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Back I Know What I Saw
Chapters (59)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise for I Know What I Saw
  3. By the Same Author
  4. Dedication Page
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  54. Now read on for a preview
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  59. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I turn the plastic in my hands. An hour passes. With each spent minute I know he is closer to returning home. And now the light has finally dropped, I am here, up against the door to 42B. Those large stone steps up to my left shield me a little from view, but there is nobody around anyway.

I press the edge of the Lloyd between the door and the frame where the Yale is. My heart is beating faster than I want it to, so I have to take a break to give it time to settle. But my headache has returned and I’m beginning to think of it as an alarm or a warning. What I am doing here? Breaking into this house seems like the worst thing that I can do. I don’t know what I am hoping to achieve except I know there is something going on. Either that footage was showing the wrong house or something behind this door is a fraud.

My breathing settles somewhat and I grip the plastic hard and shove it into the gap. It bends, too early. I withdraw it, straighten it and put it through again from a different angle where the plastic seems more rigid. Then the edge hits something solid and what must be the edge of the latch.

Suddenly the sound of a siren in the distance sends my heart into my throat. I know that it’s not near enough to be a threat but I have pulled the plastic out again. I pause, attuned and ready for the slightest sound now my back is against the street.

Silence again. I put the Lloyd key, this plastic scrap, back into the gap and push hard. Then through the wood I sense that the plastic has caught the smooth curve of the lock. And then it hits me, and I freeze: the beep when he left. That sound – the long beep. There’s an alarm. I can’t break in. But, more than that, the alarm is new. It wasn’t there before. He’s just installed this. To hide something? What else could be the reason for the sudden need for security? And then there’s my story – he knows having an alarm will interfere with my account. I won’t be able to explain how I got inside if there had been an alarm to get past.

21

Sunday

Money. With enough money you can do anything.