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I skimmed over the faces around me. “Any chance you know which apartment Lillian Rouse lives in?”
The woman finally pulled her eyes from the third floor and stared at me with slightly glassy eyes. “Lilly?”
“Yes, Lilly or Lillian.”
She pointed to the third floor. “That’s her apartment.”
“The one where someone broke in?”
She nodded, and the moment she did, I spun and began taking long strides toward the stairs. I took the steps two at a time and passed an officer on the way down carrying two brown paper bags.
When I reached the third floor, I hustled to her door and was about to bang on the doorframe when I looked in and saw her. She was pacing back and forth; another officer was standing near her table with a clipboard, writing something.
She lifted her eyes and jerked back. “Smoke? What are you doing here?”
I pulled open the screen door. “Are you alright?”
The cop lifted his head and smiled. “Hey, Smoke! How are you doing?” He held his hand out to me. “Been a long time.”
“It has, Booker. You keeping the peace?”
“I’m trying my best. What brings you out here?”
I pointed at Lillian. “She works for me.”
He glanced at Lilly, raised a brow, and nodded, “Oh, yeah? Well, that’s good that you’re here. She’s pretty upset.”
“What happened?”
“Someone broke in and smashed up the place. It doesn’t look like anything is missing, but they demolished everything they could.” He shook his head. “Can’t believe one of the neighbors didn’t call earlier to complain about the noise because this wasn’t done quietly.”
I glanced around as he spoke, seeing broke glass and furniture all around the room. “You know who did it, right?”
He shook his head. “No. Right now, there are no suspects. Lillian said she just moved here and has no enemies. Probably just a random burglary.”
I studied Lillian’s face. She looked even paler than she had earlier today during the fire test. She glanced my way and then promptly looked away.
Booker turned to her. “Well, here is my card and the incident number. You can report it to your insurance, and they can request a copy of the report.”
“Thank you.” She took the card, looking overwhelmed and sad.
I walked Booker toward the door. As we stepped outside, he turned to me. “I heard you were doing good.”
“Yeah, the company is going well. Better than I could have imagined.”
“Heard you bought yourself a new condo downtown.”
I chuckled. “You guys spend too much time talking about me.”
“Nah, you know Jessica loves you to death.”
“How is she doing?”
“She’s good, but she still complains about you not being on the truck with her.”
“Yeah, well, you tell your wife I miss her too.”
“I will.” He started to step back, and I held up my hand.
