NIGHT STRANGLER

GOSSIPY NEIGHBOR

Mark parked the car in front of the apartment complex. He turned to his companion. "Shall we divide them, or shall we go to each together? " He meant the apartments.

Samantha was surprised, there was silence between them the whole way here. In addition, she was used to the rule of joint interrogation, the agent could not question the suspects himself, he always had to have a witness, another police agent, next to him. But these people were not suspects yet, they were just neighbors of the victim who could hear or see something.

"We will be faster and more efficient if we divide them," she decided.

"Fine," he winked at her and got out of the car, "we'll start from the top, your apartments are on the left, I'll take the ones on the right."

"You're not a very talkative type," he chided her on the way to the tall building. "That's a fact," she retorted. Mark just smiled and opened the heavy glass door for her.

The sign 'BROKEN' was printed on the lift. They both sighed and wordlessly made their way to the staircase. They made it to the fourth, top floor and knocked on the opposite door at the same time.

The door from the left opened first. "Hello, I'm Agent Samantha Green," she held up her badge, "may I ask you a few questions about Mischel?"

"Come in," a young married couple invited her . She left Mark behind. She mocked him in her mind, she will be done on her side sooner than him.

The apartment was small but comfortably furnished, the walls were painted orange from the bottom half and white from the top half. To be polite, she took off her shoes. They passed through a short hall, which could barely fit a shoe rack and a coat rack. They invited her into the living room, where they sat her down on a couch that took up half the room.

"May I offer you something to refresh yourself?" said the woman.

"No thanks, I won't keep you long," she politely refused, "I still have a few apartments to go through today." She put on her practiced smile.

"What kind of relationship did you have with the victim?" she went straight to the point.

"We didn't know her very well, we just moved here recently," the man replied. "Besides, she wasn't very social, we never saw her at an apartment meeting. We exchanged greetings here and there if we met at the door," he finished.

His wife just nodded silently in agreement. Samantha analyzed their every move, they didn't look nervous. They sat quietly, with their hands on their legs. Their faces showed calmness, and their voices kept the same tone when talking. She had no reason to suspect them.

"The victim was murdered three weeks ago, didn't you hear or see anything suspicious?" she didn't give them time to prepare for questions.

"We were not here then, we got married at the beginning of August and we traveled to Bali," the woman spoke up this time, "we spent two weeks there and then spent another week with family before returning the day before yesterday."

"Okay, we'll check the information. Thank you for your time." Samantha stood to leave, putting on her shoes in the hall. The married couple escorted her to the door. "Have a nice rest of the day," she closed the front door behind her.

Mark was no longer standing in the corridor, Samantha listened to the resulting silence. She made her way down the stairs to the third floor. There, the scenario from the previous apartment was repeated. She knocked. An elderly woman invited her in. She entered the small hall, took off her shoes. She looked at the orange and white wall. She sat down on the couch in the living room and refused refreshments.

Ms. Axel, as she introduced herself, lived with her husband, who was currently fishing with friends. Their grandson was born four weeks ago, and she and her husband stayed with their children to help  with their firstborn. What a coincidence, she thought to herself. As if the residents of the apartment agreed in advance when to leave the apartment.

She thanked her for the information and continued to the second floor. She still hadn't met Mark, she was wondering how he was doing. They weren't competing, but she hoped that she would find out important information early and show herself a little in a good light in front of her new colleagues. She rubbed the bandages on her wrist. No, you can't, she scolded herself and lowered her hands to her body.

A little girl opened the door for her on the second floor, she lived with her mother, her father was working abroad on tours. Just as she introduced herself to the little girl, her mother appeared in the doorway. Like the others, she invited Samantha inside. However, she didn't really know the victim either, it seemed that Mischel was not the most talkative resident and kept her distance from people.

Pamela, the girl's mother, said that her husband had just returned to work abroad at the time of the murder. She was only at home with her daughter that week. She did not hear or see anything unusual. Samantha didn't think this petite woman could kill the victim, but she noted her husband's name on the paper. Later she will find out if he really was abroad.

She left the apartment, Mark was already on the stairs to the first floor. "Anything interesting?" he asked.

"Just useless information," she sighed, "you?"

Mark just shook his head and continued down the stairs. They were already slowly approaching the victim's apartment, which was on the ground floor. Mark harbored the hope that they had already heard or seen the perpetrator in these apartments.

Samantha was answered by an elderly woman. She interrupted before she could introduce herself: "Oh my dear, I have something to tell you, just come on in," she stepped back from the door so Samantha could enter. "I know why you're here with that handsome man, I see everything and I hear everything," she continued, "but not on purpose, the walls here are paper thin, my dear. Well, sit down, I'll bring you tea, I've already got it ready."

She placed a mug on the round glass table and led her a plate of cookies. "Come on honey, I've been baking today," she moved the plate closer. Samantha was still processing what had just happened.

"You mentioned that you had some information for the investigation. Did you know the victim? Did you see anything suspicious?" The old woman, Janett, looked first at the mug of tea that was sitting untouched on the table, then her eyes moved to the plate of cookies before she looked at Samantha.

So here we are, she thought, rolling her eyes. Old people have a need to feed humanity. She reached for the tea, took a sip and looked at the old woman. Janett smiled contentedly and began to chatter.

"This morning, when I was watering the flowers in the hallway, which, by the way, no one in this apartment takes care of, I heard my neighbor  talking on the phone. I heard her telling the caller to go talk with the police, Mischel was found dead," she finished.

"Excuse me, what?" her hand with the mug froze in the air.

The neighbor continued undisturbed. "I think she was talking to Jackson, I know his voice, that's the kind young man who keeps coming here when that ungrateful woman doesn't have her husband at home. The woman hides him from the whole apartment building, but nothing escapes my ears." She smiled contentedly.

Samantha was still processing the information she had just heard. This can cause a breakthrough in the case. She felt satisfaction radiating from her chest.

She thanked the old lady, Janett,  for the information and headed straight out of the apartment. She needs to talk to Mark about these findings as soon as possible.

She could leave out the ground floor part of the apartment for now, because no one lived there except the victim. According to Mr. Cooper, the apartment in front of  the crime scene apartment has been empty for several months.

AUTHOR: Do you think the case will be solved quickly? Is the old gossip girl telling the truth or did she just want attention? I didn't mention in the story that Janett packed the cookies for Samantha.