Homeward Bound

Homeward Bound Chapter 32

I left with Rosie who offered us a lift back to the bungalow, as the rest were going to remain on the farm planning, with the exception of Danielle who claimed she had to return to the shop and relieve her mum. David hadn't been that happy to allow us girls, as he put it, to go off on our own, not even when Rosie said she had done self defence and I'd done a bit too. Mum just wanted to get back to Tibbles.

'So, how are you going to get them to go to the farm?' Rosie asked me as she drove back the quicker way to town.

'I'm not sure, but it will come to me soon,' I replied.

Nothing more was said, mum seemed to be thinking about a lot of things sat in the back. I doubt she'd had so much excitement for years. I feared it might take its toll on her. Rosie parked down from the bungalow and we both got out.

'You want me to hang around?' she asked.

'No, I think we can deal with it,' I assured her.

We watched her go off and when she was out of sight we both walked up to the bungalow, where mum stopped at the top of the steps. I didn't see it at first but when I did my bloody went cold. I barged on past her and kicked the partly open front door inwards, not knowing what the hell I would do if anyone was posed to pounce on us.

That wasn't the case, I soon realised. The bungalow was empty but trashed, like someone had been trying to find something and hadn't. What was worse Auntie Connie wasn't there nor was my ex-boss. What had gone so wrong, I wondered, looking around the kitchen that had been wrecked. Someone had gone through all the cupboards pulling out crockery, now smashed, and packets of food tossed around.

The living room had taken the same treatment, with drawers being opened, the glass cabinet being opened and some of mum's prized tea set being pulled out, two cups now smashed and the sugar bowl missing its lid. Her DVD's and CD's had been pulled out onto the carpet.

'Oh my god!' mum wailed out, which alerted me that she had followed me in.

I whipped around and founded her in her own bedroom, which had been well and truly trashed with all her clothes being pulled out onto the bed, her knicker drawer being hauled out and flung against the wall, along with the other two drawers with her socks, tights and bra. All the puzzles had been picked up and flung around, pieces being scattered to the four winds.

I left her weeping at the mess, while I took a look at my room, which turned out to be the only room in the bungalow not trashed this time. I then turned back and wondered where Tibbles might be. The answer came from the growl that came from the top of mum wardrobe. Eyes blazing, tail wishing, she looked very much the wild cat. It took mum some time to coax her down. Amazingly she was untouched.

'How as this happened?' she choked out.

'I don't know, clearly they got in somehow,' I suggested.

'Where is Connie then and that horrible man?' she demanded, slightly fretting and she wasn't the only one.

'It looks like his colleagues arrived and somehow got it,' I muttered while I urged myself to think with care here.

I hadn't got this far without using my cunning skills that dad had taught me as a child. That was why he was so good at knowing when someone was spinning a yarn.

'Who would do this?' Mum pushed me, now getting all fired up that someone had invaded her home, or our home.

'Let me think,' I snapped out.

'You don't have time to think, you stupid girl, why couldn't you have just left that dress where it was, why didn't you just come back here before he died,' she yelled at me.