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Back from town, Simon threw the keys on the kitchen counter and started filling the kettle. Nicks closed the door. He’d expected something less tidy.
“When this boils, make a brew, everything’s in the end cupboard by the window, milk in the fridge.” He disappeared into the hallway and Nicks heard him running up the stairs.
He made the tea then had a nosey around. Menus on the notice board, Indian, Chinese, Italian, and, impressively, Nepalese. Some rudimentary crayon drawings that Nicks sincerely hoped had been done by a child and a photograph of a woman with two teenage girls. He opened the drawers.
Reasonably ordered, but every house had a kitchen drawer crammed full of crap and Simon hadn’t broken the rules. The cutlery drawer was a different matter, to say the least. Neat, but not in the right order. As far as Nicks was concerned sane people placed them from left to right as knives, forks, spoons with teaspoons and tin openers at the bottom. Annoyingly, Si was being unorthodox with spoons/teaspoons, forks then knives and heaven only knew where he kept the tin opener. He was about to begin saving a soul when he was interrupted.
“Right, give us that brew and take a look at these.” Simon sat down at the table. Nicks joined him.
“Two CCTV disrupters, a spare phone, two mark four trackers and one mark two that needs something doing to it. A mate of mine’s going to take a look. All the same as you’ve used before.” He picked up a little black oblong. “This is actually quite neat. Looks like a snazzy posh lighter, at least that’s what I think, but it’s an alarm disabler. Pushing it there turns it on and off, there and it searches all the frequencies and locks into the one you’re pointing it at and the opposite corner activates it. It then interrogates the control panel finding the best options for shutting down and implements them. You can even turn an alarm on again when you’ve left.”
Nicks picked up what looked like a small black AA battery metal torch. “What’s this do? I suppose it turns into a stun grenade or something?”
Simon took it off him. “Don’t fuck about with that.”
“Why? Will it explode?”
“No, you’ll probably break it. It’s only a bloody torch but it was a present from my nieces. They got me a little holder for it as well, fits on my belt, but I don’t know where it is at the moment.”
“Probably in that middle drawer over there with all the other stuff.” Nicks smiled.
They sipped their tea. Nicks spoke first. “Is that your nieces in the photo with, I presume by the likeness, your sister?”
Simon nodded. “Yeah. You think we look alike? I never did.”
“It’s in the smile, Si.” Another sip and he pointed to the notice board. “I like your drawings. You’re really getting quite good now."