Cat Got Caught
An excerpt from Bound To You
It was supposed to be a run-of-the-mill job but everything changes when Catanya comes across a crime that is way worse than the crime she’s committing. Below is an excerpt from the Kinky Karibbean short story, Bound to You.
The time was now, quietly she stepped onto the road and slowly made her way to the key pad. With her face deep in the shadow of her hoodie, she tapped in the key code. Black plastic gloves crinkling with each contact. Then Catanya waited.
It felt like forever instead of a few seconds before the beep. In those seconds, Catanya wondered if the security guard had changed the code during the last visit. Did they add new cameras that could pick up her features? Just as she was questioning if she should give up and return to her car hidden on the other side of the wild tamarinds, Catanya heard a beep.
An hour, the most, she reminded herself as she hustled through the gate as soon as there was enough space for her to pass through. Forty-five minutes to collect the items and fifteen to clear all traces of her being there.
Bring up the blue print of the house to her mind, she ran to the servants' area. From her experience, Catanya knew that hired help were not so strict with shutting down their spaces, believing that the exterior security was enough. And sure enough, Catanya found a window cracked open.
It was a head above her 5'8" frame, but she was able to open it fully and scrambled up and through it. Still, she didn't drop in, yes, the staff relied on the external system but it was now important that silence and hyper vigilance reigned.
Slipping to the floor, Catanya pulled in the window. First things first, she went to a small office two doors from what she had identified as a store room. When she turned the handle of the door to the office, Catanya half expected it to be locked. That wouldn't have deterred her as she was prepared for almost anything. She exhaled when the handle turned.
Pushing it open, she took in the multiple flat screen monitors. Each of them displayed various areas of the house in various shades of gray. To be expected. Catanya crossed over and tapped on the keyboard that sat in front of the screen. Those few months working with a few security companies in Redonda had her knowing their systems including this one. She used it to select a frame that covered the gate area and reversed it until she saw herself at the key pad.
Catanya took it back to just before she appeared on the screen. She made mental notes of when she first appeared and when she disappeared. Then she went in search of an evening that had the same conditions as this one. With a tap and a bit of digital sleight of hand, her entry into the villa disappeared. So did her running to the back, through the window and into the office.
Then Catanya set up the system to start recording on those frames an hour from then. She didn't plan to leave in an hour, but... she looked towards the door and by extension the rest of the villa. Catanya didn't know what she would find there.
With the clock ticking, she left the security room and started in the kitchen. Catanya had a system and rules. Take only what would go unnoticed, the specialty knife that no one used, the piece of art that was stored somewhere when a new more known piece was acquired. Bigger pieces would be placed near the escape area, if there any, and what were smaller would be stowed in Catanya's back pack.
As she entered the large lounge, Catanya did a quick scan before going through the drawers of the side tables. She chuckled to herself as she found crumpled bills of pounds, euros and US currency. It was as though they were loose change that were left at the bottom of one's purse or pulled out of one's pocket and dropped on a random surface. All of which were dropped in her bag.
Catanya was considering going through the sofa, debating how thorough the maid was when she heard a sound. Going still, she keened her ear towards the archway at the far side of the lounge and stepped back into the shadows.
Could someone be here? roared in her head as Catanya listened to the silence. Foolishly, she had not gone through all the surveillance footage, but why should she? With the exception of the security guard man, no one had entered the villa. But what of when she had gone to her car and prepared for her entry into the villa? Could someone had entered then? But the house had been quiet until...
A cry shattered the silence. A cry of pain that was followed by almost undetectable whimpering. Catanya looked the way she had come. All she had to do was keep to the shadows, get to the servants' area and get out. No, her loot was not much but she wouldn't be caught. Catanya had never been caught and as far as she'd known, none of the villas she had hit ever reported anything stolen.
Stepping on the pads of her feet, Catanya struck out for the kitchen. But hearing what clearly sounded like skin striking skin, she came to an abrupt stop. Another cry for help made her turn towards the archway that led to, what she recalled, the bedrooms.
The whimpering was louder and Catanya found herself walking towards it. She was about to step through the archway and into a hall when she caught herself.
What am I doing? she looked down at her backpack in her bag. I'm not supposed to even be here, Catanya shook her head and stepped back.
"No, no, no!" was interspersed with violent gasps.
Dropping the backpack, Catanya ran into the hallway then stopped at a door that stood ajar. Soft light poured out while the gasping sound urged Catanya to push open the door.
Kneeling over a woman on the bed was a man, his hands around her neck. In spite of the binds at her wrists and ankles, she was bucking up and down, trying to break the man's hold.
Without thinking, Catanya rushed in and after a quick look, she reached for a heavy vase and brought it down on the head of the man.
He fell to the side, then blinked and looked up at Catanya. His hand reached for her and she raised the vase again, but his eyes rolled up in his head and he went slack.
With him going out, Catanya came in and she looked down at the vase. A smear of red on its curved side. Hearing a gasp, she looked across at the woman.
She lay naked on the bed, a tumble of black hair fanned out. Her chest heaving as she struggled to catch her breath. Angry red marks on her neck.
The vase slipped from Catanya's hands as she took a step back and then another. Quickly, she turned and strode to the door. She had to get out. This was not supposed to happen. She found it difficult to grasp what had happened so Catanya chose to focus on her escape.
"No," the voice that had cried out was raspy. "Per favor," it was wet with tears. "No, no, no."
Catanya stopped in the doorway, her hands balled up into tight fists as she urged herself on. Get out! Get out! Get out! This is not your horror story. This is not your crime! Just get out! A voice in her head pleaded of her. This has no upside. None!
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