Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
An Awkward Exit
Amie let David lay out the plan. One, because she knew he’d feel better if he got to make a plan, and two, she didn’t really have one anyway.
“I will lure Benny out of his apartment,” David said, twirling his keys on one finger as they stood by his door. “Once we’re gone, you’ll have ten minutes to search his place. Let’s coordinate our watches.”
“I don’t have a watch.” Amie said, waving her phone at him. “Our phones should have the exact same time.”
David pulled his phone out of his pocket, intrigued. “Do they really?”
They spent the following twelve seconds silently waiting to see if the clocks on their phones changed at the same time. When they did, David let out a satisfied “Hmph.”
“Great. By the ten-minute mark, you need to be out of there.”
“Got it,” Amie said. “Ten minutes and I’m out of there. What am I looking for?”
David stuffed his phone back into his pocket. “How should I know? You were the one who wanted to search his apartment!”
“Okay, okay.” Amie frowned. “I’ll … figure it out.”
Apparently, there was something in Amie’s expression that didn’t give David much confidence in her figuring it out. He sighed. “Just look for anything that seems out of place. Check drawers and closets. And garbage cans. Definitely check the garbage cans.”
Amie perked up at receiving instructions she could follow. “Garbage cans. I can do that.”
“All right.” David opened the door and gestured for Amie to exit. “Let’s do this.”
Benny wasn’t home. Which would have been convenient for someone trying to sneak into his apartment, presuming that person had a key or knew how to pick a lock. After a quick inventory of keys and skills, Amie and David came to the conclusion that they were zero for two.
“He could’ve gone out for the evening,” David said. They were standing in the stairwell, looking through the small window that faced the street. “We could be here for hours.”
“It’s only been thirty minutes,” Amie said, resting her forehead against the window pane. “Just wait a little longer.”
“You sure you don’t have some time loop knowledge that can tell us where he is right now and when he’s coming back?”
“I’m not psychic,” Amie retorted. “Just because I know a lot about things that happened on Monday doesn’t mean I’m supernaturally attuned to everyone’s habits and whereabouts now.”
“Worth asking.” David leaned against the wall. “Do you know where Benny was Monday evening?”
“Why?”
“Well,” he said, “if Savannah was killed that night, but you knew he was in his apartment watching football all evening, then that gives him an alibi. And it gives me the excuse to abandon this mission and get back to my machine.”
Amie stepped back from the window, sifting through her memories of the time loop to see if Benny appeared in any of them.
“I’d see him in the morning, sometimes,” she said. “He’d leave the building around eleven thirty AM and get into his car, which was parked across the street.” She closed her eyes, thinking harder. “His car was back by mid-afternoon. I never saw him after—”
Amie stopped suddenly, a memory coming back to her.
“I saw him once,” she said, struggling to remember. “I’d left my date with Ziya early. He was smoking outside the building.” She recounted her interaction with the landlord to the best of her ability, including the fresh breakup, the cheating, and the regrettable gifting of leftovers.
“So he was home that evening,” David said, pushing off the wall as he made to leave.
“Hang on!” Amie protested, grabbing him by the shirt sleeve. “We don’t know what time Savannah was killed. He could’ve just come from killing her, or gone back out after!”
David sagged against the wall again with defeat. “Around what time did you see him?”
Amie started doing the mental math, then gave up and began doing the verbal math.
“We were always seated at a quarter after seven. I think I bailed about thirty minutes in. It was just as the food arrived, I remember that. Say, twenty minutes to take the bus, five-minute walk home from the park. So … a little after eight?”
“Do you remember anything else?” David pressed. “Any other details?”
Amie squeezed her eyes shut, scrunching up her face, as if that would help sharpen the memory. “He was wearing Crocs,” she offered.
“A clue!” David exclaimed, sardonic.
A loud thunk echoed through the stairwell as someone opened the door on the ground floor. They looked at each other.
“Have you been keeping watch?” David whispered.
“I just opened my eyes.”
There was a brief, quiet scramble as they positioned themselves as two people casually conversing in a stairwell.
“That’s so interesting,” Amie said loudly. “Tell me more about that.”
They had a silent, two-second-long argument as David mimed his protestation at being given the bulk of the effort in their simulated conversation.
