The sun was shining, but it was a cold and crisp afternoon.
The ceremony had just ended, and friends and family were making their way to the town cars at the bottom of the hill. Riley's widow walked with her sons as mourners consoled her in turn.
Naomi and Brendon had held back during the funeral. Naomi wasn't keen on being too close or being seen too much. Once most people had dispersed, they slowly moved up to the graveside. Naomi wore a black trouser suit with a white shirt and black jacket. She had her big sunglasses on again and an elegant wide-brimmed hat that shaded her face. Brendon persevered in a black suit he'd had from college that was struggling to cope with the changes his physique had gone through in the years since. He shifted in the jacket trying to stop it cutting into his sides.
"He always gave you shit for only ever wearing OR scrubs," Naomi said looking into the grave. "He'd have had something to say today, that's for sure." Brendon huffed out a soft laugh. "I can't believe he's dead," she said after a while. "He was going to leave her. We were going to find a place and…" She cut herself off. Brendon rested a gentle hand just underneath her neck.
The car ride back had been mostly in silence. Brendon followed the car's sat-nav to Naomi's house while she stared out of the passenger window. She was still wearing her sunglasses, resting her chin on her hand and her elbow on the door. The sun was beginning to set and the sky was taking on a pinkish tinge. A short buzz came from Naomi's handbag. She reached in and took out her phone. "Oh shit," she said quietly.
"What is it?" asked Brendon.
"It's the alarm for the office, it's going off." She held up her phone. Brendon could see a flashing notification on her lock screen. "I can shut it down from here but I should probably go and check it out."
"Do you want me to take you?" asked Brendon.
"Would you, hon? That would be great. It's probably nothing but I'd feel better if you were there."
"No problem." Brendon turned off the sat-nav and took the next right.
He parked in the car park around the back of the building. As she got out of the car, something caught Naomi's eye. "Hey, look at that." She was pointing up to a swinging door at the top of the two-storey fire escape. "That's the fire door." They both looked at each other.
Brendon went in first. Sheets of paper fluttered past them. He peered in around the door frame. "Hello!" he shouted nervously. He stepped inside. The place had been thoroughly ransacked. He tiptoed around broken glass and snapped plastic. Naomi followed him carefully. The metal cabinets had had their locks sheared off and were standing empty with their contents sprawled out in front of them. Electronic equipment lay shattered, expensive-looking lenses cracked and smashed. Naomi's desk was upended on its side. The only thing that seemed to be untouched was the coffee machine in the corner. Naomi crept past into Riley's office. Brendon followed.
In there it was the same story. The place was completely trashed. Everything that had once been on the desks was now on the floor. The screens were destroyed. Tablets were broken in two. They'd even hacked up the sofa and chairs in the corner. "Jesus Christ…" exhaled Brendon eventually. "We should call the police."
"Police can't help us, hon," replied Naomi. "He's got too much shit in here that he shouldn't have. We don't want the police poking into things they don't need to."
"Well, is anything missing? Can you tell?"
"All the hard drives are gone. His headsets, some tablets."
"Burglars?"
"This wasn't a burglary. They were looking for something, otherwise why trash the cameras, laptops and screens."
"What were they looking for?"
"I don't know. All I know is that he'd been doing nothing but looking for Grace the past few weeks, and he was still looking for her when he died." Brendon stood processing the new turn of events. The past few days had been something of a whirlwind, and he hadn't thought about Grace that much for once. Hearing Naomi say her name brought it back.
"You think Riley and this has something to do with Grace?" asked Brendon with a hint of incredulity.
"I think it's the shortest line to make a connection, don't you? He was working all hours trying to get to Grace. Trying all sorts to get to her, but he kept getting busted out.
"He said he'd never seen walls like that, and he'd been doing this a long time, he could get in anywhere. It would really take something to keep out Riley." She paused. "I don't know what Grace is into, but her people seem to be trying really hard to keep whatever it is they're doing quiet."
Brendon stared into space. He had a scowl on his face like he was trying to solve an impossible equation. "This doesn't make sense, what happened to Riley was an accident, a malfunction of some kind."
"You said you'd never seen anything like it before."
"I know, but this tech is so new, it changes all the time. This could be a new thing, and we start seeing more of it from now on. I don't know."
"Look hon, I worked with Riley a long time. One thing I learnt from this business is that when you see coincidences, it's just your gut telling you you're on the right track. This connects." Naomi could see Brendon was computing this in his head.
"So how do we find out? If we can't go to the Police, then who?"