“Someone broke into Jack’s apartment,” I blurted before she had a chance to say more than hello, and as I relayed what I’d seen upstairs, she told me to make sure I was safe, and they’d be right over. A car arrived within a few minutes, lights flashing, sirens blaring, and Heron ordered me in no uncertain terms to stay outside while she, Stevens and the team secured the area. I stayed on the sidelines, watching the officers from a distance, shivering. It didn’t take long for them to confirm there was nobody in the apartment. Whoever had broken in was gone.

“Could you follow me, please?” Stevens said, approaching me after what felt like hours. “It would be helpful to know if anything’s missing.”

I nodded and silently followed him back up the stairs, my throat running dry, my pulse beating in my neck from the mere thought a stranger had been here not long ago. Jack’s possessions were still in total disarray, and as my fear changed to anger, I had to work hard to keep it in check as we moved from room to room and I took in the carnage. I knew the cash from the cookie tin hadn’t been stolen because I’d taken it home with me, and from what I could tell, Jack’s clothes were all accounted for, and there wasn’t anything missing from his bedroom or the kitchen. The bathroom never had much in it anyway, and the small TV he’d bought secondhand had been left untouched on the cabinet in the living room.

I looked around, almost as if it were the first time I’d visited, a tingling sensation settling somewhere in the middle of my spine. If I’d noticed it before, I hadn’t paid much attention, or perhaps brushed the thought off as inconsequential, but Jack didn’t have many personal things. No devices other than his pay-as-you-go phone, and apart from a few magazines and books, and the photograph of us we’d snapped one day at the beach, and which I’d framed, there wasn’t much else in the living room, or the others. For someone who’d lived in an apartment for close to two years, the decor was decidedly sparse.

“I don’t think anything’s missing,” I said quietly.

“When were you last here?” Stevens said, making notes as I answered. “Do you have any idea who might have broken in?”