Rented garage break-in worries Mandy

It was Tom Hutchinson on the telephone and he sounded concerned.

“Mandy, do you remember you told me that your belongings were in a rented garage in the town locally.”

“I did,” said Mandy, already her stomach was beginning to churn.

“I was doing some research for the local newspaper and came across a police report. I don’t know if it relates to your garage and your belongings. I hope it doesn’t but you may want to check to make sure every thing’s all right with your things.”

Mandy felt her throat tightening.

“I’m afraid I don’t actually have transport at the moment,” she said, quietly.

“You don’t need to worry about transport,” said Tom Hutchinson. “I’ll come and collect you.”

“You are a treasure,” said Mandy, simply,  “but it will have to be after 6 o’clock in the evening. I can’t see my boss giving me any time off.”

“I’ll collect you at 6 o’clock, then,” said Tom Hutchinson.

Mandy put down the telephone and wondered whether her life was destined to be nothing but a catalogue of disasters. If such a thing existed called Destiny, hadn’t Destiny already had its pound of flesh?

The afternoon seemed to stretch forever. Mandy mentioned to Ruarc that she would have to go promptly at 6 o’clock. He grumbled but didn’t try to stop her. Mandy didn’t tell him why. She didn’t think he would be bothered.

Midway through the afternoon, Mandy took a ten minute break from the motor-home sales office to get some provisions from the farm shop.

As she passed the large warehouse near the farm, she noticed that the doors were open and no longer locked. It seemed that the human cargo the warehouse had contained had moved out.

Mandy wondered what was now the fate of the poor people who had spent the night there. Could it be that they were illegal immigrants in transit?

Mandy thought it was probably better not to get involved. She had enough problems already. She’d never thought Ruarc’s business interests were likely to be spotless and her job was all that was providing her with food and lodging into the foreseeable future.

However, Mandy reflected, those poor people in the warehouse proved that however bad life seem to get for her, there was always somebody else who was worse off.

At least she seemed to have made one reliable friend in Tom Hutchinson who turned up as promised in his VW camper-van at 6 o’clock precisely to take her to her rented garage storage.