Page 74 of Spark

“I am not!” the older woman grumbled, clearly listening in.

Mia eyed the officer, raising her eyebrow as her lips thinned.

He smiled, amused. “Hello, ma’am.” He said, reaching out a hand and introducing himself as he had to Mia. Janet shook his hand, drawing her robe closer to her chest, her fist white knuckled as she held the thinning fabric.

“Can you tell me what you heard or saw, please?” The officer asked, his smile polite. Janet gave him a smile back, lifting a hand to her curlers and letting out a little giggle.

“Of course, young man,” Janet said, smiling shyly. “Well, I was in my loft, minding my own business,” her eyes flashed to Mia’s, Mia rolling hers and turning her attention to the officer inside her apartment.

“When suddenly during the night there was an awful ruckus from Mia’s loft.” Mia listened as she watched Officer Hooper snap photos.

“I assumed she had her gentleman caller over and was being a bad neighbor.” Mia spun around to look to Janet, Janet giving her a pointed look down her nose. “As sudden as it started though, It stopped. And I heard the door close.” Janet looked back to Officer Wilde. “Then, this morning around seven, I would say, the door opened again. I peeked out to see who it was, but there was no one in the hallway. The door was half open, I couldn’t help but hear someone tramping around in there.” She waved a hand about. “But then the door started to move and I closed mine quickly. I didn’t wanting anyone to think of me as a nosy neighbor.” Janet nodded lightly as she spoke, casting a look to Mia who scoffed.

The officer, pen flying across his notepad, nodded. “And when the door opened, did you see who it was?”

Janet’s smile fell, replaced with a frown on her thin lips. “No,” she said, her eyes looking nervously to Mia’s for a moment before sliding back toward the officer. Janet gave a little throat clearing as Officer Wilde looked up at her from his pad.

“But,” Janet continued “I did see that it was a man. His back was to me though.” She shifted her eyes between Mia and the officer. “He was tall, with, uhm, blonde hair.”

Mia pictured Dominick, who matched Janet’s description. But something felt off with that thought.

“Thanks for that, ma’am.” Officer Wilde said, clicking his pen closed and pulling a card from his pocket. “Please call the station if you think of anything else.” He handed the card to Janet, who nodded, smiled wide again, and then just stood there. Mia looked at her, waiting. Janet looked to Mia and then back to the officer, who had turned his back to her. Finally, theolder woman frowned, stepped back into her loft. Mia turned back to the officer as Janet spoke once more.

“See, I knew keycards was the right move.” Janet said, her eyes locking on Mia’s. “I guess it didn’t really help though.” Janet gave Mia a small wink before sliding her door closed. Mia looked to the closed door and then back to the door before the stairs. The officer followed her gaze, his steps moving to the reader quickly. Mia followed.

“Hmm.” He said, fingers hovering just above the reader. “We can dust for prints.” He said, turning to mia. “Did you use yours to enter when you got here?”

Mia nodded, words failing her as she replayed Janets wink in her mind again and again. She pulled her Keycard out of her pocket, the one she had mindlessly swiped when her and Mac had run up the stairs.

“Well, that doesn’t mean it was a resident.” The officer said, eying the card. “Huh, same ones we have at the precinct.” The officer gave her a smile and wrote on his pad. “I can call the company and ask about who would be able to have one or have access to get one.” He walked back towards the loft,

“It’s a good start.” Officer Wilde finally said after a moment, looking to his notepad before catching Mia’s eyes. “Know anyone who would want to break into your apartment, anyone that you can think of?” the cop asked, pen hovering above a notepad.

Mia sighed; that was a loaded, tricky question, one the officers didn’t realize.

“Well,” she began. She paused, unsure how she wanted to play this. As she opened her mouth to speak, Detective Daniels came up the stairs, drawing her attention to him.

“Mia,” He greeted with a smile, reaching out a hand to her. She took it, shaking it lightly before looking behind him. Mac was trailing there, two coffees in hand. His eyes were down cast, face unreadable.

“Thanks for coming, Detective Daniels.” Mia said, looking back to him.

“Charles, please,” he said, as he always did. And as always, Mia ignored it completely. “So, walk me through what happened.” He turned to her open door, and she carefully followed his path.

“Well, as I told the officer here, I got a call from Janet as I was just pulling up. She said my door was open, asking if I had left and forgotten to close it.” Mia paused, seeing the back of her door for the first time. All the photos, notes from her dad, everything was torn down, ripped, and bent all over.

“Oh my god,” she murmured, stepping toward them.

“Mia, please don’t touch anything.” Detective Daniels reached a hand out to her.

She nodded, stopping herself from grabbing what she could. Her eyes threatened to release the tears that gathered. “Yeah, okay.” Her voice was quiet and sad. Mac remained outside, eyes on the floor.

“So, then what happened, Mia?” Detective Daniels prompted her.

“Right, sorry,” she sighed, focusing on him. “I said no and ran up here. I saw the door open and stepped in. The place looked like this.” She gestured around. “I went into the bathroom and called you.”

“The bathroom?” he asked, head tilting slightly. “Why?”

“I wanted to be sure no one was still here.”

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