Oh.
My.
God!
I hurried back to bed, adding more bruises along the way, and I dived beneath the duvet.
But not for long.
What on earth was wrong with me?
I was a police officer.
I saw a flicker of light from outside through a crack in between the curtains where I’d peered out earlier. I jumped out of bed again and made my way back to the window. I was just in time to see what looked like someone carrying a ladder, but it was difficult to tell in the blackness of the night. Whoever it was did have a torch though and it was angled towards the ground, lighting the way to wherever they were going.
Oh thank heavens. Someone had come out to deal with the power cut. The street lamps at least should be back on soon.
Except the person carrying the ladder, who seemed to blend into the darkness, so must be wearing all black, or dark clothes, wasn’t near the street lamps. He was heading in the direction of End Cottage. Marcus and Adele’s home.
There was only one thing that made sense. Someone knew they’d gone away. And possibly, also knew that the cottage next door was empty tonight. I knew what criminals were like. I’d arrested enough burglars in my time.
And clearly, I was about to arrest another.
I threw on my dressing gown and crept downstairs, feeling my way as I went, using the banister and the wall. I gingerly made my way into the dining room where I’d left my phone, and I ran my hands over the table.
Nothing.
I tried again. I even knelt on the floor and felt around the chair on which I’d sat.
Still nothing.
Had I dropped it somewhere?
I closed my eyes for a second and tried to think.
I had it on the table beside me. I saw it there as Lucy got up to … oh no. Lucy had taken my phone. Why had we been foolish enough to buy identical phones? She must have assumed it was hers, even though hers was probably in her handbag all evening, and picked mine up when she left.
Now I really was alone, with no way to contact anyone.
I heard the rattling noise again and realised it was the ladder. Probably being placed against the wall of End Cottage.
Without another thought, I hurried as fast as I could in the darkness, and made my way into the hall. I found my sandals by stretching out my toes, and slipped my feet into them. Then I threw open the front door and charged outside. It didn’t seem quite as dark out here as it had inside, although I stumbled once or twice.
But the beam of the torch the burglar was holding, as he began to climb the ladder, helped me find my way. Wet grass stuck to my feet and sandals and I realised it must have been raining. I ran into the front garden of End Cottage, surprised the burglar hadn’t turn to look at me. I wasn’t exactly being quiet.
‘Hey you!’ I called out.
The man completely ignored me.
‘Hey!’
He still ignored me.
Was he deaf?
I reached out and banged my hand on one side of the ladder, and then tapped him on the leg, as that was the only part of him I could reach at that moment because he was a few rungs up.
I’m not entirely sure what happened next. The ladder wobbled, as did the burglar, and he sort of twisted on the rung, and caught his other foot on his calf, and then as if it was happening in slow motion, I leant back, taking the ladder with me and the man on it. I tumbled to one side, having let the ladder go but the man continued falling backwards, towards me.
