Three light, albeit harder than before, taps. The senior got annoyed and pushed the junior aside and pounded his fist against the door six times. Then he pressed his right ear against the door.
"There, I hear someone inside," he said. The junior officer thought about pressing his ear against the door as well but remembered the last time. He had been told to 'fuck off' because if more than one person had their ear against the door the vibrations caused by the other person would muddle the sound waves coming from the other side. Instead he sat, anxiously waiting.
"Okay, I can hear steps. They're coming this way." he backed away from the door and reached for his hip.
"Hello," the face inside gave a yawn, looked as he had just woken up. He was not a young man. But society would still describe him as a young man. Mostly because he hadn't yet done or accomplished the things that a non-young man ought to have by his age. Marriage. Kids. A respectable career.
"Police" a voice said, with a quick flash of the badge.
"How can I help -- " he yawned once more. One of those big ones that signalled the final
yawn
.
"Where were you last night--" the junior officer corrected himself, "--this morning at 3:47 AM."
"I was here. Asleep."
"Your downstairs neighbors claim they heard you walking around your flat at that time."
"That's right. I did wake up around 4. But it had been past 4, I can remember that for certain."
"Mm. So you were here the whole night?"
"Yes."
"That neighbor said that they also heard your door open."
The tenant who was now wide awake looked at his door. He remembered the visit from Fed. Had Camilla called the
police
?
"I opened it to check if I had a package. I am supposed to receive one any day now and I hadn't checked in the evening as I had fallen asleep early. So I wanted to see if it had come late in the evening."
The junior officer was writing this down into a notepad as the senior looked straight into his eyes as he told this story.
"What time was that? Roughly when did you go to sleep last night."
He thought that 2o:00 would be early enough. Sometimes couriers came as late as 20:30. "around 8" he lied.
