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Thea stared at them. All the boxes had been opened, and it had not been done carefully – they were torn in some places, as though someone had opened them in a hurry. They were no longer neatly stacked; each box had obviously been searched through before being haphazardly stacked again, and whoever had done this hadn’t even bothered to seal them up. The plastic sheet was dumped beside them. Thea thought of the photo albums, books and personal belongings that should not be open to the elements, or to dust and mice. She glanced inside one precariously balanced box. Inside, her mother’s possessions, which Thea had watched being carefully packed, looked as though they’d been pulled out and then just dumped back inside the box. She tidied the contents of the box, thinkingWho would do this? And what were they looking for?
She was about to walk around to the front of the garage and see if the lock was broken or had been tampered with when she realised that the side door into the garage from the garden was left unlocked, and the garden was not secure; there was just a rickety gate to prevent people wandering off the street into the back garden. She knew why that was; apart from the odd walker, or person living in the village, it wasn’t as though they got a lot of traffic – foot traffic or otherwise – past their home.
Thea thought perhaps she’d mention it to Mark. They should get a padlock for the door. And while she was at it, she’d mention to him that someone had been in his garage, rifling through her mum’s things. She knew there were some nice ornaments that might fetch some money.
She decided that after she’d fed the dog, she would come back, go through the rest of the boxes, and then tape them up. She’d hate to think of her mum returning suddenly and discovering that her personal possessions were not how she’d left them. The boxes would take some time to sort out, but she had all evening. It wasn’t like she had anything better to do.
Winston came running over and poked his nose into one of the boxes.
‘Hey!’
She noticed that the dog was licking his chops. She looked at him. ‘What have you been up to?’ Thea discovered that the plastic pot she’d filled with dog biscuits was empty. She put her hands on her hips. She didn’t know much about looking after pets, but she imagined the biscuits were probably meant to be mixed in with the wet food. Thea picked up the tin and looked at the dog. ‘Come on.’
She stepped out of the garage with the excitable golden retriever sniffing the tin in her hand as she walked across the lawn.
Chapter 22
Thea found a can opener and opened the tin of dog food. ‘Oh, my god. That smells rank.’ Holding it at arm’s length, she spooned the congealed meat into the dog bowl. For once, Winston wasn’t jumping up at her or kneading her arm with his muzzle. He sat quite still, watching.
Thea placed it on a plastic mat next to a bowl of water. While Winston wolfed down his dinner, Thea went upstairs, thinking of the other possible explanation for the open boxes.
She knocked on Katie’s door.
‘What do you want now?’
Thea couldn’t remember ever being that rude when she was a teenager. Although Thea’s mum had been fun, she had also been strict; she’d had to be, raising two teenage girls on her own.
Thea opened Katie’s bedroom door. ‘I want to speak to you about something.’
Katie was sitting cross-legged on her pink duvet, doing something on her mobile phone. ‘Not now, I’m busy.’
‘Has someone broken into the garage?’’
That question got Katie’s attention. She lowered her phone. ‘No, I don’t think so. Why do you ask?’
‘Because your grandmother’s boxes have been opened and rifled through.’
Katie stared at her.
‘Have you been through Grandma’s boxes in the garage?’
‘What do you mean –been through Grandma’s boxes?’
‘What I said – have you opened them and rifled through them?’
‘No! Why would I be interested in an old person’s stuff?’
‘That is not a nice way to speak about your grandmother.’
‘Well, it’s true. She’s old. How old areyou? I heard Mum telling Dad that she doesn’t think you’ll ever settle down and get married – let alone have kids. Don’t you want children?’
Thea ignored the remark. She was not getting into a conversation about her love life with her rude thirteen-year-old niece. ‘So, you don’t know anything about Grandma’s boxes?’
‘Of course not.’ She furrowed her brow, as though something had occurred to her.
‘What is it?’ asked Thea noticing her expression.
‘It’s probably nothing, but Toby is into old stuff.’
