Part One : here.
A piece of coffee cake fell from Gertie’s fork as she stared at me with rapt attention, her eyes wide as I recounted my story from the night before. They were as round as the saucer that her teacup sat upon.
“Bloody hell! Have you gone to the police?!”
“Yes.” I muttered, my hand rubbing worriedly at my lip. “It was the first thing that I did.”
“And?!”
“And… they said they’d keep an eye on it.”
Gertie’s fork clattered to her plate.
“That’s it? Someone broke into your house and possibly touched you whilst you slept a drunken night off and they’ll, ‘keep an eye on it’?!”
“Gertie, what more can they do?”
“I don’t know! Something!”
I glanced over at the till desk of the quaint cafe of our small village, then over at Bambi who was sitting with his head peeking out of the top of his open carrier backback on the chair between Gertie and I. Cats weren’t technically allowed in The Little Rose Teashop, but Bambi was an exception because the owners, Kathy and Bill, absolutely adored him. He had proven that he could be amongst civilized society in the village. All the locals knew Bambi. I took him everywhere.
“The person didn’t exactly break in.” I reminded her.
“So they used a key?”
“The spare, yes.”
“They knew where you kept it?”
“So it would appear.”
“So there’s just… someone wandering around with a spare key to your house?”
“Yes.”
“Well congratulations - that’s terrifying.”
“Nothing gets past you, Gertie.”
Her expression softened.
“I’m sorry. I’m just worried about you. Have you called a locksmith?”
“I have, yeah. He’s coming in an hour.”
Gertie glanced at Bambi and gave his head a pat. “I’ll come with you. I don’t think that you should be alone right now.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that.”
She nodded. “So who dealt with you at the station, then?”
“Tilbury.”
“Tilbury? Jesus christ, nothing’ll get done.”
“He’s not that bad.”
“His police skills consist of eating biscuits from a tin and consuming mugs of gin.”
I smiled a little and Kathy, the cheery owner of the teashop bustled over to our table with a bright smile.
“How was everything today?”
“Amazing as always, Kathy. Thank you.”
Bambi pawed at her apron, knowing that she’d make a fuss of him as usual. He wasn’t disappointed.
“Well hello, Bambi! You’re a handsome wee gentleman, aren’t you?”
He rubbed his cheek against her hand and she beamed.
“Does he want a wee chocolate croissant? I know that he likes those and I’ve just made some fresh. They’re warm, just how he likes.”
I sighed sarcastically. “Oh, go on then. Though you’re going to make him tubby if you keep that up, Kathy.”
She tutted warmly in a ‘pish posh’ manner and dashed off to the kitchen. I raised my eyebrows at Bambi and Kathy quickly returned with a chocolate croissant in a napkin. Bambi licked his chops but waited patiently, his eyes never leaving the bundle. Kathy smiled at him and held it out. While he scarfed it down, she lowered her tone.
“It’s all good and well now that we’re all sat here in the daylight and the sunshine, but I had quite the fright last night, let me tell you.”
My eyes flickered up. “Oh?”
“Yeah.” She nodded, staring down at the napkin in her hand. “I’d woken in the night with the nagging feeling that I hadn’t locked the cafe up. I know that these things are often unfounded, but I couldn’t shake it, you know? So Bill put on his overcoat and popped across the road to the teashop to give me peace of mind.
I was looking out of the window watching him walk towards the cafe door and I thought-“
I sat up a little.
“Well, without sounding ridiculous - I thought that I saw someone lurking near the window of the cafe. But it was so dark that it was hard to tell. My heart was in my throat on seeing it though. I was worried for Bill.”
“What happened next?”
“Well, Bill tried the door and it turns out that my gut was right. I hadn’t locked up. He checked the till and all of the money was still there. All was quiet though. He didn’t see anyone. But then…”
“But then?” I was hanging onto her every word.
