Three hours later, after she had gone through the break-in step by step, affirmed she had never seen the man before, and defended her sister's honor by assuring them that he certainly wasn't an irate boyfriend out for revenge; Officer Kendrick held the door for a cruiser to take her home. Considering how Zara felt, he was lucky she didn't wrench his arm off before he could shut the door.
They pulled up to her apartment to find her landlady, Elise, sitting on the front porch in a lawn chair. Despite being the mother of a wildly independent high schooler, Elise didn't look a day over 27. And the look on that beautiful waifish face said woe to whoever got in her way. She brushed a strand of immaculate black hair out of her eyes and tucked it behind her right ear.
Officer Kendrick got out first and approached.
"Good evening ma'am. I understand there was a problem in the upstairs apartment." He made it to the second porch step before Elise stood up and showed off the pistol she had in her lap. Understandably, he stopped and put his hand over his own weapon.
"Ain't no problem no more, officer. Unless you count the clean up." To her credit, Elise didn't gesture with the tunas she pointed into the shadowy downstairs apartment. "Gringo came barging in, yelling about where could he find the Crofts. They nice girls, pay their rent on time, quiet, no trouble. But he won't stop and now he's throwing things and he knocked down my good picture of George. No, no, that won't do. So I shot him. Then a second time to make sure he stay down. Rule Two: Doubletap."
Kendrick shifted his eyes to the darkened doorway without moving his hand. When Zara came around the car behind him, he waved her back. "Stay with the car." Then he looked to Elise. "May I come look?"
_______
Curiouser and curiouser. If nothing else, I fully enjoy the character of Elise. I'm starting to see a little bit of where this is going, but I won't tell. Leave your comments and I'll entertain your speculations.
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