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As the days went by, Lucille only became more suspicious of Adam's behavior.
If Lucille called, especially in the evenings, he didn't answer. When she would ask him questions about his job, he's dodge the question or give a one-word answer that didn't give Lucille any information. He refused to let her anywhere near the darkroom, where his photos were hiding. Lucille thought it was so strange, and it only made her paranoid that he was up to no good. His job as it was already had the potential to cause trouble, being a freelance photographer who practically stalked people for money. But he had never been so dodgy about it until recently, he was never afraid to talk about it with Lucille. Even though it was a dangerous job to have, she never judged him for it. He needed money, and if that was his way of getting it, then so be it.
On this particular night, Lucille was planning on stopping by Adam's apartment again. While this was the usual routine, something about it was different: He didn't know she was coming. It probably wasn't right to spontaneously show up, but Lucille's logic was this: If he truly wasn't hiding anything from her and she was just paranoid, there would be nothing wrong with it.
So, she walked up the stairs to his floor. She couldn't deny that she was nervous, if this were to turn into something bad then she knew she would regret it. As she walked up to his door, she noticed something on the ground. It was a small white envelope with Adam's name written on the front. The envelope was open, so letting her curiosity get the best of her, she picked it up. Inside of the envelope was 400 dollars. Her eyes widened at the sight. Adam had never made that much from working with a client, the most he had made to her knowledge was maybe 100 dollars.
Lucille realized she had been standing there too long when she started to hear footsteps approaching the other side of the door, so she shoved the envelope into her bag and decided it would be brought up later. Adam opened the door suddenly, but immediately paused when he saw her standing there.
"Hey." Adam said, sounding taken aback.
"Hi." Lucille replied.
Adam didn't respond, clearly unsure of what to say.
"I need to talk to you." She exhaled, breaking their odd moment of silence.
"Okay..." Adam stammered. He seemed afraid of whatever Lucille was about to say.
He stepped out of the way and allowed her into the apartment. Immediately, he went to shut the door to the darkroom so she couldn't see inside. Then he went back to check outside his apartment.
"You didn't see an envelope out there, did you?" Adam asked her as he closed the door.
"An envelope with 400 dollars in it?" She asked. She pulled it out of her purse and waved it at him, watching his eyes slightly widen. "Yeah. I did."
