Chapter 2

Tony had to agree, since it seemed as if he’d barely hung up from talking to the 911 dispatcher.

“Gentlemen,” one of the officers said. “Were you the ones who called us?”

“Yes, sir,” Tony replied, gesturing to the open elevator.

By then, the other officer was at the door. He looked at the corpse, leaned down to put his fingers on its neck, then said, “He’s dead.”

Tony wanted to say, “No shit,” but held his tongue.

“Did either of you step into the elevator?” the first officer asked. His name tag identified him as Officer Davis.

“I did,” Tony replied. “Just one foot, so I could push the Emergency Stopbutton. And I did try to see if he had pulse, but I just reached in to do that.”

“You are?”

“Tony Watkins.”

“That makes you—” Davis checked his notes, “—Mr. Rose.” He looked at Alan, who nodded.

The other officer had been on the phone. He hung up, telling them that the detectives and crime scene team were on their way.

“Do either of you know the victim?” Office Davis asked.

“Hard to tell,” Alan replied. “I can’t see his face.”

“What about from his clothing?”

Tony resisted rolling his eyes, since the victim was wearing jeans and what had once been a white T-shirt—now red with blood. Nonetheless, he replied, “No, sir.”

“Do both of you gentlemen live in the building?” Davis asked.

“I do. On the second floor,” Tony replied.

“I live on this floor. Number three-oh-seven,” Alan told him.

“Your apartment number?” Davis asked Tony.

“Two-oh-one.”

Davis glanced at the apartment next to the elevator, which was 301, about to say something it seemed, when two men in their mid-forties—wearing suits—and several more people in white coveralls, booties and caps, streamed into the hallway from the emergency stairs.

“What do we have?” one of the suited men asked after introducing himself as Detective Sanders.

“Dead body in the elevator,” Officer Davis replied, stating the obvious.

A crime scene person was already photographing the scene while the others stood back to give him room. At that point, a middle-aged man entered the hallway from the emergency stairs. He came over to talk to Sanders, asking, “What do we have?”

Tony would have laughed at the repetitiousness of the question, if he wasn’t so traumatized by what he was seeing—and involved in. Sanders told him, then asked Tony and Alan to come with him to the end of the hallway so that he could question them. Alan suggested they use his apartment, instead. Sanders agreed.

“Who found the body?” Sanders asked a moment later when they were seated in Alan’s living room.

“I guess we both did,” Alan replied before telling him about the elevator door opening to reveal the victim.

“Do you live on this floor, too?” Sanders asked Tony.

“No.” Tony chewed his lip. Knowing what the next question would be, he forestalled it by saying, “I was trying to find out if someone heard something.”

Sanders frowned. “Explain.”

“This might sound weird, but…okay. My apartment is on the second floor, next to the elevator. Of course, I didn’t put two-and-two together until Alan pointed that out. Anyway, I was in my kitchen when I heard someone say ‘Don’t hurt me’. I couldn’t…It was just…It seemed to come out of nowhere if that makes sense. At first I thought someone on the street was being assaulted or something so I ran to check and didn’t see anything. Then I realized the words came from above, not below my apartment. So I decided to see if anyone else had heard them.” He shook his head when something occurred to him. “I went down to the elevator, because I was going to take it up here, but it didn’t come. That happens occasionally, as old as it is, especially if someone is taking their time getting on or off.”

Alan chuckled. “What he means is, there are some older people in the building that don’t exactly move fast.”

Sanders nodded. “You walked up, I presume,” he said to Tony.

“Yeah. I rapped on a couple of doors on my floor, but no one answered, then I figured if someone else heard it, they’d already be in the hall, trying to find out who was in trouble. So I decided to check the rest of the floors.”

“Doing your civic duty,” Sanders said somewhat snidely. “When you should have called us, instead.”

“I know. But if I was wrong, or it was just someone’s TV…” Tony looked down so he wouldn’t see what he was certain was the look of disgust on the detective’s face. “Anyway, like I said, I was going to check the other floors, too. I thought by now the elevator would be running, so I pushed the button. I heard it start moving from what sounded like the top floor.”

“Which would be eight,” Alan put in. “The damned thing moves like a turtle on its best day.”

“Yes,” Tony agreed. “I was waiting when Alan showed up. I told him what I’d heard, which he hadn’t. Right?” He looked at Alan, who nodded. “We were still talking when it got here and…” He shuddered.