The loud sound of sirens greeted us as we walked towards Courtland’s and several police cars sped by.

“Great…just great,” Susie groaned. “As if all the noise from the mess next door wasn’t enough, now we have to listen to screaming cop cars.”

“I hope no one was hurt,” I craned my neck, trying to see the length of the block. It looked like the squad cars were slowing down near Courtland’s. “Geez, it looks like whatever the problem is, it’s near our building.”

“Ugh…maybe one of those construction workers at Eldon’s fell?” Susie grimaced.

“I hope not…” What if something happened at Courtland’s? “Let’s hurry, Susie.” My mind was spinning. As we got closer I feared the worst as I realized that several of the police cars had parked directly in front of my jewelry store. Had Heather gotten hurt? A few police officers were standing near the building, and one was holding onto Heather as she sagged against him.

“Sam, Samatha…I’m…so, so sorry,” Heather moaned.

“What is it? What’s going on?” Her tear-streaked face sent alarm bells ringing through my body.

“Someone robbed the place, ma’am,” one of the officers said, blocking my entry into the store.

“Are you ok, Heather? Did they hurt you?”

“No, I…I…didn’t see anything. I just stepped out in the back for a smoke break and when I came back in…well…I…um…noticed that some of the jewelry was missing and I…called 911.”

I gasped. I knew Heather was upset because she knew she was not supposed to take smoke breaks when she was alone in the store, but I was thankful that nothing had happened to her. What if she had been inside by herself when the robbers came in?

“Thank God you’re ok.” I exclaimed. My head was pounding. I’d been robbed! I couldn’t believe it. I turned back towards the policeman. “Officer, this is my business. Please let me inside.”

As the officer moved to the side, I quickly rushed into the store, followed by Susie. Most of the cases looked intact, but when I moved towards the back I could see that the displays that held the fine watches, luxury necklaces and diamond jewelry had been emptied.

“Wha…what happened?” I asked one of the officers.

“We responded as quickly as possible but the robber, or robbers, were in and out in minutes.”

“They took the most expensive stuff!” Susie exclaimed, staring at the empty display cases.

“I reckon whoever took the stuff knew what they were looking for. They did it pretty fast.” One of the officers said.

“This totally sucks, but thank God you have insurance Sam,” Susie rubbed my shoulder lightly.

“Shit! I can’t believe this.” I had only recently let Will Allen, our security officer, go, and I’d raised the insurance deductible to try and cut expenses. But there was no point telling Susie that. I shook my head sadly and exhaled deeply as I tried to hold back my tears and stay composed.

“I’m Officer Joel Rigby,” A dark haired policemen said. “I’m very sorry this happened.”

I sniffled. “Thank you officer.” This was all too much. It didn’t help that despite the sirens and police activity I could still hear the racket from the construction next door. Hello! Didn’t they realize their neighbor had been robbed? My head felt like it was going to explode.

“Have you noticed anything strange lately…anyone loitering around the business?” he asked. 

“No…I…I…haven’t seen anything unusual and no one has been loitering around here,” I frowned, thinking about it. “Well, actually, I recently hired a new employee, Heather Knox, and her boyfriend was in here—constantly at first—but he stopped coming in when I asked him to.”

“And what’s his name?”

“Barry…um, Barry…I can’t think of his last name.”

“No problem. We’ll find out his full name and we’ll do our best to find the culprits who robbed this place. Do you have camera footage we can take a look at it?” he questioned, pointing to two small cameras in the ceiling that had been installed years earlier.

My heart dropped to the floor. “No…my cameras have been malfunctioning so I turned them off. And I…I meant to call someone to take a look at them but I…haven’t had time yet,” I finished lamely. In reality, I didn’t have the money to hire someone to look at them. I knew it was bad that I didn’t have working cameras in the store, but a robbery hadn’t happened on this street in years. So I’d put it off. And now this had happened…I felt sick to my stomach.

“I’m so sorry to hear that,” the cop replied sympathetically. “It’s going to be tough to figure out who stole the jewelry, since there were no witnesses to the crime and no cameras, but we will do everything we can to help you. Let me just ask you a few more questions…”

As Officer Rigby asked for more information, I could feel his eyes studying my curves. His line of questioning seemed odd—a bit too personal, asking me if I was married and how old I was. He seemed more interested in what was happening in my life than the robbery that had just happened in the store. But, maybe he needed to rule a boyfriend or husband out as a suspect.

“Well, I guess that’s it then,” he said, after asking what seemed like a hundred more questions. “Feel free to come down to the station if you can think of anything else that may help us solve the case.”

“Thank you,” I murmured, feeling like an idiot. I wasn’t sure what else he could ask that he hadn’t already, but I was glad he wanted to be thorough and get to the bottom of this.

“Of course. I want you to get in touch with me personally if you can think of anything else, anything at all, it doesn’t matter how big or small you think it is. Here’s my contact information.” As Officer Rigby pressed a card into my hand, I could feel him studying me intently.

“Yes…yes I will do that.”

He pursed his lips. “Remember, contact me if you need or want anything at all…I’ll be in touch.”

As Officer Rigby left, Susie sidled up next to me.

“Whoa, you’re two for two today.”

I raised my brows.

“It sucks what happened…but, Mr. Hottie in the coffee shop and Mr. Policeman? They both liked you alright. I could see from the way they looked at you!”

I shook my head.

“Sorry…wrong timing.”

“Yeah, it is,” I groaned. Susie was always thinking about men—no matter what.

“I’m going to go call the insurance company. Please help the officers with what they need and any other questions they have. Tell Heather she can go home for the day, I’m sure she’s pretty shaken up. Thanks, Susie.” Fighting back tears, I brushed past Susie and headed towards my office, trying not to look at the empty display cases on the way.

I got to my office and sat down at my desk. I felt absolutely sick. Why did the week after I raised the deductible on my insurance and let my security guard go did I have to get robbed? If I was going to get robbed, why now…why, when I was struggling so badly? Life seemed so unfair. What was I going to do? I rubbed my forehead.

I glanced at the picture of Jasmine and Jimmy on my desk. How was I going to support them? I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Get it together, Sam, I told myself. You can get through this. You have no choice. I steeled my shoulders and picked up the phone to call the insurance company.