Chapter 10
CHAPTER 10
E veryone in the apartment complex, plus a few people Eli didn’t know, stood in the parking lot, staring at the building. Eli parked and joined them, probably feeling what they felt—waves of shock. Was this always the way people felt when someone they knew died? Eli didn’t know; this was the first time it had ever happened to him.
“Did you know the deceased?” An officer sidled close and, though it was an offhand question, the keen way he observed Eli made him think it wasn’t as casual as he pretended.
“By name,” Eli said, still staring at the apartment. Watching officers come and go felt surreal; everything felt surreal.
“Nothing more than that?”
Eli squinted, trying to remember if he and Asher Cline had ever had more than a passing conversation, but he couldn’t remember. He wasn’t certain he would know Asher’s last name, if it wasn’t on his mailbox. A movement to his right caught his attention and Eli turned, catching Darby in his peripheral. She seemed to be trying to disappear, which was an impossibility. Women like her couldn’t disappear from anyone, but she gave it a good try, skulking and lurking on the periphery, as if unaware of how every man in residence darted her looks that lingered. To Eli she seemed wan and twitchy. One index finger kept darting to her mouth where she bit it, frowned, yanked it out, and forced it to her side before repeating the entire process again.
“Can you think of anyone suspicious you’ve ever watched enter or leave the apartment building?” the officer asked.
Darby, who must have been eavesdropping, froze and darted Eli a pleading glance. Did she really believe he would rat her out to the cops? Should he? He squinted harder, thinking quickly, trying to find an answer to what shouldn’t have been a complicated question.
“No,” he said. Did Darby sag in relief, or was that his imagination? She must have a tender conscience if she was scared enough to believe he would actually go to the cops about her midnight visit, as if they would care in the midst of a murder.
“If you think of anything,” the officer said and eased away.
Eli turned, searching for Darby, but she was nowhere in sight.
S omehow, Eli slept. He had always been good at shoving away unpleasant thoughts and turning off his brain. Apparently murder fell into the category of the unpleasant things he was able to ignore.
This time when he woke and sat up, alarmed because he’d heard a noise, Darby stood beside his bed, quietly staring at him.
“Sorry, did I startle you?” she asked, voice soft and lilting.
“No, I can’t tell you how often people break in to stand beside my bed while I sleep. It’s almost boring at this point,” he said, trying hard to wake up and orient his brain around the current scenario. She smiled slightly, easing some of his anxiety that she might be there to kill him. A quick check of her hands showed them to be weapon-free, and that was another relief.
“I needed to talk to you,” she said.
“You certainly chose the most obvious method,” he noted. “Wouldn’t want to approach during daylight hours when I’m lucid and wearing more than my underpants.”
“Do you always wake up like this?” she asked.
“Terrified?” he returned.
“Amusing.”
“Ah, yes. Humor is my coping mechanism, especially for burglary,” he said.
“Technically I haven’t stolen anything,” she said.
“Is that an unspoken ‘yet’ I hear?” he asked.
“What would I steal? Your shabby Ikea repertoire?” She made a derisive motion around his apartment, lip curled in distaste.
“Did you actually break in and wake me up to insult me?” he asked.
She sighed. “No, sorry. Do you mind if I sit?” She didn’t wait for an answer before she sank to the edge of his bed, as if she couldn’t bear her own weight anymore.
“No, please. Can I get you a soft drink, some oysters on the half shell, maybe? Because if there is any other way I can make you feel at home in this scenario, please let me know. I live to serve.”
“You’re grumpy,” she accused.
He swiped a hand over his face and once again tried to make his brain engage. “I don’t know what you are, so I guess I should listen for an explanation.”
“Well,” she began slowly, eyes scanning the dark interior. “It’s been kind of a weird day, you know?”
“Weird, you say? How so?” He reached for the t-shirt beside the bed and slipped it on, feeling slightly more comfortable now that his chest was no longer exposed. Not that she had given it, or him, a second look.
“I guess I get used to my peaceful little world here, and then to have that interrupted…” She had been staring into space, and she jumped, as if newly aware of his presence. “I realize how that sounds, like it’s all about me, but that’s not what I meant.”
“It was shocking to have the police here, I get that,” Eli said.
Darby gave him a little smile of shared understanding. “You didn’t tell them about me.”
“What could I have said? That I found you sorting my cupboards in the middle of the night? I think they have bigger things going on right now.”
“That’s the thing, though. I’m not sure they do.”
He cocked his head at her, trying do understand her pensive expression. “What do you mean?”
She took a breath and gripped his comforter in both hands. “The thing about Asher is…”
“Yes?” he prompted, when she seemed to be having trouble continuing.
She took another breath and huffed it out, then looked him in the eye and forged ahead. “I think maybe I killed him.”