Good morning one and all. Sleep decided to be a bit of a pal last night so I saw more of it than Sunday night. I am very grateful and feeling less inclined to snarl. I still think a nice long vacation would not go amiss, but that is another story. So, as the coffee is brewing shall we start in on the morning prompt? Good. Then we can all have a cup and get caffeinated for the day. So off we go into the fifteen minutes. Remember, keep writing until the timer dings, don’t stop to edit and just see what spills out.
Well, that was interesting. Now I am kind of wondering what was hidden in the back room. Probably by a previous tenant. Something to think about.
Tuesday, December 7th: The security system failed.
The security system failed. That much was clear from the broken glass and the lack of blaring alarm. The alarm, which should have been loud enough to rattle the ear drums and bring police running from several precincts, was ominously silent.
“Disabled,” Colin said. Evan frowned at him.
“You think?” He couldn’t resist the sarcasm. Typically he tried to refrain while at work, but this break in got the better of his self-restraint.
“Yeah, that’s gonna help,” Colin said. “Extra snark. Exactly what the situation needs right now.”
Evan bit the inside of his cheek to keep himself from commenting. Colin never would understand how hard he worked to keep himself in check. To distract himself he wandered off, following the trail of destruction around the store. It was senseless. Nothing was stolen. There was in fact nothing here to steal. The building had been closed off long enough that anything of value was taken long before he and Colin purchased it.
The walls had been damaged, partially by a roof leak and partially by thieves looking for copper pipe. It was part of the reason they went with color coded plastic piping when they rebuilt. Not only was the PVC good at the job, but it was useless to thieves since it had less of a resale value than copper. An extra benefit was that all cold water pipes were blue while anything with hot water was red.
Evan was fond of knowing instantly what he was dealing with when it came to plumbing. Of course all that was behind the walls now. The pipes were replaced and new cement boards was put up. The walls were painted in fun pastels that twirled around the walls. This was a patisserie and a candy store, or at least it would be when everything was finished.
The mechanics had been completed only a few short days ago. The paint was dried but still had that fresh paint scent to it. Only a few of the display cabinets arrived. They were the source of the broken glass and the destruction before them. There were no small portable items. Even when construction was going on no tools were left behind to tempt those who might break in. Now that the work was mostly done, there was even less to steal.
Evan wondered if the destruction of the few cases were simply because there was nothing else to steal or if the point of the break in was simply to smash something about.
‘Of course they disabled the security system,’ Evan thought. ‘That has to take some sort of skill.’
The system they went with was not the sort to have any available wires for a thief to cut. The wires were buried in steel and the steel encased inside the wall. At least from what he could see. There was a coded system and even a backup system. Evan thought it a bit much, but Colin liked the system and had a cousin who was an expert at these sorts of things. Evan couldn’t see anyone breaking into steal his bonbons and tarts, but agreed to the system.
Colin was right about security, but it seems the high tech system failed. Evan made it to the back of the building. There was less work done here as it was mostly designated non-food storage space. Here someone had down more than just cursory damage.
Ten til Midnight 