"Yeah." I stepped back, opening the door all the way.
The man's eyebrows rose swiftly. "I'd say you had quite the break-in."
I nodded. "They trashed the place."
"Mind if we come in?"
"No, of course not." I stepped out of the way so the officers could come in. Both men were dressed in their police uniforms. I would have preferred a detective, but I guess I had to go with what they sent me.
Both officers looked around the living room for a moment before Abe walked in. Officer Curtis and the other officer both stiffened, but only Officer Brody put his hand on his gun.
"This is Abiola Sesay. He's a friend of mine." I didn't feel the need to tell the officers Abe was a Marine. "He was already on his way here when these guys broke in. He told me not to touch anything until you got here, which is why the place looks like it does."
"No, he's right," Officer Curtis said. "The less you touch until our tech guys get here the better. We're already going to need to take your fingerprints for elimination samples."
Officer Brody didn't take his hand off his gun as he eyed Abe for a long tense moment before looking at me. "Tell us what happened."
He was obviously the bad cop in the good cop, bad cop scenario.
I held out the CD instead. "I got it all on video."
Officer Curtis's eyebrows rose. "You have the break-in on videotape?"
"Yes, sir. My security system always records everything."
"Do you know if you got any good shots of their faces?"
"Several, and the car they were driving, which they parked in the alley behind my house." I pointed to the CD. "It's all there on the CD."
Plus a few other things.
"Can you show us where they broke in?" Officer Curtis asked.
"Yeah, they came in through the back door." I started through the living room. "It's back here. Watch where you step."
I could hear the officer walking behind me, stepping on the mess even if he tried not to. There was a lot of stuff covering the floor, so I know he didn't mean to.
"Where were you during the break-in, Mr. Jenkins?"
I was glad my cheeks flushed because it would explain my lie. "Hiding."
"That's probably for the best. If you'd tried to confront them, they could have hurt you or worse."
Didn't I know it.
"Any idea what they might have been after?"
Oh yeah.
"Not really. I mean, I don't have anything really worth someone breaking in to get. I have a computer in the basement, a television." I shrugged. "What do people look for when they break in to someone's house?"
Officer Curtis grimaced as he looked around the kitchen, which was probably a bigger mess than the living room. "They sure wrecked the place. Do you have any beefs with anyone, Mr. Jenkins? Could someone have broken in here and destroyed the place to get back at you for something?"
I swallowed tightly. "I don't think so. I live a pretty low-key life. I go to the lab three times a week to log in the progress on my school project. It's required in order to keep my grant money, but I don't—"
"Grant money? Not scholarship?"
"Oh, no." I smiled. "I'm not a student at Harvard, not anymore. I graduated a few years ago. I'm here on a grant to develop computer software for the university."
