Disclaimer: If I really owned any part of Chicago or Law & Order, I would have quit school a long time ago.
Part Three—The Name on Everybody's LipsCurtis never liked doing interviews that much, especially interviews with neighbors. They were usually too worried about themselves to say anything really important. And you never knew if they were going to tell you anything important. So the two of them walked in and started ringing doorbells, Curtis wishing that he could leave this part of the job to Lennie.
It was a small building, at least. There were only two apartments on the first floor, both with little old ladies living in them. The first one had never met Roxie, or any of her other neighbors. Crazy old bat. They moved on to the next quickly enough.
The next lady, a Mrs. Walker, answered the door in the pinkest bathrobe Curtis had ever seen, and fluffy bunny slippers. He held back a sigh. "I'm Detective Curtis, this is Detective Briscoe. We need to ask you a few questions. Can we come in?" he began.
"What about?" the lady asked suspiciously, not moving.
Lennie leaned up against the door and started talking. "We're just asking everyone about one of your upstairs neighbor, a Roxie Hart. She's been arrested for murder."
"Murder? My goodness. Well, I suppose you can come in," the lady replied. She took the door off the chain and led them into the kitchen. It was a tiny room in need of redecorating. Curtis hadn't seen so much avocado green in years. She put some tea on and sat at the table with them. "What do you need to know?" she asked.
"Did you know Mrs. Hart?" Curtis asked.
"Not very well. She was a lot younger than us, a lot younger than that husband of hers, too. She had a good mouth on her. Could hardly be bothered to give us the time of day, and talked back when she did. She was always coming over to borrow things from me, too," she said.
"Really? What kind of things?"
"Oh, coffee, eggs, nothing special. Flour, once."
"So, just food stuff?" Curtis asked.
"Mostly. Pretty basic stuff. She never gave me anything in return, either. Not that I minded, but you would think she could be bothered to buy some eggs once in a while, you know? And she was so arrogant, like I was the one who owed her."
Curtis thought about some of his own neighbors from the apartment building in Brooklyn and thanked the Lord for houses. "Yeah, you would think. Is there anything else you can tell us about her? Did you or your husband ever see any of her friends, anything like that?"
Mrs. Walker thought for a moment. "No, can't say that I ever did."
"Would your husband know anything more? Should we contact him at work?" Lennie asked.
"He doesn't talk much with the neighbors. I don't think he knows Mrs. Hart," she answered.
"Okay. Thanks for your time. Give us a call if you remember anything," Curtis said, giving her his card, and they left before she could force any of that awful-smelling tea on them.
Next they had to talk to the Harts' neighbors upstairs. Another little old lady. Great. At least she was dressed better. There was a cat, too, a Siamese. Curtis picked her up and started scratching her under the chin. Lennie asked her if she knew Roxie, and they were lucky enough to find something interesting.
'Oh, sure, I know her," the lady said. "Brings up men at all hours of the night, carrying on while her husband's at work."
This was a stroke of luck. "Did you ever happen to see any of these men?" Lennie asked.
"Some of them," she answered.
Curtis pulled out the picture of Fred Casely he had in his pocket and asked, "Any of them ever look like this guy here?"
The woman gasped. "What happened to him?"
"He was shot," Lennie sighed. "Did you see him around here? With Mrs. Hart?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact, I saw them waiting for the elevator just a few days ago. I thought it was strange. Hadn't seen him around here in a while."
"Oh? He's been here often?" Curtis asked.
"He certainly used to. Then a couple of months ago, not at all. I thought she'd moved on. It was certainly a surprise to see him here again. They looked awfully close, I thought maybe he'd just been on a vacation or something."
"Did you see either of them leave?" Curtis asked.
"No, I went to bed not long after that. Come to think of it, it was the night that someone got shot over in their apartment. What with all that noise, and then the police, it took me forever to get to sleep last night. Who was it that got killed? I heard it was a burglar."
"In a manner of speaking," Lennie told her. "It looks like she killed that boyfriend of hers."
"Really? I never would have thought it…I certainly hope I've been able to help you two."
'Oh, you have," Curtis assured her, putting the cat back down as they prepared to leave.
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Sorry it took me so long to get this chapter done-I had a research paper to do before I could get back to my *real* writing. And now I'm leaving the country for the next couple of months, so it'll probably be even longer till the next one. But after that it won't be long until I go back to school and then I'll have lots more time to write…oh, wait…homework? What homework? Anyway, hopefully later updates will be faster. They should (hopefully) be worth reading, too, so bear with me and we'll all be happy.
Thanks to everybody who's reviewed! As for the ADA question, Claire definitely seems to be the favorite so far. There have been some suggestions for Abbie…as much as that would work, well, I'm just not a fan of hers. Besides, I'm afraid of what would happen if I let her, Billy, and Jack loose in a courtroom together. (Oh, the humanity!) As for my final decision, you'll just have to keep reading to find out! (evil laughter) (And yes, that is just a cheesy way of saying I still haven't decided yet. By the way, keep in mind that the actress who played Jamie is now married to Richard Gere (who played Billy). Now that could be fun. (more evil laughter) And now I'd better quit before the author's notes get longer than the actual chapter. Until next time…