Chapter 17.

Any horror movie has old school fancy cars that roam the streets at night with no driver. It’s never a boring mundane everyday car like mine with all the modern gizmos and gadgets, so I definitely should be safe.

Is it wishful thinking?

Yes.

Is it escapism?

Maybe.

Am I a coward?

Absofuckinglutely.

When I arrived home and entered my apartment, I stopped in place for a moment. All the lights were off... except for the bathroom light. The door to the bathroom was slightly ajar and a distinct streak of light was painted along the ground.

There was a rancid, rotten stench that pervaded the air inside the room. My stomach was churning and I felt sick when I thought of the worst-case scenario. Based on everything that happened today, I had a good idea of what would be waiting for me on the other side of the door. Instead of opening it up to check on the situation, I took out my phone and plugged it into the wall to let it charge up a bit. When it turned on, I immediately called the cops.

With the way things stood, it really wasn’t looking good for me, but it was best to report this immediately. I knew I would likely be a prime suspect, but I was hoping the time of death lined up well with when I was at the hotel. There were camera recordings as well as records of me checking in at that hotel, so hopefully, it would be a solid enough alibi.

“911. What’s the exact location of your emergency?”

“640-575 Ariala Street.”

“What’s the cross street?”

“I can’t remember, I just moved here recently.”

“What’s your name?”

“Diogenes Genovese.”

“How do you spell that?”

“First name, D-i-o-g-e-n-e-s. Last name, G-e-n-o-v-e-s-e.”

“What’s the problem? Tell me exactly what happened.”

“I came home and there was a dead body in my bathroom.”

“Do you know who the deceased is?”

“I haven’t examined the body yet in fear of disrupting the scene of the crime.”

“Are there any signs that the murderer is still nearby?”

“If I said I suspected it was a ghost, would you believe me?”

“A… ghost?”

“Yes.”

“Is this a prank?”

“Look, I know it sounds crazy. Even I think ghosts are a load of hogwash, but I have no idea what’s going on anymore.”

“Alright, we will have officers dispatched ASAP. Please don’t move from where you are and wait for their arrival.”

“Alright.”

“Hahaha guys, get this. What? This lunatic claims ghosts killed someone in his apartment. LMAO! How many times is that now?”

Before the call ended, I heard the operator practically diss me outright. Well, I knew it sounded crazy, but please cut me some slack. I’m not in the right state of mind right now.

I was frustrated and didn’t want to hear anymore so I ended the call and waited patiently for the police to arrive. Ten minutes later, I heard the sirens from outside. After a few more minutes passed by, the cops showed up in front of my open door. When they arrived, I weakly pointed at the bathroom while squatting down in a corner with my back against the opposite wall to the bathroom door. I hadn’t taken my wary eyes off the door for a second since I ended the call.

The two cops entered my apartment and surrounded the bathroom door from both sides. One opened the door slowly and checked the blind spots while the other held onto his gun firmly prepared for any unexpected changes. When they confirmed there wasn’t anyone else inside the bathroom, a few more cops burst in and inspected the rest of the apartment.

While the others examined the rest of the apartment, the cops inside the bathroom opened up the curtain hiding the bathtub and discovered a dead body as I’d expected. I snuck a peak and it was exactly the person I’d been looking for, my coworker, Rick. In that instant, my heart dropped to rock bottom as I knew the future would likely be bleak. It wasn’t my first run-in with the dead though, so I wasn’t as shaken compared to my first time with Adele five years ago.

“Sir, do you recognize the deceased?”

“Yes.”

“What is your relationship to the deceased?”

“He is, or I suppose now that he is dead, was a coworker of mine. His name is Rick Roer, a junior electronics repair technician at my workplace.”

“When did you discover the body?”

“Right when I called 911.”

“Judging by the decay of the body, how far rigor mortis has progressed and accounting for how the body was submerged in water, it’s been at least half a day since he passed away. When was the last time you saw the deceased?”

“It was about 11:00 PM last night. We were out drinking with a group of our coworkers and I was the designated driver. I dropped all of them off at their homes and he was the last person I dropped off.”

The cop frowned as he seemingly noticed the questionable timing of events with what he surmised was the estimated time of death. I knew I needed to clear up any sort of contradictions that would arise, otherwise I could very well be tagged with the crime of murder. Well, who am I kidding? No matter what I say now, discovering him in my place would easily land me a position as a prime suspect either way.

“The reason I didn’t discover his body until now was I didn’t come home after dropping him off at his place. In case you didn’t already know, this apartment belonged to someone who recently killed themselves. I moved here because the rent was super cheap, but recently I’ve been getting a bit spooked when staying here so I decided to spend the night at a hotel for a change of pace. You can check the recordings and logs at the hotel for proof to verify this.”

“When I woke up this morning I also ran into a housekeeping lady at the hotel before checking out of the hotel. After that, I immediately went to work. When I arrived at work I discovered that Rick hadn’t shown up. At first, we thought he might have just been too hungover, we never suspected it would turn out to be something like this. I was asked to check up on him because he hadn’t called in and we couldn’t reach him either, it was really unusual for Rick as he was a very punctual type of person. Unfortunately, when I arrived at his place, I received no answer so I gave up, left, and returned home only to discover… well, it’s as you can see.”

I naturally left out the crazy shit that happened while at his place fearful that they would think I was a mental patient. The security cameras in Rick’s apartment building should at the very least confirm that I did pay his unit a visit. What the security camera footage revealed on it was another story altogether, but I’ll deal with it when the time comes. There was no point in opening a can of worms by telling them I was a lunatic who had crazy hallucinations when I went to check up on my coworker.

“I understand, we’ll need to take you down to the station for further questioning to take an official statement.”