I nodded, hugging my arms to my chest as though I could protect myself.
“I’m here to take your report. Mind if I come in?”
I hesitated. Something in me… shifted. There was a flicker of unease in my stomach I couldn’t quite explain, but I stepped back to let him inside anyway. I had always been a fucking people pleaser, even when I knew better.
The officer stepped inside and scanned the apartment as though checking for exits or threats. Maybe both. His eyes finally landed back on me, and something about his gaze set off alarms in my skull. What was with this guy? He really did give off movie villain vibes.
“You live alone?” he asked casually.
I nodded. “Just me and Regret.”
He frowned. “Excuse me?”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” I faltered, face flushing. “My cat. Stupid name, he came to me with it. He’s staying at the coffee shop right now… but…”
Great, I was rambling.
He gave a tight smile and pulled a small notepad from the breast pocket of his uniform. “Right.”
I hovered awkwardly by the kitchen counter, suddenly unsure what to do with my hands. “Do you, uh… want to sit?”
He waved it off. “Won’t take long. Why don’t you just walk me through what happened?”
So I did. I told him about closing the shop and taking the shortcut down the alley. I told him about the two men, and I mentioned the gun and the shouting. I even knew the make and model of the car that had been there, and I remembered part of the license plate. I told him that I could describe both men in detail. He pretended to write in his little notebook, but I knew he wasn’t. His pen didn’t make the little dragging squeak that hurt my teeth. When I got to the part about running away, and hearing the sound of gunshots, he held up a hand.
“Just to clarify,” he said, cocking his head slightly, “you didn’t actually see the shooter pull the trigger. Right?”
I blinked. “Well, no, but…”
“Then you didn’t witness a murder. You thought you heard gunshots. You saw two men arguing. One of them had a gun. That’s different.”
My stomach tightened. “But the guy raised his gun. And then I heard…”
“Youheard something. That’s not the same as witnessing a crime, and what you heard could’ve been anything. Fireworks. A car backfiring.”
“In an alley?” I asked, a little sharper than I meant to.
His tight smile faltered. “You’d be surprised.”
I opened my mouth, then closed it. Was he gaslighting me? No, that wasn’t fair. He was probably just doing his job, being thorough and all, but something about the way he looked at me made my skin itch. I stifled the desire to be pissed, to argue and insist, because this was another man with a gun, and I didn’t want to cross a second one tonight.
He flipped the notepad shut and tucked it away.
“We’ll check traffic cams and contact you if anything comes up, but I wouldn’t worry too much. You’re probably just shaken. It’s not uncommon to… fill in the blanks, you know?”
“I’m not filling in anything,” I said. “I know what I saw.”
His gaze seemed to harden. I hadn’t mentioned that there were no traffic cams on my street, but I couldn’t explain how a cop didn’t know that information if this area was in his jurisdiction. I mirrored his furrowed brow and narrowed eyes.
A tense moment passed between us.
He spoke again, this time softer but no less cold. “I understand. It’s been a long night. Try to get some rest. Maybe skip the shortcuts for a while, yeah?”
He moved to the door before I could respond. One hand hovered just above the knob, and then he glanced back at me.
“Be careful, Miss Black.”
It wasn’t a threat, but it wasn’tnotone either. I could tell.
