Page 56 of Clawed
Anger swilled in his veins as he tucked the key back into his pocket and found his phone.He didn’t care what time of the bloody day or night it was, wherever Roger was based, he was going to call the bastard and discover what he was playing at.
Clicking into this address book, he found his client’s name and hit the call button.Time protracted, trying his rage, as he waited for the international call to connect.
“Graham?”Roger sounded weary.Good.“What’s up, man?It’s late here.”
“I’m at that address on Ocean Gardens.”Graham got straight to the point.
“Right.”Roger sounded even more confused.“And?”
“And the keys you left me don’t bloody work.”Graham was struggling to hold back his resentment.“I can’t get in from the front or back doors.”
“What?”Roger sounded more awake.“Those were the right keys.I had them cut myself.”
Graham’s brows knitted at the certainty in his client’s voice.“Well, they’re not working now.”
“Are you sure you’re not just having issues with the locks?”Roger sighed.“They’re old, like us.They might need a little coaxing.”
“The locks are fine,” Graham snapped, begrudging the inference that he couldn’t manage a task as simple as opening the door.“These just aren’t the right keys for them.”
Pulling in a breath, he leaned against the back door.Strange that Roger had called the locks ‘old’ when it was obvious they’d only recently been altered.“Did you just forget to send me the new ones when you had the locks to both doors changed?”That would explain why he couldn’t enter at either the main entrance or the rear one.
“What?No.”It was Roger’s turn to sound irritated.“I haven’t changed the locks.I haven’t done anything to the place.That’s why I asked you to go there and see what needed doing.”
“You haven’t?”Battling his way back across the wilds of the backyard, Graham advanced through the open gate and made his way to the front door.
“Definitely not.I think I’d remember.”Roger snorted.“Why?”
“Because these locks look cheap, but they’re almost brand new.”Graham lifted one finger to skim over the smooth metal.Managing other people’s property meant he’d seen many a lock in his time, and he recognized the signs.
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
Roger’s breaths were coming faster, his voice continuing, although Graham wasn’t listening.Turning, he eyed the beaten-up old car on the driveway, his pulse picking up.Why was there a car on the drive?Roger didn’t own a vehicle like that.
“Something’s not right here.”Graham’s brain was whirring into action.“First, the locks have been updated without us knowing, and now, there’s a car on the drive.”Retreating a few steps, he glanced at the upstairs window.“Do you think someone could be in the house?”
He didn’t know why he was asking Roger.He was out of the country and paid Graham to manage the place, but something about the unexpected nature of the apparent ‘intrusion’ perturbed him.A trespasser would normally have broken locks and windows to gain entry to the property, yet aside from the new locks, everything looked normal at the house.Graham couldn’t understand what was happening.
“A squatter, you mean?”
“Maybe.”
There was no movement from behind the net curtains, but if there was someone inside, they’d have likely heard him kicking at the back door and could be hiding.Anxiety tore at his insides.
What if that person had been in there all along, listening to him and maybe watching?
What if they were dangerous?
“You think a squatter moved in and changed the locks?”
Roger sounded unconvinced, but then he wasn’t the one standing on the driveway who potentially had to deal with the unlawful tenant.It was easy to be nonchalant from another country.
“I don’t know, but I think I should call the police.”Graham edged toward the main road.“They can gain entry if need be.”
“But they’ll break the bloody locks,” Roger grumbled.
“You want to do the place up for sale, don’t you?”Graham walked backward toward his own vehicle.Even though he hadn’t seen anyone himself, he couldn’t shake the feeling he was being watched, and he didn’t like it.“New locks won’t cost much, but having an uninvited guest inside could be causing untold damage.”
“Fine.”Roger blew out a breath.“Do it, but make sure they don’t ruin the doors, too.I want that place sold as soon as possible.”
