Chapter Twenty

Part One

Squinting in the morning sunshine, Kate made out Rick’s name on the caller ID. ‘Hello handsome, we were just talking about you.’

‘Good morning Kate, I am downstairs. I assume none of you have been outside this morning?’

‘No. Why? What’s wrong?’

‘Nothing dire, Kate. I will come up. Please stay in the apartment and keep the door locked until I get there? Would you wake the girls too, please?’

‘We’re all at the table. What’s wrong?’

‘Ten minutes, Kate. Please keep the door locked until I’m there.’ Kate looked at her friends and told them the content of the brief conversation before checking that their door was as locked as it could be. They could see nothing obvious from their windows.

They jumped a little when he knocked on the door. ‘It’s Rick,’…   >> MORE <<

Part Two

The demeanour of the three men who entered made it abundantly clear that they were not regular cleaners. Rick gave them a fast briefing and the three started moving after a rapid murmured discussion between themselves. One started carefully disassembling the doorjamb after laying down a drop sheet. The second placed a few tiny boxes in the apartment, pointing towards the doors and windows. Seeing the questioning looks, Rick said to the girls, ‘Directional movement sensors, not cameras.’

The third man set down drop sheets outside their door and started scrubbing at the graffiti. He also emplaced two motion sensors and a camera covering their door and hallway; as well as setting a pressure mat under a carpet in front of the elevator doors and positioning another motion-sensing camera to cover the fire stairs. He came back in briefly to say…   >> MORE <<

Part Three

There was no sign of trouble when they arrived at the mayor’s apartment and they went about their normal routine, setting up in the now-familiar space for his afternoon and evening gig.

Natalie and Dom sat next to the mayor and chatted merrily with him and his wife like the old friends that Kate suspected they actually were. The evening passed without a drama, except for the experience of an unfortunate and very intoxicated reveller who was about to urinate on a convenient bush in front the mayor’s building as he stumbled his way home.

After looking around to check the coast was clear, the drunk was about to lower his zipper when the bushy shrub in front of him rose up to become some kind of monster. Standing frozen to the spot in wide-eyed horror and making high-pitched squeaking sounds, his bladder problem quickly became a laundry challenge…   >> MORE <<