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I gave Julia a look that said, Okay, but in my head, I wasn’t sure if Annisa was entirely innocent.
At that moment, Sully came back. “Well, do you ladies have anything else that you want to talk about?” He looked distressed by the information that we’d laid out.
“No, I’m sorry, Sully. We didn’t mean to bring bad news, but we wanted to find more information that would help our friend. This might be too much to ask, but would it be possible to give us the key to Trevor’s apartment? He might have something that belongs to our friend,” I said.
“Why not? I haven’t had the chance to check up on the cat, so if you could do that for me, I would appreciate it,” Sully said and let out a deep sigh as he went to a desk behind the cash register. He pulled open a drawer and rummaged around until he found a key on a scuba diving flag key ring.
Sully held it out and said, “If you find anything that I should know about, you’ll tell me, right?” When I reached out to accept the key, my neck tingled as I observed his brown eyes narrowing. The color of his eyes that used to remind me of dark chocolate, looked pitch black.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“What a great location! From Trevor’s place, he can walk to all the great restaurants,” I said. My mouth watered at the smell of sizzling fajitas escaping from La Cantina.
“And look at that, Julia!” I pointed to the famous Cannery Row sign that was on all the post cards.
“We need to get our picture taken in front of the sign,” she said, observing a group of women huddled together for a selfie. They were flashing the peace sign with their fingers and laughing.
“Yes, but first, we need to check out Trevor’s apartment. Come on. Let’s go up.” I took out the key that Sully gave us and walked to the building door.
“Isn’t Trevor’s apartment on the second floor?” Julia asked when we stepped in. She spotted the building diagram on the wall. The first floor had all the shops, but the second floor appeared to be used for living spaces or storage.
“Yes, he’s in 210. That’s what Sully told me,” I said and looked at the map to see which way we had to go.
“This way.” Julia pointed left, and I followed her up the old staircase. I read that some of the buildings in Cannery Row had been around since the early 1900s, and walking up the creaky wooden steps, I could believe it.
I had to squint a little to see where I was going as well. The lone light fixture on the ceiling emitted a dim yellowish glow.
“Geez! You would think the building’s owner would invest some money into the inside,” Julia said as she tried to read the numbers on the doors as we passed.
“That would be nice, but I don’t think it would make sense financially since none of the tourists would come up here,” I said, stopping in front of a worn door. The brass numbers two-one-zero were attached crookedly, and the zero was barely hanging on.
“Here it is.” I knocked on the door, and we waited a few beats just in case Trevor had a roommate that Sully wasn’t aware of. But when we didn’t hear anyone stirring inside, I slipped in the key. I turned the knob and then tried to push the door open, but it wouldn’t budge. “I wonder if Sully gave us the wrong key.”
“Try again. Some of these doors are really old, so it might be sticky,” Julia said, coming right behind me.
“Okay,” I said and gave the knob another twist. This time, I used my body to shove the door. The force flew the door open, and I stumbled in.
“Are you okay?” Julia put her hands on my back and pushed me upright.
“Thanks!” I said, and I felt Julia brush past me. “This place is amazing!” She gasped as she took in the sunlight flooding in through the glass pane windows.
When I regained my footing, I walked further inside the apartment. I only had to take a few steps before I knew what Julia was talking about. “Oh, wow!” The floor-to-ceiling windows were impressive, as was the wide-open space of the loft.
From the writing on the brick walls, the place seemed to be a renovated sardine factory. There wasn’t much furniture in the place, which made it seem more like a warehouse than a living space.
Meow!
I looked at Julia, startled by the sound. “Did you hear a cat?” My question was answered when a tabby cat appeared from behind the kitchen counter.
“Oh my goodness! Have you been here all alone?” I rushed to the area that was sectioned off as a small kitchenette. I could see that Trevor had installed an automatic feeder for the food and water. However, the feeder was almost empty.
I slowly approached the cat to see if it would let me pet it.
Meow. The tabby purred and rubbed its head on my hand when I gently scratched behind his ear. “Let’s see your name.” I turned over the name tag so that I could read it. “Leo,” I read aloud.
“Hi, Leo,” Julia said as she kneeled down to pet him. Then she got up and said, “We should look around and see what’s here.”
I nodded in agreement. “There’s a closed door that might be Trevor’s bedroom or bathroom.” I pointed in the direction opposite of the kitchen. “I’ll look in there if you want to search in this open area.”
