‘John, please. Not a riddle.’
He took her hand and led her upstairs, coming to a halt on the landing. He looked up at the trap hatch to the loft. ‘If I wanted to move from house to house …’
‘Oh, shit!’ The penny had clearly dropped. ‘They’ve been coming in through the hatch.’
‘Where’s that torch we had yesterday?’
It was a rather precarious act, but using the small bookcase on the landing as a step and the bannister to support his other foot, John straddled the landing and pushed open the loft hatch.
‘Don’t you want a chair or something?’
‘No. I want to see how easy, or difficult, it is for someone to do this without moving anything. If the intruder used a chair, they wouldn’t be able to put it back after them.’
He pushed the torch up into the roof space, its cylindrical beam aimed into the blackness. Then he grabbed hold of the edge of the hatch on either side and heaved himself up, hooking his elbows as he did so. John was glad he kept himself in shape – he needed upper-body strength to then be able to raise himself up into the loft so that he was sitting on the edge with his legs dangling into the hallway.
‘Blimey, whoever it is has got to be fit to do that.’ He made a slow, steady sweep of the loft with the torch.
‘If you stand up, directly above your head there’s a pull cord,’ said Tina looking up from the landing. ‘There’s a light up there.’
‘Now she tells me,’ said John. He found the cord and gave one swift tug, the bare light bulb in the rafters lighting up.
‘I forgot. I don’t go up there. Last time I was up there I was putting the Christmas tree away.’
‘Did you forget about the ladder?’
‘The ladder?’
‘Yes, this step ladder.’ John slid the aluminium steps down through the hatch. As he did so, a little shower of dust from the edge of the hatch settled on to the floor.
The soft light didn’t quite reach the darkest corners of the loft. There was enough room for John to stand up straight between the trusses. He could see the loft had been boarded out, which would make navigating the space much easier without fear of putting his foot through the ceiling below. The Christmas tree, Tina had mentioned, was indeed there to the left of the hatch, within easy reach, meaning venturing into the loft fully was not necessary.
Apart from dust and cobwebs John couldn’t see anything else. He turned his attention to the party wall. Ducking under one of the roof trusses, he moved closer to Mr Cooper’s side.
‘Have you found anything?’
John looked back to see Tina climbing up through the loft hatch.
‘I thought you were going to wait down there,’ he said.
‘Don’t go getting all alpha male on me,’ she said standing up and dusting her hands off. She stepped over one of the boxes and rested her arms on the wooden A frame.
John resumed his examination of the party wall, sweeping from left to right, up and down with the torch beam. He stopped at a grey, heavy-looking blanket draped over a solid shape against the wall.
‘What’s that?’ he asked.
‘I don’t remember putting it there but, to be honest, it doesn’t mean it hasn’t always been there. As you can see, I usually only push things up through the loft hatch.’
‘My guess is that it’s a recent addition.’ John took a few steps closer. ‘Look at the floor. The dust has been disturbed around it.’
Tina ducked under the beam and moved to John’s side. ‘Do you think that’s how someone has been getting in?’
Her voice was less confident now, the false bravado apparent.
‘Let’s find out,’ he said.
John held the torch firmly in his right hand, ready to use it as a weapon, if necessary. With his left hand he took hold of the edge of the coarse fabric and moved it to one side. He gave a start, flinching slightly, the knock-on effect causing Tina to let out a small scream and jump backwards.
‘It’s okay,’ said John, immediately realising what he had actually seen behind the blanket. ‘It’s only our reflections. Look, it’s a full-length mirror.’ In truth, he felt a bit of an idiot at his reaction.
Tina gave a nervous laugh of relief. ‘I didn’t even know what I was screaming at. I jumped because you did.’
‘Hey, it was a flinch, okay, not a jump,’ said John, trying to make light of it.
‘It was so not a flinch.’
‘Your word against mine. I’m a police officer, remember?’
‘Hmmm, exactly.’ She gave him a small nudge. ‘Come on then, Captain Courageous, let’s see what’s behind it.’ Her voice grew serious. ‘Do you think there might be someone on the other side?’ she whispered, nodding towards the mirror.