Free Hidden by Derick Parsons, John Amy Page A

into battle on an empty stomach.  You’re not going into battle, of course, but the principle holds true for any unpleasant duty.  Once you’ve had breakfast we’ll start sorting things out together.’
    Kate didn’t much care for her neighbor’s unctuous, instant sympathy and had a sudden, repellent image of Mrs. Kelly gossiping about all this with her friends, showing them all how caring and generous she was, and so ready to rise to any occasion and help out a neighbor in distress.  Then she realized that she was being an ungrateful bitch, taking her frustration out on the nearest available candidate since she couldn’t reach those who truly deserved it.  So she gave another, more heart-felt smile and said, ‘That would be great, thank you.  But I have a lecture at half-eleven that I’m going to miss and I really should ring the University and tell them.  Could I possibly use your phone?  I forgot to charge my mobile last night and the battery’s dead.’
    Lucy waved a hand towards the phone mounted on the hall wall, ‘Of course! Go right ahead, I’ll be in the kitchen when you’re finished.’
    She bustled off, a heavy, matronly woman who in truth did seem to be enjoying the drama just a little, leaving Kate to dial the administration office in Trinity.  After several delays she finally got through to the Bursar’s secretary, a less than pleasant woman with whom Kate had clashed several times before.  Kate briefly told her that she wasn’t going to be in that morning, and why, whereupon the secretary sucked in her breath and said glacially, ‘You really should give us more warning if you’re going to miss a day, you know, Ms. Bennett!  There are strict procedures for unscheduled days off, as you’re perfectly aware.’
    This wasn’t the morning for listening to rubbish like this but Kate managed to keep her temper.  Rather than scarifying the officious hag, as was her first instinct, she instead said, in her sweetest voice, ‘I couldn’t give any notice because the bastards who broke in and destroyed my apartment didn’t give me any warning!  If I had known a week ago that I was going to be burgled I could have given you plenty of notice, but unfortunately burglars don’t give a shit about you or your procedures, and they weren’t so obliging as to inform me that they were coming!  Thank you so much for your sympathy and concern!’
    She hung up the phone, fuming but also feeling a little b etter for having vented some steam.  And unlike Lucy, the bursar’s secretary didn’t count as an innocent bystander.  Kate was used to those close to positions of authority acting as if the authority was theirs, and out-Heroding Herod in the thrill of their proximity to power, and she had never much cared for that sort of petty bullying.
    As she didn’t know where the bathroom was, and in any case disliked using other people’s facilities, she made her way into the kitchen and sat down to a cup of tea with the sympathetic Lucy.  Kate would have preferred coffee but she had to admit that the hot, sweet brew was welcome on that particular morning, especially as it was accompanied by slices of hot toast covered with real butter and masses of chunky marmalade.  Butter and marmalade were just two of the treats that Kate had long ago forced out of her own diet but today, she decided, was a special occasion, and as such the eating of just one of these delicious slices was justified.  Perhaps even two.  Dozen .
    ‘What are you going to do first this morning, Kate?  I mean, there’s the insurance and’ -h ere Lucy waved one hand vaguely- ‘all sorts of things to be seen to.’
    Guessing that her hostess generally left such tasks to her husband, Kate shrugged and said, ‘I suppose so, but the firs t thing I have to do is tidy up a bit so I can make a list of what’s missing for the police.  Otherwise it won’t be easy because they really wrecked the place.’
    ‘Bastards!’ spat Lucy with