Yellow Eyes

  Chapter 4

   

  Katrina left the police station with Officer Vasquez. She was a veteran on the force, having worked for the Chicago Police Department for twenty-five years.  She told Katrina about her career on the less than ten minute drive to the apartment. 

  Katrina had never noticed just how close the police station was to her apartment she thought to herself as they pulled up in front of her building.  Officer Vasquez reminded her that she could only get a couple of items from her apartment and not to touch anything in the living room before they entered the building.

  Officer Vasquez walked up the flight of stairs slightly ahead of Katrina.  She reached the apartment door first and told Katrina to wait by the wall.  After she examined the crime scene tape she removed it and told Katrina she could go in. 

  Katrina started walking towards the apartment door, but she froze before actually entering.  She started shaking all over.  She backed away from the door, images of Kim’s bruised and battered face flashing through her mind. She could see Kim’s body lying in her living room battered and burned.

  “Ms. Castillo, are you okay?” asked Officer Vasquez.

  “I just realized that Kim died in my apartment tonight.  I can’t go in there,” she said in a shaky whisper.

  “I can go in and gather some of your things for you,” said Vasquez.

  “Yeah, if you don’t mind.  I keep …” Katrina trailed off without finishing the sentence.  She slumped against the wall. Tears ran down her face.

  Officer Vasquez walked over to Katrina.   She started rubbing her back.  “Just take a couple of deep breaths, Ms. Castillo.  That’s it.  We won’t be here much longer.”  Officer Vasquez grasped Katrina’s hand.  She was providing Katrina with comfort she hadn’t known she needed.

  Katrina took another deep breath.  “I’m okay.  I’m okay now,” said Katrina.

  “You were telling me what you needed from your apartment, and where it's located,” said Officer Vasquez.

    “Yeah, I have an overnight bag packed in my closet.  It’s in my room, the last room straight back.  I also need my jump drive from my laptop.  My laptop should be inside the desk next to the bed.”

  “Okay, you just wait right here, and I’ll be back in a minute,” said Officer Vasquez.  Officer Vasquez entered the apartment.   She returned in under a minute carrying the overnight bag and a puzzled look on her face. 

  “I located your overnight bag, but there wasn’t any sign of your laptop in the apartment Ms. Castillo,” she said.

  “Are you sure, my desk is right next to the bed.  You didn’t see my laptop inside the drawer and printer on the desk?” asked Katrina in confusion.

  “The printer is on the desk, but the laptop wasn't inside of it or anywhere that I could see in the room.  I think you need to come into your bedroom and see if there is anything else missing,” said Officer Vasquez.

  “I can't go in there." Katrina said shaking her head. "Besides, we don’t keep expensive things in our apartment.  The most expensive things anyone would find are our laptops.  We didn’t even bother with TV’s or radios because we could listen to music and watch TV online,” said Katrina in exasperation.

   “Did your roommate have a laptop?”

  “Yes, but she took it home with her this weekend, she had a paper to do as well.”

  “I’ll add your laptop to the burglary report.  Are you sure you all don't have anything expensive worth stealing in the apartment” asked Officer Vasquez.

  “Yes, I'm pretty sure." Katrina paused for a second, "Oh, hell, a police report won’t do me any good, my jump drive was in that laptop with most of my research on it,” she said in annoyance.

  “Here’s your bag,” said Officer Vasquez.  She handed Katrina a red overnight case, hoping to distract her from her latest predicament.  “Do you have someone you can stay with tonight?”

  “No, my parents are out of the country.  I don’t want to stay at their house by myself.  I think I’m going to check into a hotel for a couple of nights until Allison gets back.  Then we can decide where we want to stay until the semester is over.”

  Katrina and Officer Vasquez walked down the stairs and exited the building.   The sun was shining brightly overhead.  The day turned out lovely for mid-October.  Officer Vasquez looked up and down the street, but didn’t notice anything unusual.  She walked Katrina to her car.  As Katrina got closer to the car she noticed an envelope on her windshield.  The windshield wiper was keeping it in place.

  “Oh, great! I got a ticket!” she exclaimed as she picked up the envelope.  

  “That’s not a ticket.  We don’t use envelopes for our tickets. Perhaps one of your friends stopped by and left you a note,” said Officer Vasquez.

  “My friends are the nosy kind, they would have called me, not written a note,” Katrina said in frustration as she opened the envelope and read it.  “It’s just a note from one of my neighbors telling me to let her know when we get settled into our new place.  She’s going to hold our mail for us.” She breathed a sigh of relief as she looked at Officer Vasquez.

  “It’s good to have caring neighbors.  It’s like a family that looks out for you,” said Officer Vasquez.

  “Yeah, that’s one of the reasons Allison and I decided to live here.  Older people are more caring.  They look out for one another.  We always felt safe here,” said Katrina as she glanced back at her apartment building.  That sense of safety no longer applied. She couldn't bear the last memory she had of her apartment. So she quickly got into her car.

  “You go ahead and get to where you’re going before rush hour hits.”

  “Thanks Officer Vasquez,” said Katrina as she closed her car door. She looked up at her apartment one last time.  A chill ran down her spine.  Someone had murdered Kim in my apartment, she thought with a stab of pain.  She couldn’t stand to look at the building any longer.  She started her car and pulled into traffic.