Day Three
July 23, 1952
Wednesday Afternoon
The heavy pounding of feet continued up the stairwell towards Waverly’s frozen body. Two seconds later the 29-year-old lanky frame of Miles Rocket bounded around the landing and almost knocked her down. A cigarette fell from his lips. He picked it up and replaced it.
“You’re not dead,” he said.
“Why would I be?”
He shook his head.
“Damn, I thought for sure-, I mean, first you drop off the face of the earth, then that guy shows up and trashes your apartment.”
Waverly narrowed her eyes.
“What guy? Did you see him?”
“Yeah, I saw him.”
“Tell me.”
The man retreated in thought.
“I heard all this noise,” he said. “At first I thought you were back and were having a fight with someone or something like that, but then I didn’t hear any arguing so I figured you were alone. The longer it went on, the more I got to thinking that it wasn’t you. When it stopped, I looked out the peephole of my door to see if someone walked by. Someone did, a man.”
“What’d he look like?”
“Scary, that’s the best way to describe him. Damn scary.”
“Give me specifics,” Waverly said. “Tall, short, fat, skinny, what?”
“Well, he was wearing a black T-shirt, although I don’t suppose that helps very much,” he said. “He had a scar that ran down his forehead towards his eye and then down his cheek. He was tall-over six feet-and strong too, not in a thick Gorilla kind of way but more in a taut way. Oh, he had a tattoo, too. It was on his forearm. I didn’t get a real good look at it on account of how fast he was moving, but it could have been a red rose or something like that.”
“Did you ever seen him before?”
“No that was it, just that one time. That was enough. There was something about the guy’s eyes.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “They were just, I don’t know-wrong, if that makes any sense.”
Waverly nodded.
“Yeah, it makes sense. When did this happen?”
“Last night, about ten. No, wait, not last night, Monday night. Right, Monday night, about ten.” A beat then, “What was he doing there?”
“Good question.”
“You don’t know him?”
“No.”
“He was probably just a robber then,” Rocket said. “You’d think he’d be a little more quiet though. Was anything taken?”
“I don’t know.”
As much as Waverly didn’t want to be around, she wanted even less to be ignorant as to what actually happened, so she went back to her apartment, stepped inside and closed the door.
The sight wasn’t as dramatic as before.
A lamp that could have easily been smashed was still in place, likewise for a picture frame, a radio too for that matter. Destruction wasn’t the motive. On the other hand, every drawer in the place had been pulled out and dumped. If something had been taken, it wasn’t obvious. A few things that should have been taken weren’t-her jewelry box for one, not that any of it was worth anything, but a thief wouldn’t know that at a rough glance, he’d be more prone to just take it and figure it out later. The more she looked around, the more she came to the conclusion that the man had been looking for something.
She picked a butcher knife off the floor and set it on the counter.
Then she got a pot of coffee going.
She drank a cup on the couch with the knife at her side.
Sunshine streamed through the windows.
Suddenly the phone rang.
It was Su-Moon, checking in to report she’d arrived safe and sound in Cleveland.
Waverly brought her up to speed on the break-in to her apartment as well as the note she was trying to get delivered to Bristol’s little spankee.
“With any luck she’ll show tonight.”
Su-Moon wasn’t impressed.
“You’re playing a dangerous game.”
“I’m going to scare her over to our side.”
“I doubt it.”
Waverly shrugged.
Time would tell.
“I won’t be coming back to my apartment so you won’t be able to get a hold of me here after this. Give me the number where you’re staying. I’ll have to contact you.”
Su-Moon read the numbers off and Waverly jotted them down and stuck the paper in her pocket.
“Call me at eight in the morning tomorrow, your time,” Su-Moon said.
“Okay.”
“I’ll be waiting.”
Sooner or later, Waverly would need to come back here. She didn’t want to see the mess again and doubted the man would be back, so she resigned herself to cleaning up.
An hour into it she found something missing.
What it was made her palms sweat.
All her files were gone, every single last one of them.