Killing Kate(47)

“Um, they’re mine, if that’s what you wanted to know,” I reply. “Or were. The cases are here but the DVDs aren’t. Not like a few dirty movies are a big deal. I mean, I don’t need them back.”

“Interesting,” Justin says. I blush and I don’t really know what he’s referring to. I don’t ask. He comes to sit down on the ground next to me. “Forced Entry 18,” he reads off. “So, um, what kind of porn is that?”

“Rape,” I say quietly. I look down at the case and find myself incredibly uncomfortable. The DVD in my hands looks disgusting to me now.

“I see,” he replies. “Kind of ironic considering what happened here. Maybe your intruder is making a statement.” He looks at me and I am about to cry. He takes the DVD cover out of my hands and holds me. I feel a sob shake my entire body. “Hey, it’s okay. I’ll stay with you tonight and help you clean up. When does Devin get back?”

“I’m not sure,” I say, wiping my eyes with the back of my hand, leaving a black streak of makeup behind. “Tomorrow morning. Or rather, this morning.” I realize it’s well past midnight. “Let’s get out of this room.”

“Okay,” Justin says. We go back to the front room and put the cushions back on the sofa and sit down. He holds me and I cry for a bit. The lights outside and the knock on the door indicate the police have arrived. Two men come to the door. Justin lets them in and proceeds to tells them how we came home and found the house in disarray. They ask us a few questions and I am able to answer with yes and no and the time we got home. They take a look around and one guy makes a few notes.

“I should call Devin,” I say to Justin. “He’s going to flip out.”

The police rummage around some more and one approaches Justin and me on the sofa. He introduces himself as Officer Hardy, and he is short, stocky and most definitely Irish. “So what exactly was taken?” he asks in that thick South side accent I usually associate with city workers, cops and firemen.

I look at Justin for help. He stands up and says, “Here, I’ll show you,” to the officer. He glances back at me as he leads Officer Hardy in the direction of my room and I watch as he walks away. Then I hear laughing from the officer and I’m mortified. They have the decency to be quiet and straight faced when they come back in the room. I am not a religious person but begin to pray that the couch will turn into some sort of sand worm and swallow me alive.

“Did you look inside of these DVD cases as well?” the police officer asks us when they are back, indicating the pile of spilled DVDs that were previously stored nicely on the bookshelf. I’d unpacked them only days before. These were our assortment of movies and TV shows that were okay to display to the public eye, like Devin’s Marx Brothers movies and my Monty Python movies. We were both always suckers for ridiculous comedy. My musicals had made it on the shelves as well and I could see them all over the floor. Officer Hardy bends down and opens a case and shows it to us. Nothing inside. Then he opens several more and discovers the same thing. I feel chilly and shiver. Justin puts his arm around me. “Do either one of you have any idea why someone might take all of your DVDs?”

I shake my head and shrug simultaneously. “To sell?”

Officer Hardy shakes his head. “I doubt it. They’d take the cases too.” He walks to the front door and looks at it, and then inspects the broken window. “Despite the broken glass, I don’t think this was an outside job. See how the glass is broken in the middle of the window?” I look to where he’s pointing and nod. “I tested how far to reach the lock on the inside from the break in the glass. I can barely touch the lock. Someone broke the glass and used a key on your front door.” I shiver. Who else would have a key to the house, besides Devin? “And based on what was taken,” Officer Hardy was saying, “this looks targeted to me. You say you don’t know anything about the DVDs?” I shake my head. “Where did you say your brother was? Is he the only other person living here?”

“He’s at work,” I say. “He’s a train engineer. He started a twelve hour shift around four in the afternoon, which means he’ll be home early morning unless he gets stuck in a cornfield somewhere.”

“Okay,” Officer Hardy says. “Have him call me so I can verify that.”

I look up at him sharply. “You don’t think my brother did this?”

He looks directly at me. “I don’t know what to think. But I do think this was an inside job and whoever did this was looking for something specific.”