I raced up the steps to the house and through to my bedroom. Robin was laid in my bed already half asleep. “Hi Mummy.”
I leant against the door frame, relief flowing over me. “Hi baby.”
“Is Bexley ok?”
“Yeah, just barking at nothing. Personally I think he just wanted some attention.” I said lying. Truth was I had no idea what he was barking at, even reasoning with my self that he had seen the shadows of the clothes in the wind didn’t help. And it didn’t answer how the door closed by it self. The floor under the kitchen is slightly un even and the door always catches, there was no way the wind could have done it. Maybe Bexley knocked the door shut?
I did a once over of the house before going back to bed, checking any possible hiding places. All the windows and doors were locked. Bexley obviously had a case of the heebie jeebies.
I let Bexley sleep in my room. Robin was already in my bed, so he may as well be in there with us too and personally I liked having him there.
“Get some sleep now.” I said to Robin as I lent over and placed a kiss on her forehead.
It didn’t feel like I had been asleep long when the phone rang on my bed side table. Blindly I reached out and grabbed it.
“Hello?”
“Vanessa?” said the voice on the end. “Vanessa its me.”
“Macey?” Macey was my best friend. She lived in the flat above my gallery. “Macey is everything ok?”
“Oh Vanessa I’m sorry.” She started crying. “I went out to that new club and when I came home…well.”
I heard her take a deep breath; I could hear that she was crying.
“Macey what is it?”
“It’s the gallery. Someone…someone has broken in.”
damn.
I crept out of bed not wanting to disturb Robin who was sprawled and snoring across the bed.
“Just a second.” I whispered into the phone.”
“Ok I’m here. Someone broke in? Is any thing taken?”
“No, but…”
“But?”
“Oh Vanessa I’m so sorry, I locked up, I set the alarm, I shouldn’t have gone out.”
“Macey stop it. I’ll be right there, you call the police.”
“I did, they are on their way.”
“Good, go to your flat till they get there.”
With that I hung up and rang my grandfather to ask if he could come and watch Robin.
The police were already at my gallery when I arrived. Three police cars in total. I could see Macy through the glass as I walked over the bridge to the front door. The water underneath gently lapped, normally it was calming, but after the night I had already had it was far from it.
Macey ran over to me and threw her arms around my neck as soon as she saw me.
“Vanessa, I am truly sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“No, the painting.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“The one of your grandfather? They destroyed it, cut his face out.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, who would break into a gallery and just wreck a painting.
“Not just that one though.” Tears were forming in her already red eyes. “They destroyed the one of you mother too and your grandmother.”
“Miss King?” a voice called out from behind us. I turned to see one of the officers; the others appeared to be just looking around. I had no idea what police did in this kind of thing, but they didn’t seem to be doing much.
“Yes. I’m Miss King. Vanessa.”
“I’m PC Thomas.” He said in a police sort of way, they seemed to have one voice. No matter what officer you spoke to their tone was always the same as if you had done something and they were looking right into you and reading more than what you were actually saying.
“We need you too look round and tell us if anything is missing, but please don’t touch anything. Miss Holden here has already said that nothing has been taken, but we need you to confirm that to us.”
I just nodded. I had no idea what to say. I didn’t even know what to think. It was like I was dreaming and I was going to wake up any moment. It was so much that they had destroyed my work, after all only copies were on view in my gallery. Especially the ones that meant more than just art to me, but it was the fact of who they had chosen to destroy.
I followed the officer to the upper level. There was an officer with his back to us taking notes, well I assume he was taking notes his clipboard was in his hand and his pen seemed to be going ten to the dozen.
“Kel?” said the officer that had accompanied me upstairs “I have Miss King.”
“Vanessa.” I corrected.
The officer smiled at me. “I have Vanessa the owner here for you.”
The other officer, Kel turned. My stomach nearly fell through the floor. Oh god.
“Hi Vanessa.”
“Hi Keller.”
I could not believe it was him. I knew he wanted to go into the police force, but I never imagined he was back in town. The last time I had seen Keller Graves was as I left uni, he was heading for the bright lights of London, or the better crime of the capital he used to say.
“Long time.” I said mater of factly.
“I’ll be downstairs Kel.” Said the other officer.
“Sure no probs. Josh.”
“So how have you been?” he asked as Josh vanished down the stairs.
“Fine.”
“You look good, Nessa.”
“Please don’t Kel. It’s been a long time.”
His blue eyes looked me up and down like he was taking me in. Those blue eyes that I had fallen for one lonely night at uni, but that was in the past been and gone and I couldn’t, wouldn’t let myself go back there. It wouldn’t be fair.
“I’m sorry Nessa, I was just being friendly, that’s what you do isn’t it when you see someone you haven’t seen for years?”
“Sorry.”
