Chapter 14: Someone's Already Watching
That ran plenty of alarm bells in my head and solidified that this wasn't Betty Ross. No way that she'd be in an abusive relationship, not with General Ross as her dad. That man wouldn't stand for that sort of thing happening to his little girl.
"Thanks for the information miss," I handed her a piece of paper with a number on the paper. "If you see anything else, do you mind giving this number a ring?" at her rather disbelieving expression; "I just mean if you remember anything else or if you see anything that 's odd."
"Shouldn't I call the cops?"
"O-o-of course," I stammered out, this time it was genuine. "I just mean that you could give me a heads up for stories that you might think needs to be told, just the odd things. You know?"
The woman nodded, eventually turning with the lead in her hand and I let the dog and their owner work off.
It didn't take me long to decide that I needed to meet this Betty as well. Maybe she'd seen something that Regina wasn't told about. After all, such a kind old lady didn't need to know anything dangerous, if I was this Betty, I certainly wouldn't tell her anything about that.
The door to get into the apartment complex was empty, not a single person passing through the door, so that meant I needed to be buzzed in.
"Hope I can find more of that small-town charm," I grumbled, looking at the list of apartment numbers, finding the button for the 5B apartment. "Hello, Miss, I'm with the New York Bulletin, just looking to do a piece on what's it's like to live in the area. One of those odd things that the editor loves doing at times, may I come in?"
I said it with such a rushy voice like I was suddenly terrified that the woman would attack me on the other side of the buzzer.
"Ok," The voice that I could only assume that it was this Betty woman. "I'll buzz you in."
I went through the door and up the stairs slowly, not wanting to spook the woman by getting up there as supernaturally fast as I could. Most of the time, I'd stay away from using any such a speed in an open place but in an old building like this, I could afford to blitz past the hallways.
It took only two minutes to reach the fifth floor, something that I'm sure was a fast time but the layout of the stairs meant I could just leap over several sets of stairs without issue, cutting the time it would take by around half.
I came to Betty's door, a grin on my face, and ruffling my shirt to make myself seem more like I was one of those people that were just exhausted by life. Knocking on the door, I waited for her to answer patiently, faking needing to huff and puff.
When she opened the door, I wasn't so much taken back as I was confused. From the words of that old lady with the dog, I woulda thought that poor Betty was nothing if not meek housewife… but this woman was a tall blond, not as tall as Louise or even me but she looked to be as built as her.
Just leaner.
Though, saying that she certainly had the body language and the clothing style that you'd need to pull off like that.
"How can I help you?" The woman pushed up some glasses, some oddly shaped glasses. From my own experiences with lenses the one on her face, looked to be fake, they didn't actually have a curved surface, at least not enough that it would help you with seeing.
Curious and curiouser.
This woman was too good to fall for any acts.
"Hello, I was the guy at the door buzzing, with the New York Bulletin?"
"Right that was you," Betty shook her head, her long blond hair casting shadows over her eyes. "Sorry, you just got up here a lot faster than I thought possible."
"I've been told that I'm a guy that's always in a hurry," I joked, deciding that honesty would get me true the door better than the 'all-shucks' act would. "Means that I'm at least early to everything that I need to be at. I'm looking into the recent blackout, that started in this building."
Betty blinked, her face scrunching up suddenly in that way I'm sure said that she was taken back by what I'd just said.
"Thought that you said it was about how life in the area is like?" she responded, opening the door and waving me into the apartment.
"It's the same thing," I shrugged, letting the shoulders roll as I entered the main living room of the apartment. My eyes glazing over at the sight of pictures, most of them of what I could only assume was her fiancé and the woman herself. "The two tie into each other perfectly, miss."
"Please sit down," She motioned to a chair, a soft-looking green thing with yellow crowns. "What do you want to ask exactly?"
"Just the usual stuff, did you see anything odd, where you home for the blackout?" I smiled, letting my teeth shine through it as I thought it would do well for getting the girl to take my questions. "Those sort of things. The standard mix of nonsense and average questions.."
"Right," she took a deep breath. "Well, in order, I didn't see anything, I was home for the blackout but my fiancé wasn't."
"Good," I took a look around the room, my vision shifting through all the available avenues to showcase what this very suspicious person had to hide from me.
To hide this action, of me staring around the room oddly, I took out my notepad, scratching down what the woman had told me as I had with the old dog lady outside. "And how long have you lived in the area?"
"Been here for about a year," she told me, and oddly if I hadn't been told that she'd been here for only a month, I wouldn't have been able to tell she lied.
Betty's heart rate was normal and I couldn't figure out if the sweat on her brow was normal or a sign of deceit. "The only issue seems to be the electrical power seems to go out, but that's not a massive issue. The building has a gas boiler for heat, so I don't have to worry about the winter cold."
"Right, makes sense," I nodded seeing past the woman and into the room on the other side. I could see three people, surrounding computer monitors, One was a tall man with a dark skin tone and black hair, another one was a plain white male, clean-shaven and his hair brushed back. "And where is your fiancé? I wouldn't mind hearing his opinion about things?"
"Oh," Betty let out, fake surprise on her face, something that I probably wouldn't be able to tell if I hadn't been told. "I'm afraid that he's out, off to his job."
"And where's that… if you don't mind me asking? I leaned forward, tapping the notepad to one knee while doing the same with my pen, letting the ink from it stain my knee.
"He's an office clerk for Hammer Industries customer services," the lady explained, plastering on a smile on her face that told me that Betty was going for the whole butter wouldn't melt in her mouth approach. "He works late hours but a few days a week."
"I see," I wrote down some nonsense on the paper, trying to make sure that I looked like I was finishing up. "Well, I won't take up any more of your time, if you think of anything just give a ring to the Bulletin offices and ask for Doyle, I'm the only one in the building.."
I left the room, trying to seem like I was being casual when I was sure that it really just seemed like I was running away from her. It was odd then if you were to learn that this was just how I naturally was, even if I was really calm on the inside, I seemed to be a panicked mess at times.
I needed to force meself to act any other way. Unless I was in disguise, that seemed to draw my confidence out.
But I slowed down once I left the apartment, focusing on listening to the room that I just left with only the vaguest hint of trouble doing so.
"What do you think?"Betty asked another person, her accent shifting ever so slightly. Sadly I wasn't familiar with American accents yet, so I only could tell it was different but not exactly where it had come from but I could tell it was still an American one. "Guy on the up and up?"
"Not sure," A male voice spoke up, his voice was distorted, I could make out every word he was saying but I could tell the gist of it. It was only his last few words that were truly clear to me. "... looks like there's no sign of him before six months ago."
My heart leaped deep into my chest, it was more than a little suspicious that they could pull up this much info about me in such short notice, hell it was downright magical. Who could they be to get that much info?
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