As You Were

3. Get Out of Jail Free

The voice came from behind me, startling me, and I turned around, gun raised, prepared to face my assailant. But I didn't need the gun, because it wasn't someone I had to be afraid of, at least I thought. It would be hard to explain the weapon, to explain my reaction—I was afraid of a burglary, that would suffice, right? She did after all break into my home, it was the normal reaction one would have. Yet the look she gave me as she leaned against the wall told me that she wouldn't buy that story, that she wouldn't even care for me try and explain. I racked my brain trying to remember her name, and after only a moment it came to me. Dahlia.

"What are you doing in my apartment?" I managed, bringing the pistol back down to my side and wiping the sweat from my forehead as I collapsed on the couch.

"I came to say goodbye." She replied, coming over to join me. Her heels thudded on my carpet as she made a space for herself at the end of the sofa. I looked at her very confused like, trying to figure out why she had come and broken in just to say goodbye.

"I don't understand." Shaking my head I slowly formed the words, not even trying to make sense of it.

"I came to say goodbye when they haul you off to jail." Looking me straight in the eyes she was very matter-of-fact. I could feel the ice in my veins as I froze, wondering what she knew and how much.

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't play dumb, Eli." Dahlia reached into the space between her breasts and produced a small, white card, handing it to me and waiting until I took a look at it.

"Edward Conley?" I glanced at her again, "what is this?"

"That's the card the detective gave me when he came into my bar asking about you." Her hand stretched out as she spoke and she examined each fingernail individually. My heart was beating so loud that I had to look over at her several times to be sure that she couldn't hear it.

"Look, I don't know what you think you know—"

"I know enough. You can lie all you want but it won't do you any good, the cop that came looking for you showed me your picture and everything. Kind of hard to play that off." Her statement was all the confirmation I needed. If I made a break for it now I could get to the door before she could stop me, probably be on a bus or the subway by the time she was able to call the police. Yet why was she here talking to me? Why did she bother coming over and waiting for me to come home instead of calling them and letting them know just where I was?

"The detective, Conley. What did you tell him?" I finally asked, trying hard to gather some information without outright admitting anything to her.

"Now we're getting somewhere." Dahlia got up from the couch and crossed over to the window, looking out at the night. "I told him I hadn't seen you. You stupidly paid for your motel room with a credit card, and that led him to Bernie. Bernie led him to me. What kind of criminal pays with their credit card anyway?"

"I'm not a criminal." My tone was defensive.

"Of course not." She turned to me and smiled. "But for whatever reason then, you're trying to avoid the cops. So you went and bought this apartment—direct transfer of funds out of your account to a Betty Rutherford. It wasn't hard to find out that the only thing she was selling was this apartment. Sloppy, as I said, you made it way too easy to find you." Her logic made sense. If I left a paper trail that easy to follow then the detective would catch up with me in no time. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do, what my next step would be to avoid getting caught. I also wasn't sure what I was supposed to do about Dahlia.