A Night Like Any Other
Chapter 3

Copyright© 2014 by MysteryWriter

April 3

April had been able to put everything else out of her mind to sleep hard until the persistent knocking on the apartment door woke her. She staggered out of bed and to the door. She didn't care that she was almost naked in her short sweatshirt and bikini panties. By the age of forty eight, she had pretty much lost all her false modesty.

"What?" she asked the two police officers almost angrily.

"Sorry to bother you miss, but the manager said you owned the apartment where she found the body?" the young black policeman asked.

"Yes, I own the whole building. Did she also tell you I worked a twelve hour shift last night and wasn't here till almost 10am. I heard and saw nothing out of the ordinary. Now can I go back to sleep?" April asked.

"Have you ever met the lady," the woman asked.

"Had," April said. "It is had, if she is deceased, which I assume she is. And I only knew her as a tenant. I told Vivian, the weekend manager, to get the records for you. Those records are all I know about her. Now I'm going to close the door and return to bed. That is unless you plan to arrest me for sleeping."

The two of them didn't move so April closed the door in their faces. She walked though the archway which connected the two motel rooms. One room was her large bedroom and average sized bath. The second room had been converted to a small living room with kitchen and dining area.

The Bedroom had required minimal renovation while the living room required slightly more. Turning the bathroom into a galley kitchen, and the dressing area of the old bedroom, into a small dining area had been only slightly more work. All the apartments were going to be more or less the same.

April walked to her small refrigerator for a glass of chemical orange juice. The chemicals in the fake orange juice were probably less toxic than the orange juice grown with fertilizer and pesticides. She drank the fake juice as she swallowed four generic Ibuprofen tablets. Rather than heating coffee, she staggered back to bed.

In the summer most folks ran their air conditions wide open. April chose instead to open all the fancy new windows she had installed. Below each of the front thermal pane windows was a high efficiency heat pump. Fitted inside each of her smaller rear windows was a reversible fan. It was possible to create a wind tunnel effect in each room separately from the other. It was a good cooling system most days.

Since she was on the second floor with no fire escapes on the rear, the windows back there were fairly secure with just a good lock. At least in the winter months a lock was all that was needed, in the summer a cut off broom handle in each of their tracks secured them.

The windows on the front had light weight aluminum decorative faux iron shutters installed. It was possible to open the window, without opening the shutters. All of those features taken together made for a secure, effective ventilation system. Each of the units were going to have the faux iron shutters installed as they were converted to apartments.

April increased the air movement in her bedroom, then fell back into bed for even more sleep. She slept with only a light film of moisture accumulating on her skin and soaking into her sweat shirt. All in all she felt very good when she awoke.

I'm hungry as hell, but pretty well rested, she thought.

A quick look at her clock told her that if she wished an update on the body in the apartment, she would have to leave for the office immediately. Since she didn't really know the woman in apartment three, she decided that she could wait until the next day for the update. Instead of running to the office, she checked her other email. Since there was nothing, she took a shower and dressed for work. If the truth be known, she showered then dressed for the drive to work.

It was no wonder April was hungry, she had slept through the traditional lunch hour. It was either go out, or fix her own lunch at 4pm. April chose to microwave a meal from her tiny chest freezer. She chose a very nice three cheese pasta gourmet dinner. It was really just a mac and cheese TV dinner. She also took a package of fancy rolls from the freezer. From the package she took only one. That she covered with real butter after toasting it in the oven of her almost barbie sized stove.

After ten minutes she sat down to eat her very simple, but fancy named frozen dinner. While she ate, she thought about how different things were in the rental units. They had the same heat pumps, but lacked the fancy fan systems. The rentals had the standard apartment sized refrigerators, stoves, and a small low wattage microwave, just like hers. They were not equipped with the small chest freezer That appliances were the smallest size made. She provided them to protect the circuits. Each apartment had it's own circuit breakers, and with them came the individual power bills. April provided hot water, kitchen appliances. but nothing else. Okay that isn't quite true the overhead fixtures came with light bulbs.

After she finished everything she had to do around the apartment, it was 6pm an hour after the time for Viv to have signed off the computer. April didn't have time to do anything productive before work. She never did during her work weekend, she knew that and planned for it. For the next three days she was totally in work mode. Nothing would cause her to lose focus. It was the only way she knew how to function. It was also why Viv was so important to her lifestyle.

 
There is more of this chapter...

To read this story you need a Registration + Premier Membership
If you have an account, then please Log In or Register (Why register?)

Close
 

WARNING! ADULT CONTENT...

Storiesonline is for adult entertainment only. By accessing this site you declare that you are of legal age and that you agree with our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.