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Keep An Eye On The Sky, Huh?

A crowd formed around the doorway as the police came to take a statement.

“Look, can we hurry this up? I have an audition to get to.” Veronica said.

“I’m sorry, Miss. I just need to take your statement while it’s fresh in your mind.”

“I tried to go in to my audition. My friend, Bryce, pulled me out of the way and that bag came down right where I was standing. That’s all.”

“Any enemies?”

“Seriously? Somebody waited all morning for me to stand there so they could drop a big Santa bag on me from ten stories up? That’s stupid. Can I go now?”

“Can you please let her get to her audition? I was right here. I can give you the same details as her.” Bryce offered.

“Alright, Miss. Can you just provide me your full name and contact information so we can follow up?”

She took the patrolman’s notepad and wrote the requested information before dashing into the building. He turned to Bryce and asked, “What can you tell me about what happened here?”

“She invited me to watch her audition for a dance company that’s participating in an Off-Broadlane musical. Apparently, it’s here in this building. Just as we were about to go in, I saw a weird shadow. I pulled her out of the way and whammo! Big red bag.”

“Did you see anybody up there?”

“No, my eyes were on her and that shadow.”

“How long have you known Miss Montes?”

“We met at a Christmas party on Sunday. I hadn’t expected to see her again but we bumped into each other on the train this morning.”

“Maybe it was you this bag was meant for.”

“If so, they’d had to have been psychic. Even I didn’t know I was coming here until Veronica invited me. I was planning to go home.”

“Home from where?”

“Dropping a friend off at JFK. Honestly, this is just a freak situation. I don’t think that Veronica has anyone who’d want to kill her much less do it by dropping a big Santa bag full of rocks on her from ten storeys up.”

“Coal.” The policeman said.

“Excuse me?”

“There’s coal in that bag. About two hundred pounds of the stuff.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Nope. Definitely not a joking matter.”

Bryce looked up to the roof of the building. “You’re going to get people up there, right?”

The policeman smirked. “People. My partner and I will head up there after we get statements and CSI gets here to take pics.”

“Are we good?”

“Yeah, write down your full name and contact information for me before you go.” He handed Bryce the notepad and pen.

Heading up the stairs, Bryce was looking for a sign that would give a clue to Veronica’s audition. Fortunately, only one door had loud music coming from it. He poked his head in and found an ensemble of dancers working on a routine. Veronica was middle left.

He walked in. Finding no seats, he sat down cross-legged on the floor and watched them practice. The director stopped, shuffled and restarted them several times. It seemed pretty disruptive but Veronica seemed to take it in stride. Apparently, this was standard procedure for dancers.

It seemed totally haphazard to Bryce. The director seemed to be making it up as they went through each successive iteration of the routine. That would have driven him bats and it was actually beginning to. If it wasn’t for Veronica, he’d have quietly bowed out long before now.

“Okay, people. Let’s take five. Water’s in the corner there.” The director announced.

Veronica came over to sit beside Bryce. “Did the cops roast you out there?”

“No, they’re just trying to figure out who would want to drop two hundred pounds of coal on you.”

“Coal?”

“Great big red Santa bag full of coal.”

“I didn’t realize I was on the Naughty List.”

“I doubt you were on any list.” Bryce said. “Some nutcase. If you think about it, you can’t possibly aim a two hundred pound bag of coal. Whoever it was had to just drop it over the side, right?”

“I don’t know. It feels kind of personal. I was the only one heading for that door.”

“Well, so was I. Say, don’t you need some water after all that?”

“I’m okay. I’ll get some at the next break.”

“Look, I’m going to get going. Can I catch up with you for dinner?”

“I should be done here in about an hour or so. How about lunch?”

“Lunch sounds great.” He pulled out his phone. “Put your number in and send yourself a text so that you have my number. You can tell me when you’re done.”

“Perfect.” She pecked away at the screen and pressed send. “Done. See you in a while.”

“Great, see you then.” Bryce smiled. She helped him up and saw him to the door.

Bryce exited to the street. He found the police still there. The CSI cameraman was getting shots of the bag as the two patrolmen held the lookyloos back.

“Where’s your friend?” The patrolman asked.

“She’s still working up there. The creative process is a bit more than I can handle.”

“Huh?”

“Stop, start, stop, start. Jeez. The guy is just making it up on the fly. I prefer watching the final product.”

“I read ya.” The cop nodded.

“You get anything useful here?”

“Not yet. We’ll see what’s what up there after Mike here gets his pictures and hauls the evidence back to the Precinct. You have a nice day, Mr. Wescott. Keep an eye on the sky, huh?”

“Do you get a lot of Santa bags flying off of buildings?”

“Police work, buddy. Always something new to keep it interesting.”

“I’ll bet.” Bryce said as he walked away. He cast a nervous eye skyward as he wandered off.