Chapter 122: I Got Broken Into Again
As soon as Grace saw him, she ran over and grabbed his arm.
"I got broken into again."
When the police officers arrived, the man in the white t-shirt went to talk to them, and they went to check the camera records together. Cathryn remembered that he was one of the officers the last time Grace got stolen.
Was his name Hale or something?
Think about the last time, when they left the police station, Hale ran out to reassure Grace that it'll be settled, Cathryn was very impressed with him. After all that had happened, they ended up in love with each other; fate really had brought them together.
The police watched the monitoring video and found the burglary tricky. It wasn't like last time. First, there was nothing missing. Second, the last time there was a surveillance camera, but this time it was obvious that someone had broken the camera from the blind zone before breaking the door.
From the police's experience, they concluded that it was not a theft but could be a personal retaliation.
Grace was upset all the way to the police station, and when this news was told to her, her face sank even more. Hale stayed with her all the time so that she would not be too scared.
Jack, the driver, heard all that happened and was ready to call Keith. But remembering how anxious Jeremy sounded over the phone when he called Keith to go back to the office, Cathryn didn't want to bother him and stopped the call.
"Miss Garcia, are you sure that you have no dispute or recent conflict with someone?"
"I am." Grace gave a firm statement, looking up to the policeman in the eye, "There is no loss anyway, I assume you can leave now?"
The police couldn't do anything to a victim who wouldn't cooperate. After exchanging a look with Hale, the constable nodded and said, "Well, if there's any need, please call us immediately."
"Thank you," Grace nodded automatically, her face pale like paper.
Hale cuddled her to sit next to Cathryn and said to the latter, "I am going to talk to my colleagues, please stay with her. Thank you."
Cathryn agreed and took Grace's hand in hers and added, "Don't worry."
As soon as Hale left, Grace's stiffness for the whole evening suddenly loosened. She couldn't help but keep trembling, like a maple leaf in the late autumn wind.
Her fingers were ice-cold as if the blood inside her was frozen, no longer circulating. The flesh under her skin seemed to be torn apart.
The only bit of comfort for her was Cathryn's warm, tight grasping hand.
"He's out," Grace murmured, his voice hoarse and shaking, Cathryn was stiff for a second too, and her eyes went sullen. She comforted her, "Don't think too much."
"He didn't take anything." Grace was almost crying, but there was no tear. "Only my underwear."
Scared, Cathryn hugged her and said, "Well... we'll tell the police."
That man really got out of prison. And he had come to take revenge on Grace.
If this was the case, no one could protect her now, and they must call the police.
"No." Grace shook her head, desperate and about to collapse, "Can't tell Hale."
"What can't you tell me?" The police officer saw his girlfriend bending her back and almost falling in Cathryn's arms. He was so heartbroken and went to hug her.
Grace was so scared that she couldn't speak, and no matter how she tried to calm down, she couldn't stop trembling. Cathryn made some excuses, took her arms with Hale, and helped her to return home.
After Keith's emergency work, he called Cathryn to see how she was going, and Cathryn told him about the case.
After Cathryn had finished, Keith reminded her.
"The camera was installed last time when she got stolen. I think she had asked the company to install a hidden camera inside the door. If one was smashed, the hidden camera might have got something."
When Hale went to the kitchen to make drinks for them, Cathryn closed the bedroom door to have some private talk. Grace's mood was much more stable now, and she remembered about the hidden camera. She immediately took out her computer and asked Cathryn to go and keep the police officer out, so she could check the records.
After a long wait, Grace walked out with her laptop.
Her face was back to normal. Hale hurried to stand up and went to her. "How are you?"
Grace gave him the computer and said, "This is from the hidden camera behind the door. It got the whole video and the man's face. But I don't know him."
Hale's phone rang. He gave her a glance and went to answer the phone.
Cathryn leaned into the computer. Her nerves were suddenly relieved.
On the screen was a middle-aged man with a baseball cap. It was a fat guy with big ears and an ugly temperament. He seemed to like all the perverts on TV that were jailed for harassing women.
It was not the man in their impression. Both Cathryn and Grace exhaled a long sigh.
Hanging up the phone, Hale came over and informed them. "A woman living alone on the 18th floor just called the police. It was the same thing that happened to you, except she claimed to have lost a set of underwear. It seems that this is an ordinary indecency case.."
"You can send the video to the force." Grace was assured and back to herself now.
Hale agreed.
Later, he made a massive dinner, Cathryn's appetite was so stimulated just from the smell. But when they just started, Hale was called back to work in an emergency, for there was another theft case in the neighborhood.
He had to take a couple of bites on his chicken, apologized to the ladies, and quickly left.
Cathryn saw her friend a bit upset. After the dinner, she called Keith to say that she was not going back tonight but sleeping over with Grace. Keith said he understood and that she could call him any time she was going home. The word "home" tugged at her heart before she hung up the call.