“Come, deary, into my place. Quickly. We’ll call the police from there.”
I watched her close my door and pull at my arm, leading us into her unit.
Once in, she closed and locked her door. “Do you want me to call the cops, dear, or do you want to do it?”
“I’ve got it, but thanks, Nancy.”
I reached for my phone, realizing my hands were shaking. I called and gave the dispatcher the details, and she assured me someone would be there as soon as they could. There wouldn’t be full-blown lights and sirens since most likely no one was still in the apartment, but an officer would be here soon nonetheless, and they knew I would be waiting in Nancy’s apartment.
After hanging up with the dispatcher, I sat on Nancy’s couch, staring off into space, thinking how weird my life had become in justthe last week.
I was startled out of my thoughts when Cocoa jumped up onto the couch and into my lap. Cocoa didn’t much like strangers, but once she added you to her circle, she was loyal to you for life.
“Here, honey,” Nancy said, sitting down next to me as she handed me a small cup of tea.
“Thank you.”
Nancy was like the grandmother I never had. She was sweet, cooked a mean lasagna, and always invited me over to hang out with her and her friends. In the last year since I’d moved in here, she’d taught me to play Mah Jong, to finger crochet, the intricacies of making homemade jam, and how to cheat at rummy. She also sprinkled in some life advice, which I loved.
A knock at the door startled me out of my thoughts.
“How about you restrain Cocoa, and I’ll get the door,” I told her, knowing her dog would not take too kindly to the new strangers in her home.
“Sounds good, dear.”
Even though I knew it was likely the cops, I still checked the peephole since I was feeling a bit on edge. Confirming two officers—one female and one male—on the other side, I opened the door.
“Are you Iris?” the female officer asked me.
“Yes, ma’am,” I confirmed for her, speaking louder so she could hear me over Cocoa’s barking.
“I’m Officer Kelly Swift,” she said. “This is my partner, Officer Taylor Clarkson. We already walked through your apartment to make sure it was clear, but we’d like to haveyou come over now and take a look and see if anything looks stolen or out of place.”
“Yes, of course,” I responded, thankful Cocoa had switched to a more muted growl.
I followed the officers over to my apartment. It was a bit unsettling knowing someone else had been in my space, but I also knew this needed to be done, so I put on my big girl panties and braved through it.
I showed the officers what I’d noticed when I first opened the door. As I moved through the rest of my apartment, a few other things felt off—though I couldn’t tell if they truly were, or if my mind was playing tricks on me after everything that had happened.
“Is anything missing?” Officer Clarkson asked as we made our way from the bathroom to the laundry room.
“I’m not sure,” I told them honestly. “If there is, it isn’t anything big.”
“What about family heirloom jewelry or even some expensive handbags or shoes?” Clarkson added. “Those are items that you may not notice at first but are popular to steal because they can resell them easily on the internet.”
Wow. I hadn’t thought of that, but I guess it made sense.
“I don’t have anything like that,” I told them and then noticed something odd on my floor.
I had bright-white tiles on my laundry room floor, so it didn’t stand out very much, but there was a cotton ballon the floor underneath where I hung up my clothes after washing them.
“Do you see something?” Officer Clarkson asked.
I pointed down to the floor. “I don’t own any cotton balls. They’re not great for the environment because they are usually bleached or mixed with synthetic fibers, so they can’t break down safely.”
My laundry room wasn’t big—maybe five feet wide by seven feet long—so when Officer Swift came into the room, it felt extra crowded with the three of us in there. He opened what looked like a Ziploc bag and picked up the cotton ball.
“When did you wash these clothes?” Officer Clarkson asked, pointing to the clothes above where the cotton ball had been.
