Page 54 of Fish out of Water
The cop seemed unfazed as he continued writing in his notebook. “About how many items would you say that is?”
“Twenty.” Mrs. Hill answered for me.
The cop ignored her, his eyes lifting to me.
“Twenty.”
He scribbled a little more before slapping the book closed. “I’m going to be honest. We probably won’t recover your stolen items.” He hooked his thumbs into the arm holes of the vest strapped across his chest. “Even if we did, you wouldn’t want them back.”
Yeah. No shit.
“It’s fine.” I collected my hair and lifted it off my neck as the heat of the afternoon started to creep in. “I can buy more.”
The cop turned as his partner and Grant came outside. “We’ll see if there’s any prints on the door here or the drawer pulls on your dresser. Other than that there’s not much else we can do.”
“Aren’t you concerned that there have been two break-ins here in the past two days?” Mrs. Sherling stood a little taller. “There are never any issues here and now suddenly this?”
The cop’s eyes moved from Grant to me and held. “I would say this is an isolated event.”
My mouth dropped open a little.
Was he trying to say thatImight be the isolated event?
“Thank you for coming out.” Grant slapped the cop on the shoulder. “I appreciate it.” Then he came my way, snagging me and taking me toward the stairs. “We need to go see Sally and tell her you need a new door.”
Sally wasn’t one of my favorite people in the world. She was the one who omitted the fact that this was a sixty-five-and up community when I applied for the apartment. It wasn’t until I showed up, rental truck full of shit, that I started to think something was up.
Even then I had to pry it out of her.
Apparently she got a bonus if she filled my unit by the end of the day, and I happened to call at just the right time.
Not that I was upset with how things worked out.
I just didn’t trust her.
It took Grant all of five minutes with Sally and one of the maintenance men was already on their way to screw a padlock onto my door until they could replace it, which would apparently be at least a few days.
“Days?” I had to work. I had to—
Nope. That was all.
“I know, honey.” Sally seemed super apologetic. “We just have to order a door and they take a few days to come in.” She rested one hand over her heart. “Do you have somewhere else you can stay until then? We can lock your apartment from the outside, but I’m just not sure we can keep it secure enough from the inside.”
No kidding.
“We’re going to my place.”
“I hope you don’t hold this against us. We don’t have break-ins here, let alone two in one weekend.” Sally was completely focused on Grant now.
Like he was the one she needed to worry about moving out and ruining her full-capacity bonus.
“I’m sure you’ll get it all straightened out.” Grant turned to leave the office.
“Do we have your contact information?” She shoved a form Grant’s way. “Just in case we need to get a hold of you?”
Grant’s eyes dipped to the clipboard. “I’m sure you have Julia’s number. If you need to get in touch with me you can call her.”
Looked like I wasn’t the only one who didn’t quite trust Sally.
