Time for a bit of sleuthing!

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At about 3:45 this afternoon I was out in the garden when our neighbours’ alarm suddenly went off. I went over to have a look but I couldn’t see anything wrong. They did tell me they had had various problems with it before, recently due to a water leak causing a short. They pay for an expensive monthly contract which is supposed to alert the emergency services, and sure enough after about 10 minutes the fire brigade showed up. They had a quick look around, couldn’t find anything wrong either, hung around for a bit to see if anyone came home, and then after about 5 minutes they left as well. An hour passed, and then another. The alarm could be heard all over our end of the village. A couple of other neighbours called to ask if it was us, or if we knew how to contact the owners, but we didn’t. We’ve only lived here a few months and have only met them a couple of times. I searched through my address book and any papers associated with the house in case I had been given contact details that I’d filed away somewhere and forgotten, but drew a blank. Another couple of hours passed. It was obvious that the alarm wasn’t going to just stop of its own accord. By this time it was starting to go dark, lights had come on in the house (they are on a timer) and this made it quite clear to any potential intruders that there couldn’t be anyone home and now would be an ideal time to break in! Finally I remembered that the husband had previously told me that he had a business based in a certain area. I Googled his first name (didn’t know his last name) and the address and up came the business with his name and a photo (so I could be sure I had the right person) and a work email address. At last! I was able to send him a message and after about half an hour he called back and was able to tell me where to find a key and what to do. It just so happened that his wife went abroad today, he is away, their almost-grown-up children are also all away, and none of the neighbours seem to have a key or a telephone number. I was relieved that my little bit of sleuthing was effective because I don’t think I could have stood that noise all night! All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2017.