26 July 2011 / 20:32
‘These ous,’ the constable had said, as Noah’s father showed him to the door, ‘I tell you, they’re one step ahead of the game all the way. Looks like the work of this syndicate that’s been hitting the area. Same method. Cars, cash, keys, cell phones’s all they want. In and out. Job done. But one of these days they’ll slip up – make a mistake. And then, ma’am, we’ll get them.’ He’d glanced at Noah’s mother reassuringly. ‘We’ll be on them like a ton of bricks. You’ll see.’
‘When they make a mistake?’ his mother said, when his father came back. ‘They need to get them now. He’s leaving us alone, vulnerable. They have our keys, they know where we live. They’ll know we called the police.’ Her voice rose hysterically.
Noah’s father put his arms around her shoulders. ‘We had to,’ he said. ‘If we don’t follow the correct procedures, they’ll have won, Kate.’
Maddie was upset too. ‘Can we go to sleep, Mom, Dad? Is it safe?’
‘Don’t worry, Mads, don’t worry.’ His father is on his phone. ‘Andrew Meyers. He’ll know what to do, Kate. The same thing happened to him a few weeks ago.’
A burst of Mr Meyers’s loud voice and then his father’s. ‘Andrew? Hi, it’s Dominic. Look, I’m sorry to disturb you in the evening, but we’ve had a … Kate’s car’s just been stolen … No, we’re all fine. Thanks, Andrew. Yes, yes, in the drive, and they got the house keys too. Hacked the security code at the gate.’
Another burst of noise and Noah’s father scribbled something down. ‘No, no, it doesn’t matter what they charge. We need this done tonight – otherwise none of us will sleep.’
The pizzas sat cooling on the kitchen counter, but their stomachs were too knotted to eat.
The Speed Key van arrived within half an hour. The four men got to work at once, checking the perimeter, fitting a new lock to the front door. They replaced and recoded the gate sensor, all the gate buttons and did the same for the garage. They worked quietly and efficiently and within three hours everything had been completed. Noah’s mom asked if they had eaten and they were happy to take the pizzas with them. His father used the new remote, the gate rolled open and the Speed Key team drove out.
The kitchen was filled with silence.
‘At least …’ Noah’s mother began, and his father picked up on her words quickly.
‘At least they didn’t hurt you, darling.’
‘And,’ she tried to follow on, ‘at least …’ and then she was shuddering. ‘Why us, Dom?’
‘Just bad luck, Kate. Men like that respect nothing.’
That’s what the constable had said too. ‘No respect for the laws of the land, these ous.’
‘We can’t give in to it,’ said Noah’s father. ‘We have to try to maintain law and order. If we don’t, we’re asking for chaos.’
That was the thought circling in Noah’s head when he went to bed. That and the others that filled his head all through the night: Columbine, Gun Control, a lone wolf and his unspeakable acts of violence … Noah stayed awake, tense, ready to leap to the defence of his family.
He had to maintain order, keep chaos at bay. He’d have to work hard, though, because a shadow was forming at the gate of their newly secured home.
Always there.
Always waiting.