"Is that why so many people come and go from your place?" he asked.
"What?" I put down my phone.
"Sounds like people are in and out of here all the time. You 'training' other people?" the officer asked.
"I did not know it was a crime to have people over to our apartment," I said. Jasper had a very lively social life. He could not bear to be in the apartment more than 20 minutes on his own. He was always inviting people over for a drink, to watch a show, or to gather and head out on the town.
The only person I ever had over regularly was Sienna, and that had stopped nearly a year ago. She did not have time to leave UCLA except to visit her parents, and she much preferred the interior-designed surroundings of her family's home to my bachelor pad.
"We both work off-hours and know a lot of other people with the same work-from-home type schedules," I said. "Jasper works with other freelancers – logo-designers, artists, etcetera. I have an agent and other industry colleagues that come here. So, yeah, people come over a lot."
"Well, Mr. Redd, all I can say is you should stay in town. This is not over yet," the bald officer said. He was happy with his final word, and lead the way out the door.
I took another long sip of my beer and hoped that Quinn would call again.
#
After a few minutes, I picked up the phone to call Quinn. Then, I put it down. It wasn't like I did not have other people to call. Other women, too. It just seemed like she was the first one on my mind. I shook my head and moved away from the phone.
Then it rang. It was Quinn. I picked it up on the second ring.
"Owen, are you alright? I was driving to pick up a pizza and I think I saw cops outside of your apartment building," she said.
I forced myself to take a sip of beer and slow down. "Yeah, they were here, but everything is alright."
"Seriously? Why were there cops at your place?"
"I don't know, someone trying to mess with me." The first explanation that came to mind took hold. "I bet another Dark Flag player got ahold of my address and thought they'd rattle me a little bit. There's actually a tournament coming up and maybe they hope I'll cancel."
"People do that?" Quinn asked.
It made sense. The players who focused on taking me down were usually very serious gamers, and hacking came easily to many people in that set. Finding my address from my IP would not be impossible. I made a mental note to adjust my security settings and encrypt my IP address.
I heard the front door opening. There was one other explanation as to why the cops were searching my apartment for drugs. "Look, I gotta go. Everything's fine. Maybe I'll see you in Dark Flag later."
I hung up on Quinn and waited for Jasper to untangle himself from his leather messenger bag, suit coat, and scarf. No matter what the weather was like, he always dressed like a man out of GQ.
"Hey, Owen, didn't see you there. How's my playah?" Jasper asked.
"Your timing is perfect, per usual," I said. "The police were here not too long ago. Spent good quality time searching the place for drugs."
He dropped his bag hard onto the floor but laughed. "Seriously? And I missed it? I've been meaning to follow up about that proposal I sent over to the precinct."
"Yeah? I told them about that. Right after they handed me a search warrant and went through everything," I said.
Jasper grabbed a beer from the refrigerator. "How long did that take them? Did they thank us simple bachelors for making it easy on them?"
"They brought in a K-9," I said.
Jasper took a long time to open his beer and take a heavy gulp. "Man, what have you done to piss off the authorities lately?"
"Who says it’s me?" I asked.
"People love to jump to stereotypes when I talk about my gamer roommate. You know, cheese puffs, high octane sodas, and a shut-in in sweatpants. I could see how the cops might jump to 'deals pot on the side.'"
"Except I don't," I said. "I don't even smoke
pot. It would be in violation of my contracts. It'd be my career, too, you know."