A Knock at the Door

A Knock at the Door

The rapping on Paul’s apartment door is loud and insistent. In response, he moves quickly to determine the actual urgency. What he finds is a middle-aged man in an inexpensive suit with a conservative haircut.

“Paul Morton? I’m Detective Blake, Metro PD. May I come in and speak with you?”

“Sure.” Morton closes the door after the man enters. He notices Blake’s eyes scanning the room. “What’s this about?”

“Do you know Alice Archer?”

“Yes. What’s happened?”

“Why do you ask that?” Blake snaps.

“Well, you come here out of the blue, asking about an ex-girlfriend who I’ve hardly spoken with in the past five years. I assume you’re not taking a survey of jilted ex-lovers.”

“So, she did dump you,” Blake replies.

“Yeah. I guess there’s no way to make that sound any better.”

“Was it serious?”, Blake asks, sounding almost concerned.

“Yeah, we were living together. I thought we’d eventually get married. She broke up with me to figure some things out.” Morton punctuated the last four words with air quotes.

“So, she decided she was done with you.” Blake concludes.

“Yeah, well, I’m guessing she already figured that out. The truth was that she got involved with someone else and they wound up living together. Seriously, what the hell is going on?”

Blake is writing on a pad during this. “Angry about that, were you?”

“Yeah, after the hurt. Could you tell me what’s going on? This is freaking me out.”

Blake, with a softened tone says, “sure, I just have a few more questions. Where were you last night?”

“Right here.”

“All night?” Blake asks, his eyes darting around the ground-floor apartment.

“Yes.”

“Alone?” Blake presses.

“Yes. What happened to Alice?”

Blake stops writing and takes a breath. “Her boyfriend came home and found her dead. She was murdered. Apparently by someone she knew.”

“Oh my God!” Morton’s knees buckle as he steadies himself by holding onto the couch. You’re questioning me like you think…”

Blake interrupts Morton’s conclusion. “Did you go out at all? Get any phone calls?

“No. This is nuts.”                                                     

“So, no one can vouch for your whereabouts from 6:00 PM last night until now.”

“I guess not. I mean I was on the internet.”

“Which you could do from anywhere.”

“I suppose, but…”

“Have you had any relationships since Ms. Archer broke up with you?”                             

“Well, I’ve dated a bit, but nothing serious.”

“Is that because you’re still hung up on Ms. Archer?”

“No. This doesn’t make any sense. If I was hung up on her, why would I kill her?”

Blake has a quick answer. “You were pissed off. You knew she was getting married, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, I heard about it.”

“You’re not angry that she’s marrying someone else?”

“Like I said I was hurt, then I was angry, then I moved on.”

“OK. So, you’re some kind of writer?”

“I try.”

“It seems like you’ve had a number of stories published.”

“Well, if you figured that out, you also know that Simon and Schuster are not beating down my door for my short stories.”

“It seems like quite a few of them have revenge as a topic, and specifically revenge for being kicked to the curb.”

“I guess I’m not clever enough to make shit up. I write from my life.”

“Does your life include bashing women over the head with a frying pan?”

“Wait. Is that what happened to Alice?”

“As a matter of fact, yes. By someone who had a lot of anger toward her. Like in your stories.”

“Look, I just take ordinary occurrences to extraordinary conclusions.”

“I have to tell you, that sounds rehearsed.”                                      

“It should. I’ve used it in seminars for years. But it happens to be true. Hey, I’m just as pissed off at the guy she was marrying.”

“I guess that explains your story about poisoning your ex and her lover.”

“That wasn’t MY ex, it was the character’s ex.”

Blake closes his notebook. “Okay, that’s all for now. You planning any trips Mr. Morton?”

“No.”

“That’s wise. We may have more questions.” Blake lets himself out as Paul stands at the door, still shaken.

***

Paul is on the phone when he hears a knock at the door. “It’s all good. Gotta go. Talk to you later.” When he opens the door, he finds Detective Blake.

“Detective. What can I do for you? Any resolution?”

“As a matter of fact, there has been.”

“That’s great.”

“I was surprised not to see you at the funeral. You were in Ms. Archer’s life for a long time.”

“Yeah, I felt kind of bad about that, but her fiancé doesn’t like me much, and neither do a lot of her friends. I thought it would be best to stay away.”

“You knew the fiancé, Martin, before he got involved with Ms. Archer, right?”

