Bob froze in place.
“Dammit!”
Bob turned around and saw Phil in the kitchen. His arms were raised near his head.
“Phil? What the hell?”
“Sorry, sorry” Phil replied, tried to calm Bob down. “I was just looking for clues on the counter, and I knocked a glass over.”
Bob looked puzzled. “Wait, so you didn’t want to come in, and now you think you’re Fred from Scooby-Doo?”
Phil walked around the counter to the living room. “Hey, this is some weirdness going on. The empty cases, the missing iPod but the TV and cash are here? Can you think of an explanation? Because I can’t, and that makes me think there’s something going on here.”
“Phil, you wanted to call the cops, and now you’re auditioning for the Sleuth Channel?”
Phil was standing right in front of Bob now, and he raised the angry tone of his voice, if not the volume. “I haven’t heard you mention any theories about this weirdness. CDs and VHS tapes? A missing iPod? Do you not care about what might have happened here?”
Bob responded with a similar angry whisper “Look, whatever happened here, we’ll let the police figure it out. I sell cars, and you work human resources! We’re not exactly Law and Order, or even Simon and Simon here!”
Phil stared at him, taking a deep breath. “Well, lead on. Let’s get your sunglasses and get out of here. Do you see them in here?”
Bob looked all around the apartment again. He didn’t see them anywhere they might be, or in spots they shouldn’t be. That left the bedroom and bathroom. Bob turned and walked into the bedroom, with Phil right behind him. The bedroom was in a perfect state of bachelor-dom. There were clothes everywhere, the laundry hamper was overflowing, and the bed looked like it hadn’t been made in years. Bob glanced around at the table by the bed, and at the floor near the hamper.
“Hey Bob, check this out. His computer has been gutted too.”
Bob looked over at the computer desk. The PC tower had been slid out, and the hard drive had been removed. More empty jewel cases littered the floor. Then, he spotted his lucky sunglasses, sitting on top of the monitor. “Hey, my sunglasses!” he said as he grabbed them and put them in his inner jacket pocket. Phil rolled his eyes, then stepped around the mess into the bathroom.
“What are you doing Phil? Can’t you hold it until we get back to our place?”
“I’m just looking for more clues as to what the hell happened here.” Phil said, as he poked around the sink, his hands still in his jacket sleeves. Bob walked over to the door of the bathroom, looking around impatiently.
“Let’s go already.”
Suddenly, they heard the front door creak open a bit further, and the sound of boots in the main room.
