Dark Mysteries by Jessica Gadziala Read Free Book Online

notebook.
    “Well,
the main one... the other two kind of trailed behind him like he was
in charge. He was tall and thin. Brown hair, slightly long and pushed
back on top. Light eyes. He was too far to tell what color they were.
But he seemed... severe. I don't know. He had a mean-looking face.
And he had red scratches down one side of his face. One of the other
two looked a lot like him but was wider... not fat. Bulky. The other
one was younger, blondish hair.”
    “Okay,”
Xander said, writing. “Remember anything else?”
    The
woman leaned against the wall, looking over at Ellie's door,
squinting at her memory. “They weren't dressed like... thugs.
The older two all looked really groomed. Slacks and blazers. Dress
shirts. Loafers. The mean one had a really expensive-looking watch
on. The younger one was dressed like your typical twenty-something
guy.”
    “Did
anyone use any names?”
    “No.
No one said anything. They went up to the door and one of the men,
the short one, pulled something out of his pocket like what you had
earlier...”
    Xander
looked up at her, smirking. “A lock pick,” he supplied.
    “Right...
a lock pick. And he opened the door and they all went in. They
weren't in there for long. I don't know... maybe they were looking
for her. They left a few minutes later.”
    “Have
you ever seen them here before?”
    The
woman stopped a minute, thinking. “No. Not up here. But one day
I left to run to get some groceries and... I'm not sure... but I
think I saw him outside the building. Leaning against it. Smoking and
kind-of discreetly watching everyone who walked into the building. If
that is helpful.”
    “Very,”
Xander said, still writing. “Can you tell me about Ellie?”
he asked.
    The
woman's face shot up to his, curious. “Aren't you her
boyfriend?”
    Xander
looked up, chuckling slightly. “No. I'm her private
investigator. I'm just trying to get a clear picture of the events.
And who I am working for.”
    She
tilted her head at him for a second, as if weighing whether or not he
was telling the truth. She shrugged, deciding if anyone looked like a
private investigator, it was him. “She moved in a few months
ago.”
    “Out
of curiosity... was hers a furnished unit?”
    “Yes,”
she said, nodding, “but only because the last tenant died and
no one came to claim all the stuff.”
    “Ok.
Go on.”
    “It
was weird. She never brought in any boxes. She walked up with the
super on that first day with a big rolling suitcase, and a plastic
container. That was it.” She paused and he waved a hand at her
to keep going. “She was quiet. Never any sound in that
apartment but her moving around. No T.V. No music. Nothing. She never
ordered take out or had any company. Most days she went to work in
the morning and didn't come back until after midnight,” she
paused, smiling a little oddly, “in that awful mustard and
black shirt.”
    Xander
snorted, thinking about the shirt hanging in his apartment. “So,
she just... seemed like a normal person trying to scrape by?”
    “Well...
that's the thing. The rent here is dirt cheap. And she had to be
making good money in tips working twelve hour days. But she never
bought anything new. She always wore the same clothes. The only new
things she brought into the apartment were groceries.”
    Xander
shrugged. Not all servers made good tips. Maybe she was terrible at
her job. “Anything else?”
    “I
dunno. She always seemed... jumpy. Any time a door opened or closed,
she turned and watched, her eyes huge and worried, slipping her
fingers into this thing on her key chain... it was like a weapon I
think...”
    Xander
bent down and dug through the box, looking for her keys. He hadn't
seen any weapons when he grabbed them before. He pulled them up,
looking at the two adornments next to her four keys.
    “That's
the one,” the woman said, pointing to the bright pink shape.
    It
was a thin piece of metal in the shape of a cat. Two holes where the
eyes went