“Yeah. We were in the same bowling league.”

“So, you were friends.”

“I mean, we weren’t close or anything, but yeah.”

“So, why didn’t he like you?” Blake interjects. “I could understand why you wouldn’t like him; he blew up your relationship. I can even understand why you were angry at her for dumping you.”

“Well, these things happen. Yeah, I don’t know why he didn’t like me. We got along fine until… but from what I heard he’s crazy jealous, and guys don’t like hearing about their girlfriend’s exes.”

“You think she talked to him about you?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. Maybe she told him I was a bad guy.”

“For someone who’s not involved in her life, you seem to know an awful lot about it.”

“Well, we had mutual friends. You know…you hear things. What’s with the questions? I thought you said this was resolved.”

“Well, we’ve resolved who committed the murder.”

“Who was it?”

“It was the boyfriend, Martin. He confessed.” Blake looks directly at Morton to gauge his reaction.

“Holy shit! What happened?”

“It seems that he killed her in a fit of jealousy.”

“Wow. I heard he was possessive, but I had no idea it was that bad. So, what’s unresolved?”

Blake answers, “There’s one thing that troubles me. You said you had barely spoken to Ms. Archer in years. But there was a flash drive on his computer which contained a video. You know what was on it?”

“I have no idea.”

“Really. Surprising because you’re the star of the show, with Ms. Archer, of course. It looks like it was shot from outside through a window. You didn’t mention you were with her because…”

“Look, she was getting married. What happened to her was bad enough. I didn’t think it was worth it to shame her on top of it.”                                               

“How was it that you two got together?” Blake asks.

“She called me a couple of weeks ago. She wanted to meet for a drink. I have to admit I was intrigued. But when she came over a few days later, she told me she was getting married. She just wanted me to hear it from her first and not be surprised. We had a few drinks, started reminiscing, and we just fell into our old habits. One of the few things we always did well, regardless of how we were getting along. Afterward, she insisted it didn’t mean anything, and I shouldn’t read anything into it.”

“We found the package that the flash drive came in. It was addressed to Martin. It’s strange that there were no fingerprints on the package or the flash drive except Martin’s.”

“That’s weird. Who would shoot a video like that? And why send it to Martin?”

“Did you tell anyone you were meeting Alice?”

“No. Of course not.”

“Why not?”

“Look, I figured she was just coming over as a kind of peace offering. I mean not in a sleazy way. She wanted to acknowledge that she made some mistakes with me. Not that it was going to do me much good, but I did appreciate the gesture.”

“And the sex.”

“You think I’m making this up? None of this makes me look very good. It just makes me seem more pathetic.”

“When you knew she was coming over, did you think you’d have sex?”

“OK, honestly? Did I expect it? No. Did I think it could be a possibility? Yeah, I guess so.”

Blake drifts to the window before saying, “I still find it amazing that someone happened to be outside your window with a camera at the very time you and Ms. Archer were in bed together…”

“Yeah, that is bizarre…                                             

“…and connect what was going on to Martin and send him the flash drive. Why?”

“It could only be extremely hurtful.”

“And if that person knew about Martin’s jealousy, he, or she, would know there could be dire consequences.”

“Yeah…I suppose.”

Blake closes in on Morton, before asking, “But who would do something like that?”

“I don’t know…someone with a lot of anger, I guess.” Blake stares hard at Paul looking for an indication of guilt, fear, or a need to confess. He finds nothing.

“I would say so. Blake continues to look at Morton than abruptly says, “I guess I’ll be leaving.”

As the detective starts to the door, he turns back. “I suppose you still had feelings for Alice.”

“She’s a good person, but I stopped loving her five years ago.”

“I didn’t say you still loved her. I said you still had feelings for her.”

“Yes, you did. By the way, do you know if Martin actually saw the video?”

“Oh yeah”, Blake replies.

“That’s too bad.”

Paul closes the door behind him, smiles and walks across the room and heads for the phone.  As he picks up his phone, the door opens again, and Blake steps in.

“Oh, by the way, do you know what reckless endangerment is?”

“I don’t know, some sort of criminal offense?”

“Acting in a reckless manner that puts other people's lives at risk, and consciously ignoring that risk. Carries substantial prison time.”

“Why are you giving me a lesson in the penal code?”

“Just thought you might need to know about it…you know, for one of your stories.”  

“Thank you. You never know.”

Blake smiles at Morton. “Be seeing you.”