“Sure, no problem,” he finally relented as the footsteps grew louder. “Let me just think about where to start …”
Amie glanced over to see Benny trudging his way toward them. A takeout bag swung from one hand, a six-pack of beer in the other. His eyes were glued to the stairs as he climbed.
“Oh, hi Benny,” Amie said, her voice a little too high-pitched. She cleared her throat as David visibly relaxed, saved from having to do any more improvisation. “How’s it going?”
Benny looked up as he arrived on the landing. Dark circles hung under his eyes. “Hey. It’s going.”
“Have a good evening!” Amie called after him as he continued his ascent. She received a half-hearted wave over the shoulder in response.
They waited silently until the slam of Benny’s apartment door echoed down the stairwell.
“Okay,” Amie said, heading for the steps to the third floor. “Go time.”
“Hang on.” David put out an arm to stop her. “The man just got dinner. Shouldn’t we let him eat first?”
Amie huffed impatiently. “He also got a bunch of beers. If he gets drunk before you show up at his door, he’s just gonna tell you to come back tomorrow.” She started up the stairs.
“If he gets drunk, he’s probably not meticulously destroying any evidence tonight,” David grumbled, following.
Amie hid in the stairwell as David knocked on the door to Benny’s apartment. As the silence stretched on, she began to fidget nervously. What if he’s panicking and destroying the evidence?
Finally, she heard a door click open.
“Hey there!” David said. His tone was so chipper Amie almost didn’t recognize his voice. “Sorry to bother. Seeing you just now reminded me that I think I’ve got rats or mice or something in my apartment. Would you be able to set up some traps?”
“I’ll give you the traps,” came Benny’s voice. “You can set them up yourself.”
“Ah, right, that’s going to be a problem.
” Amie assumed Benny had retreated into his apartment as David’s volume increased to call after him.
“You see, morally I’m against trapping animals, even with the catch-and-release ones.
I think they should be allowed to roam free—but I’d prefer if they didn’t roam free in my apartment.
I’m fine with you setting up the traps, though. I just can’t do it myself. Morally.”
Amie winced. The excuse had seemed solid when they’d developed it back in David’s apartment. Hearing it in action, however, was making her confidence in their plan plummet.
Thankfully, Benny seemed to have come to the conclusion that setting up the traps himself would make this interaction end faster than if he tried to argue.
“Thank you so much,” David said in response to Benny’s silent enlistment. “After you. We just have to move the oven away from the wall …”
As the two men approached the door to the stairwell, Amie squeezed herself into a corner.
The door swung toward her as Benny pushed it open, just grazing her knees as she pressed her back against the wall.
Once she was satisfied that the coast was clear, Amie leapt to her feet and slipped into the hallway.
Adrenaline shot through her body as she saw Benny’s door was propped open by a singular Jenga block. I can’t believe that worked, she thought as she retrieved the block and entered the apartment.
“Ten minutes,” she said to herself, pulling out her phone and setting a timer.
Timer set, she walked into the apartment and looked around.
It was surprisingly tidy. Amie wasn’t sure what she’d expected, but considering the neatness came as a surprise to her, she supposed she’d been expecting Benny to have the same amount of care for his apartment as he seemed to have for those of his tenants (very little).
She thought back to David’s advice: Look for anything out of place. Drawers, closets.
Running to Benny’s bedroom, she slid open the door and made a beeline for his dresser.
“Sorry, sorry,” she whispered as she searched for any non-clothing items. She didn’t know why searching through someone’s underwear felt so much more wrong than breaking into their apartment, but she felt a lot better once she was able to conclude that particular search.
Finding nothing of note in the dresser, she moved on to Benny’s closet.
Hoodie, hoodie, hoodie, hoodie, nice suit in a dry cleaning bag …
the floor was carpeted with a variety of sneakers and sandals (and one familiar pair of Crocs).
No intriguing boxes or other mysterious items stuffed into the back.
Amie ran to the kitchen. She began pulling open drawers and cabinets, searching for anything strange hidden among silverware or bowls or … six boxes of “Luke Legend’s Alpha King Organic Protein Powder.”
She closed the door to the protein powder cabinet, slumping against the counter in defeat.
What am I even looking for? she thought. Maybe he didn’t find anything in Savannah’s apartment after all.
Amie scanned the space, looking for anything out of place, anywhere Benny might’ve hidden something.