Oh di hop, oh di hop, oh di hop, ohé (30 Shades of Christmas – 13)

With the dark curtain lifting, I found myself lying down on the couch looking at the floor. I could see Officer Malone’s shoes.

“Did anyone ever tell you, you have nice shoe size?” I couldn’t help myself from asking.

“Mam, Krissie, you are confused, you just fainted. I caught you just as you were falling and laid you on the couch.” Officer Malone said.

“Do you feel better now or would you like me to bring you to a hospital?” he added.

“I will be alright; would you at least look at the crime scene, Officer Malone?”

“You can call me Griff, Krissie. Those books are very important to you, are they valuable?” Griff said.

“Yes Griff, they are the only copy in the whole world; they are invaluable.” Helpless, I started to cry.

He looked at me with intelligent eyes and asked to see the library.

I got up, walked with him to the safe and showed him the empty room.

He seemed skeptical. “Krissie could you tell me what happened last night?”

Sobbing I explained: “Nothing happened, last night, all the books were here. I locked the room, armed the alarm and went to bed, which is the next room. This morning, I found the door opened and the room completely empty.”

“Are you sure the alarm was armed?”

“Yes, it is not a complicated system, there is a red button to push and the alarm automatically comes on. I heard the beep confirming the operation was successfully done.”

He asked: “How many books were there?”

“I don’t know the exact number, all the shelves were full so it must be several thousand” I answered.

“There are no windows, so they – because it can’t be only one person – they took the books, walked the corridor, opened the outside door and put the books in a very big truck so silently that you didn’t wake up. Krissie how can someone steal thousands of books without you hearing anything.?”

“Griff if I could answer that, I would not need you, would I?”

“I am not accusing you; I’m trying to make sense of what happened here.” He says in a conciliating tone.

“Who has access to this room?” he wants to know.

“Only Ray my administrative assistant and I.”

“It’s 10 am, shouldn’t your assistant be here by now?”

To be continued…