21. Derek
“The lot has plenty of acreage and access to city water, electricity, and sewer. The building has been condemned, so I can’t really say if it’s worth restoring or if a full tear-down and rebuild would be better.” Derek checked his notes as his clients, a middle-aged couple, stared at the dilapidated building in front of them.
For the first time in years, he wished he had a job that didn’t require him to work on Saturday mornings.
“Can we take a look inside?” The man asked Derek.
“Sure,” he said with a smile to hide his concern. He’d worn his workboots and jeans for this purpose this morning, but he had hoped the clients wouldn’t want to get too close to the building. The two-story house, with around 1800 square feet and three bedrooms, had several boarded windows in the front. The back windows had once been boarded, but someone had removed some of the wooden planks. “If we make our way to the backyard, we should be able to peek in a few of the windows. There’s some overgrown shrubs, some with thorns, so we’ll need to be careful. It”s too dangerous to go inside. No telling if the floor will support our weight or the extent of any rot.”
The shame with houses like this were that, while once charming and full of character, the upkeep posed a challenge. But this house had history, and with the right buyer, it could become a gem in the neighborhood.
They carefully made their way to the back, discussing the foundation and surrounding neighborhood on the way. When they turned the corner to the backyard, Derek sighed in relief. Someone else must have recently shown the house because the shrubbery that had blocked one of the bottom floor windows was trimmed back.
The man stepped up to the window first, barely glancing inside before jumping back, a look of shock on his face. He held a single finger in front of his mouth, motioning his wife and Derek to be quiet.
Derek stepped past him and peeked through the broken window into what looked like a dining room. The floor was covered in garbage. Paper bags, cigarette cartons, and crumpled paper littered the surface. The man pointed over Derek’s shoulder to the doorway of the room.
“Someone was in there. They saw me and ran that way.” The man, Pete, whispered in his ear.
“That happens sometimes. These old buildings sometimes get used by people who have nowhere else to go. We can still look around the property, just be respectful and don’t threaten whoever we see.”
He barely got the words out before Pete’s wife, Rachel, let out a scream. Derek turned around as a small feminine body with tangled hair jumped on his back, wrapping her hands around his head and screaming in his ear. Hit after hit landed on his torso, and he struggled to stay upright. The attacker wasn’t big or strong but knew where to strike.
The ground connected with the front of his body with a hard slam, a sharp pain spreading through his right rib as the attacker climbed on top of him, still hitting over and over again, harder this time, as if she held a rock.
With a loud grunt, he rolled over at the same time that the weight of his attacker disappeared from his back. Panting, he looked to his side where Pete had pinned the woman down, the front of her body pressed against the ground and her hands held against her back. Familiar eyes stared at him from a face that looked like a sunken, haunted version of his girlfriend.
”Val? Are you—?” he winced, a sharp pain shooting through his torso with each breath.
“I called the police. A patrol car was two blocks away. They’ll be here in a minute,” Rachel said as sirens sounded from somewhere down the street.
Derek let out a quiet swear as the woman glared at him. A wallet lay by her side on the ground, having fallen out of the large pocket of the oversized jacket she wore. He sat up despite the sharp pains around his ribs, picked up the wallet, and opened it. A man’s ID card and several credit cards with various names fell out.
He dropped the wallet and laid back on the ground, trying to ignore the pain in his torso.
Two police officers stepped around the corner of the yard, one speaking into a radio while the other approached Pete and the woman. “Everyone stay still. What’s happening here?” The female police officer questioned.
“We were looking at this property with our realtor, and this woman came out of nowhere, attacking us,” Pete said.
The officer nodded, motioning for Pete to release his hold on the attacker. As soon as he did, she let out a loud cuss and sprang to her feet, running across the backyard. The police officer ran after her, catching up with her quickly and pinning her back on the ground. A set of metal handcuffs were placed around her wrists as Derek looked on in shock.
How would he explain this to Theresa?