“Well, he was about to close up when he noticed that some of my baking was missing. The chocolate croissants actually. That’s why I had to make more this morning. Bill knew because I’d made a big fuss about their presentation and they weren’t where I’d placed them. I’d decorated the cake stands with blue ribbon and had demanded his opinion.”
A slow chill ran up my spine.
“When he came home he said, ‘did you move those chocolate croissants that you baked today, love?’ When I said no and was confused, he told me that they weren’t on the counter where I’d made a song and dance about leaving them. I tutted and thought that he’d gotten mixed up, you know how he can be. Remember when he thought that Rennie Brown had his gardening shears? And it was actually Barty Turner that had had them all along? Well I thought that it was one of those times. But sure enough, when I opened up here this morning I instantly noticed that the croissants had gone walkabout. Just up and vanished! Bill swears that he saw no one, but after what I thought that I saw at the window last night, I can’t help but think…” She trailed off.
I knew exactly what she couldn’t help but think.
Kathy’s story was still on my mind as Gertie and I made our way towards my house. Bambi stared out of the little window of his backpack as we walked.
“It could just be a coincidence?” I mumbled.
“Maybe?” Gertie offered, though she didn’t sound too convinced.
A grey van with, ‘Rodger and Sons, Locksmiths’ sat in my driveway. As we approached, a man with dark hair and a mustache hopped out and extended his hand.
“Keith Rodger, nice to meet you. My apologies for being a wee bit early.”
He had a warm smile and an even warmer hand. “So you’re wanting your locks changed then?”
As Mr Rodger got to work on changing the locks and Gertie nipped upstairs to the bathroom, I knelt down in the hall and let Bambi out of his backpack. Almost immediately, he sped off to the kitchen at the speed of light.
I turned to the front door where Mr Rodger was on his knees, peering at the door handle.
“Mr Rodger, would you like some tea? I’m about to put the kettle on.”
“Aye, that’d be grand! Two sugars for me, please.”
I nodded and made my way to the kitchen, where I found Bambi restlessly curving himself in and out of all of the chair legs around the table.
“Bambi, what on earth are you d-“
My eyes fell to the table and I stopped.
Sitting on top of the scrubbed wood was a parcel. A parcel that definitely hadn’t been there when I had left this morning. It was a neat parcel, tied with a blue ribbon.
On top of it sat a note.
‘For Bambi.’
Heartbeat on hold, I untied the parcel with a shaking hand.
Chocolate croissants. All stacked neatly on top of one another.
I immediately backed up into the wall.
No. No way.
I floored it back into the hallway.
“Mr Rodger, how long were you sitting in my driveway?”
“About fifteen minutes. Why?”
“Did you see anyone here at my house? Anyone at all?”
“No, I didn’t see anyone. Is… everything alright?”
“Gertie!” I called shrilly.
“What’s going on? What is it?” She came quickly down the stairs.
“Look in the kitchen.”
I remained silent as I waited for her to notice the croissants. When she came back out, her face was white.
“They were here again?” She whispered.
I met her eyes.
She was about to say something more, when something flickered across her face and she turned and quickly dashed back into the kitchen. I glanced down at the note still in my hand. I hadn’t looked at the other side.
‘… You know how he likes them.’
There was a sudden exclamation from the kitchen. Mr Rodger and I both rushed to the sound, and almost collided with Gertie in the process. She looked terror stricken.
“You’ve been out of your house for hours at this point, yes?” She asked me frantically.
“Yes. Why?”
“They could have burned your entire house down…” She whispered.
“Gertie, wh-“
“They didn’t just leave the parcel. They turned your oven on and just left it!”
I fresh wave of sickness washed over me. Moving swiftly, I snatched up the stack of croissants and proceeded to throw the whole parcel into the bin outside. They weren’t staying in my house.
The next morning, I found a dead squirrel by my bin outside. It had gotten into the croissants.
Poison.
Poison that had been meant for Bambi.