Page 31 of Her Braun
"Actually, it wasn't." She tried to laugh, but it fell flat.
"I'm going to talk to your neighbor and see where he's been all day."
Kay felt tears gathering in her eyes. "This is so frustrating!"
The other end of the call was silent, and she muttered to her herself before she apologized out loud. "I'm sorry, Detective. It's not your fault."
"I've heard worse." His sigh sounded all too familiar. "Are you okay if I call someone to board up the windows?"
"Yes," the word was pulled from her throat. She didn't want to deal with it at the moment. She wasn't going to call out of work because someone broke into her house. The hospital was already busy and if she called for someone to come and take over her shift it would likely take more than an hour for someone to be able to show up. "Yes, I'm sorry, Detective Rafferty. I would really appreciate your help with my windows. I don't... I don't want to know what happened inside."
"I can understand that. Having your home invaded like that can feel really personal. I'm going to leave my card on your kitchen table. If you would do me the favor, please contact me when you get home. You can email me a list of anything that might be missing. And anything that might be damaged. If you have pictures and receipts from when you bought the items that will be helpful as well."
Her head was aching. "Yeah. I... I have some of that for my electronics and some artwork. I don't have much beyond that worth holding onto receipts."
"Okay. Please feel free to contact me if you want to add to what we've said on this call. Oh. I'm also going to leave you a brochure on victim's rights and services from the city."
"I'm sure Jack will slip one under my door." She bit down on her lip, hard. "I'm... I'm sorry, Detective. That was uncalled for. I'm upset, but I don't have to be cruel."
He chuckled. "That's not cruel. Doctor Hata."
"Kay. Please, call me Kay. For all I know you've been in my bedroom."
He cleared his throat. "I'm afraid I had to clear the house."
"Yeah... I can imagine." She sighed. "I've seen TV dramas. I have basic TV knowledge of what you do, which is probably worthless right now."
"Kay?"
She squeezed her eyes shut and hated how close she was to tears. "Yeah?"
"You can be mad. You can be mean. It's all okay. Having someone break into your private space is never easy. Don't worry about feeling, doing, or saying the 'right thing.' Right now, you just need to take care of yourself. And be safe. I know that you'll want to check things out at the house when you get here, please, if you see something that you think has been disturbed, don't touch it. Make note of it and call me or if you'd like, you can call and talk to another detective, and they'll come over and call in the Crime Scene Investigations team. They can see about DNA or fingerprints left behind."
Oh, she hadn't thought of that immediately.
That's how tangled up she felt.
"Okay. I'll... I'll make sure to look things over before I touch anything." She swallowed hard and felt her throat burning witha mix of anger and frustration. "Thank you, Detective. You've... you've been wonderful, explaining all of this to me."
"Anytime, Doctor Kay. Any time."
Gibson drove up to Kay's house and felt his heart clench in fear.
He knew why he'd been called there, but driving up, seeing the flashing lights on Rafferty's SUV and the uniformed officer standing out front on the sidewalk put his mind in a dangerous place.
Her house had been broken into.
And thank God she'd been working. If she'd been home alone things could have ended up... a complete disaster.
The uniformed officer lifted her chin in greeting. Her blonde hair was pulled back away from her face, and he knew there would be a tight bun at the nape of her neck.
Gibson managed a smile for the officer. "Joe. How are things?"
She smiled at him. "Lieutenant. Everything is good. Jon says there's a community event coming up?"
Gibson nodded. Jon Lee Matsumoto, 'Mats,' as they called him at Fire House Twenty-Nine, was her husband. "I'll make sure he gets you all the information."
She nodded. "I'm glad the detective called you. I always get nervous when there's a break in at a house for a single woman."