“Still guarded I see.” He said with the hint of a smile going across his face.
He was still just as good looking as I remembered, better actually. Men always seem to look better with age and I guess that was what had happened to Keller. His hair was thick black. It still stuck up, in uni he used to spike it up like the pines on a hedgehog, but now it just seemed to be reaching out in every direction.
“How’s Mark?” he said his firmly defined jaw setting in place as he said the name. He looked tired, his face held a day’s growth of hair on his chin, but I suited him
“I have no idea. I haven’t seen him since…”
His face seemed to look angry at my reply, I had expected him to happy to be honest, but then this was Keller I was looking at not Mark. Mark would have done the happy that it had not worked out look. I should have realised Keller was too sweet for that.
“I’m sorry Nessa. I assumed after I left that you and Mark would have worked it out. I’m sorry I ruined it for you two.”
“It wasn’t your fault.”
“It wasn’t? And how do you figure that out?”
“I slept with you, I was the one that came onto you.”
“I could have said no. I could have pushed you away.”
“Could you?”
His expression relaxed, the creases in his forehead softening. “No.”
“Shall we get on with this?” I said.
Keller walked with me side by side through the two floors of my gallery. My paintings hung on the wall looking untouched. A large empty gap stuck out. The white tiles walls bare except for the three hooks. On the floor was a mass of wood and paper.
I knelt down and picked up what was left of my paintings. My grandfathers picture was completely destroyed. They had cut out his face only, leaving his shoulders, neck and hair in the frame. His face was in pieces next to it, shredded like someone had torn it up into as many pieces they could manage.
“Who would do this?” I asked looking at Keller for the answers. He stood next to me and took the damaged picture out of my hands.
“This is what we are going to find out.” He said. “I remember you painting this. I remember whenever I went into your room your grandfathers face would watch me from your easel.”
I ran my fingers along the rough texture of the painting. My grandfathers hair bubbled out under my skin from where my brush had added stroke after stroke. On the walls in my gallery I had some originals and some copies. This one however was just a copy, but I reached over and pilled the one of my mother out from under the debris. This one was an original.
I had cried sometimes when I painted it. Her oval face appearing on my canvas was like having her appear in front of me. Who ever had done this had taken something sharp, a knife probably, and slashed it many times across my mothers face making it look like a lattice. The strands in my mothers long red hair torn.
Keller reached over and took my hand in his. His skin was soft and warm, not what I would have expected from a police officer or any man in general for that matter. His hand went round mine, squeezing it lightly. “We’ll find them. I promise.”
My eyes searched his and I wanted to believe him, but I knew he was just saying that, Not as an officer of the law, but as a friend.
Looking at him I felt the prickly feeling build up behind my eyes, pain pulling at the skin on my face. My eyes filled up and I closed my eyes trying to blink away the tears before they fell. I could feel my eye lashes were wet when I looked back at Keller.
“You shouldn’t promise something that you can’t do.”
“No, but I promise that I will do everything I can to find them”
“Why these three paintings? And why this one of my mother? Of all the pictures they could have chosen, they chose these ones.”
“It could be someone that you know, or that knows you. Do you have any idea who would do something like this? Is there any one that has a grudge against you?”
“No one. Except maybe Jekinsons down the road. I used to work for that gallery before I got my own, but then...”
“I’ll send someone to talk to them.”
“I don’t know Keller. This...” I said pointing at the mess. “This just seems petty. I don’t think Jenkinson would go so low.”
“Its worth checking them out though. They are the competition after all.”
“I guess.”
My Private gallery phone started to ring.
“Just a second.” I said to Keller as I walked over to it to answer.
The display said withheld, I clicked answer on my phone and put it to my ear. The voice on the other end didn’t even give me chance to respond.
“Listen to me very carefully.” Said the deep male voice. “I am at your home. In your house. I can see your daughter in front of me. If you say a word to that pretty boy in front of you I will kill her do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“Good, now walk away from him and listen very carefully.”
“Ok”
“I’ll cut right to it. You have 72 hours to get me one million. I will call with details when you are alone. If you fail I will take your little girl and send her back to you in one million pieces.”
“I don’t have that.” I said.
The voice down the other end laughed at me. “Your daughter has very pretty blonde hair doesn’t she? And the pink pj's really suits her dont they?”
“If you….”
“I said do not say a word. If that officer gets word of what I am saying she will die. The game will be over. Now do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“One million.”
“How?”
“You’ll find a way.”
“But…”
“One million Vanessa. You have 72 hours.” With that the phone went dead. I kept it to my ear; I had no idea what to say. I was too stunned to move. There was someone in my home with my little girl; they were there with my grandfather. What had they done to him? How could they get in without Bexley barking and giving them away? How could I turn to Keller and not show him the horror on my face, how could I not give anything away?
