Finding Theo

Fake Flowers and Real Soil

The click of the recorder made her flinch. She shifted in her seat as the detective across from her sat still in his. "Start from when you met him."

"It was about a year and a half ago. Not too long after I moved in on the fifth floor." The small woman kept her eyes on her hands placed in her lap. "He was standing outside his apartment, unlocking the door with a bunch of grocery bags in his hands. He was struggling with looking for the right key and holding all of his groceries. So, I asked if he needed help. He said 'no' so I kept walking but then as I got onto the elevator one of his bags ripped and spilt food all over the place. I stopped the elevator and helped him pick everything up."

"And when did you become friends?"

"I don't know if you could consider us friends. I mean, we've never hung out or anything. I don't even know his name but we would smile at each other in the hall, I'd help him with his groceries, and I started to take his beanie, as a joke of course. He'd let me keep it overnight then in the morning I'd put it back on his head and walk with him down to the door. And we used the knock or tap code a lot. He used to take a broomstick and knock on his ceiling. I would sit on the floor and knock with my fist."

"Tap code?" The detective frowned.

"Yeah, um, the tap code is based on a Polybius square using a 5×5 grid of letters representing all the letters of the Latin alphabet, except for K, which is represented by C. The listener only needs to discriminate the timing of the taps to isolate letters. For example," She reached out and placed her fist on the metal table, knocking lightly as she continued speaking, "W is five knocks...pause...two knocks. A is one knock...pause...another knock. T, four knocks...pause...four knocks. E, one knock...pause...five knocks. And R is four knocks...pause...two knocks. That spells out water. It's a lot easier to use once you use it for a while. I used to have to have a cheat sheet he gave me. But now I can differentiate and knock out complete sentences without it."

"So, you two didn't talk much?"

"Nothing beyond small talk but we didn't have to."

"Tell us about the night he disappeared. The last time you saw him."

"I took his beanie while passing him on my way to the elevator like I always do. He smirked at me and rolled his eyes. And I smiled and went to the elevator but..." She paused.

"Go ahead. You can tell us."

"His hair..." She paused again and sighed in destress, "I don't even know if this is relevant to your case..."

"Anything you noticed will be helpful. Go on."

"His hair is a dark brown, almost black, but it was silver in spots it wasn't before. He always seemed stressed out so it reminded me of when people tell you if you keep stressing your hair will turn grey? And he looked like he was ten years older. He had dark circles under his eyes and his skin was pale and he had more wrinkles. It reminded me of when I was a child and my sister and I would spend too long in the bathtub and our hands would get all prunie. And he looked almost like a ghost. I wanted to ask him if he was okay but he didn't really like to talk about himself. Once, I was walking with him down to the front doors and his hand was bandaged and red like he was bleeding. I asked him if he was okay and offered to take him to the hospital. He got really upset and told me to mind my own business. So, I didn't ask him about why he looked so...sick...because I didn't want him to get upset with me."

"And that was the last time you saw him?"

"Yes, the next morning I took the elevator down to his floor to give him his beanie back and I saw the police tape across his open door. There were police officers everywhere and people were in the halls whispering to each other and talking to police. I was going to get back into the elevator but I didn't want to look suspicious so I walked down the hall. I just meant to pass his apartment. I wasn't even going to look up but it was like someone grabbed me and forced me to look into the apartment. That's when I saw the blood and threw up all over the floor. I'm really sorry about that. I'm not usually so squeamish...I'm a criminal justice major...I've seen tons of fake crime scenes and analyzed them."