an especially important resolution, but she’s been listening to that outgoing message for more than a year just to hear Daniel’s voice. Nursing the machine on her lap, she presses the button again.
Hello, you’ve reached Daniel and Marnie. We can’t come to the phone just now, but leave a message after the tone.
Raising her finger she hits delete and follows the instructions to record a new message:
Hi, this is Marnie. Leave a message at the beep.
Short. Unoriginal. Functional.
She sets the machine to ring eight times before it answers. That way she can screen out the prank
Joe follows them upstairs, listening to the squeaking of their leather belts that dangle with police paraphernalia. One of them takes notes and the other has a digital camera.
“Has anything been taken, sir?” asks Collie.
“I don’t know.”
“Cash?”
“I don’t keep money on the premises.”
“Maybe they were looking for drugs.”
“I’m not a doctor.”
“Kids are so dumb they don’t know the difference.”
“You think it was kids?”
Denholm has black button-shaped eyes like a sparrow. “We see a lot of burglaries like this, sir. Kids get excited. They trash the place for no reason. They shit. They’re like dogs, leaving their mark.”
“I don’t think it was kids,” says Joe.
The constable seems surprised to be contradicted. “You have a different theory?”
“Whoever did this came up the fire escape and through the window.”
“What about the office door?” asks Denholm.
“It was broken afterwards. Half the glass is lying outside, which means the door was partially open.”
Joe takes them to the office window, sliding it upwards. Stepping onto the narrow fire escape, he crouches and points to the edge of the window where the paint has been broken.
“Someone used a jimmy or a crowbar. You can see how the top latch has been bent and reattached. You might pull fingerprints from the fire escape but he probably wore gloves.”
“Gloves?”
“Yes. I think the burglar wants us to assume it was kids because he was looking for something specific. He only trashed my office once he’d found it.”
“But you said nothing was missing,” says PC Denholm.
Joe points to the spilled files. “These were taken out and searched at the desk. They were only scattered after he’d finished, which is why they’ve fallen like cards from a dealer’s shoe. The flooded bathroom and feces were afterthoughts, attempts to misdirect. You might get DNA from the feces, although it’s difficult to single out individual DNA because of the bacteria. More likely it’s not human. He picked it up in a park.”
The constables look at each other. Neither of them wants to collect a sample.
“What was he looking for?” asks Denholm.
“I don’t know. I’ll have to go through the files.”
“Did you have them backed up?”
“Of course.”
PC Collie is being summoned on his shoulder radio. He turns his head into the microphone. They’re wanted on a more urgent job. The constables make appropriate noises about catching the perpetrator, but Joe knows that’s unlikely. There is a protocol with crimes like this one. They’re only investigated if deemed solvable using “proportionate resources.” That means there must be clear evidence pointing to a suspect, such as fingerprints or CCTV footage, which makes an arrest likely. Without these factors, this robbery will be written up, filed, and forgotten.
After they’ve gone, Joe clears a space on his desk and starts sorting through the files. Someone broke into his office and tried to cover their tracks. He won’t know what they were searching for until he knows what’s missing.
7
M arnie measures time differently now. There is the period before Daniel and the period after . She has drawn up a list of resolutions since yesterday. Number one: change the answering machine message. This might not seem like an especially important resolution, but she’s been listening to that outgoing message for more than a year just to hear Daniel’s voice. Nursing the machine on her lap, she presses the button again.
Hello, you’ve reached Daniel and Marnie. We can’t come to the phone just now, but leave a message after the tone.
Raising her finger she hits delete and follows the instructions to record a new message:
Hi, this is Marnie. Leave a message at the beep.
Short. Unoriginal. Functional.
She sets the machine to ring eight times before it answers. That way she can screen out the prank
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