Morning all. Time to start a new week of writing prompts. Are you ready? I am actually. I had a nice restful weekend of chores at home and an actual good night sleep last night (gasp, shocking I know). I am always amazed when that happens, especially on a Sunday night. As soon as I lie down Sunday night all of the things I have to accomplish over the week start scrolling through my head, making Sunday one of the most difficult sleep nights for me. I’m hoping that this is a good omen for the week. Even if it is not, it is good for today, so I’m going to use it and get the morning started. Time for the morning writing prompt, anyone joining me?
Okay I like this one. I can really see a story developing out of it, and I kind of want to dive in right away to see where it leads. I can’t but I will be letting it sit in the back of my mind until I can get back to it. This was a great way to kick off the week.
Monday, June 6th: The safe had been left wide open.
The safe had been left wide open. Not a single other item in the room was touched save the painting that covered the safe and the safe door. Had the painting been returned to its place and the safe door closed, I doubted anyone would have noticed anything amiss.
‘At least not for a while,’ I thought.
By the owner’s admission, the safe was hardly ever opened. It had been the elder Mr. Wallace who used it. Before he died any business related paperwork was moved down to the office and the regular safe guarding ensued. According to his son, those weren’t the sort of papers that needed hiding away in a safe in the first place.
‘He only kept them there because he didn’t have a filing system up here,” Anthony Wallace told me when I asked about the safe’s contents. “He would take files with him to study over at night and then lock them away in the sale before bringing them back to the office downstairs.”
I nodded, the arrangement wasn’t unusual in Garoton. There were warehouses for storing goods and things were generally sold in the market place, but those who dealt with the general business of things tended to keep their offices on the first floor of the home with all of the domestic bits on the floors above. The kitchen was located behind the house of course and while useful for keeping the heat of the kitchen and the largest threat of fire out of the house it also allowed the large kitchen to serve both the family needs and serve the business needs of the office. In fact on my arrival, the kitchen brought out a coffee service.
I wondered of course if they would have done so had I been with the regular authorities. I shook the thought off for later. Anthony was at a loss as to what thieves could have been after, let alone why they would announce the theft so openly. The company added two new ships to their fleet this morning and the family, as well as the entire office had gone down to see them launched. A regular feast day they had made of it, leaving the house empty from the morning until late afternoon. Even the house staff had been given a spontaneous holiday.
‘And it was spontaneous,’ I reminded myself. Anthony hadn’t planned on letting the staff have the half day off. I would check later to find out what prompted the notion.
When the staff returned to begin dinner preparations they didn’t go into the elder Mr. Wallace’s study. It was located at the top of the house and since his passing it had been dusted once a week but otherwise left alone. I understood there were items in it designated for distant family and shipping arrangements had yet to be finalized. Nothing in the safe was mentioned in the will as belonging to another, Anthony simply hadn’t had time to go through it.
“Most of it was sentimental,” he claimed.
He hadn’t wanted to talk about the safe contents much. I suspected he knew every item contained within down to the smallest one, but getting him to talk would come later. For now I had a safe that hadn’t been opened in over three months and wouldn’t have been opened for at least another month left to stand wide open, advertising the fact that it was now empty.
‘With the house standing empty, entry was fairly easy.’ I decided as I poked around the room looking for anything the thief might have left behind. There was no signs of forced entry and in truth I spotted at least three ways into the house that wouldn’t require a key and be shielded from view on my way in. As I circled the room I stopped at the settee. There was a small note card half concealed by the pillows. The card was blank save for a handwritten line across it’s creamy surface. I bent to read it without touching it.
“I only took what was mine.”
Ten til Midnight 