Amie started doing the mental math, then gave up and began doing the verbal math. “We were always seated at a quarter after seven. I think I bailed about thirty minutes in. It was just as the food arrived, I remember that. Say, twenty minutes to take the bus, five-minute walk home from the park. So … a little after eight?”
“Do you remember anything else?” David pressed. “Any other details?”
Amie squeezed her eyes shut, scrunching up her face, as if that would help sharpen the memory. “He was wearing Crocs,” she offered.
“A clue!” David exclaimed, sardonic.
A loudthunkechoed through the stairwell as someone opened the door on the ground floor. They looked at each other.
“Have you been keeping watch?” David whispered.
“Ijustopened my eyes.”
There was a brief, quiet scramble as they positioned themselves as two people casually conversing in a stairwell.
“That’s so interesting,” Amie said loudly. “Tell me more about that.”
They had a silent, two-second-long argument as David mimed his protestation at being given the bulk of the effort in their simulated conversation.
“Sure, no problem,” he finally relented as the footsteps grew louder. “Let me just think about where to start …”
Amie glanced over to see Benny trudging his way toward them. A takeout bag swung from one hand, a six-pack of beer in the other. His eyes were glued to the stairs as he climbed.
“Oh, hi Benny,” Amie said, her voice a little too high-pitched. She cleared her throat as David visibly relaxed, saved from having to do any more improvisation. “How’s it going?”
Benny looked up as he arrived on the landing. Dark circles hung under his eyes. “Hey. It’s going.”
“Have a good evening!” Amie called after him as he continued his ascent. She received a half-hearted wave over the shoulder in response.
They waited silently until the slam of Benny’s apartment door echoed down the stairwell.
“Okay,” Amie said, heading for the steps to the third floor. “Go time.”
“Hang on.” David put out an arm to stop her. “The man just got dinner. Shouldn’t we let him eat first?”
Amie huffed impatiently. “He also got a bunch of beers. If he gets drunk before you show up at his door, he’s just gonna tell you to come back tomorrow.” She started up the stairs.
“If he gets drunk, he’s probably not meticulously destroying any evidence tonight,” David grumbled, following.
Amie hid in the stairwell as David knocked on the door to Benny’s apartment. As the silence stretched on, she began to fidget nervously.What if he’s panicking and destroying the evidence?
Finally, she heard a door click open.
“Hey there!” David said. His tone was so chipper Amie almost didn’t recognize his voice. “Sorry to bother. Seeing you just now reminded me that I think I’ve got rats or mice or something in my apartment. Would you be able to set up some traps?”
“I’ll give you the traps,” came Benny’s voice. “You can set them up yourself.”
“Ah, right, that’s going to be a problem.” Amie assumed Benny had retreated into his apartment as David’s volume increased to call after him. “You see, morally I’m against trapping animals, even with the catch-and-release ones. I think they should be allowed to roam free—but I’d prefer if they didn’t roam free in my apartment. I’m fine withyousetting up the traps, though. I just can’t do it myself. Morally.”
Amie winced. The excuse had seemed solid when they’d developed it back in David’s apartment. Hearing it in action, however, was making her confidence in their plan plummet.
Thankfully, Benny seemed to have come to the conclusion that setting up the traps himself would make this interaction end faster than if he tried to argue.
“Thank you so much,” David said in response to Benny’s silent enlistment. “After you. We just have to move the oven away from the wall …”
As the two men approached the door to the stairwell, Amie squeezed herself into a corner. The door swung toward her as Benny pushed it open, just grazing her knees as she pressed her back against the wall. Once she was satisfied that the coast was clear, Amie leapt to her feet and slipped into the hallway.
Adrenaline shot through her body as she saw Benny’s door was propped open by a singular Jenga block.I can’t believe thatworked, she thought as she retrieved the block and entered the apartment.
