The Neighbor Who Never Left

Mrs. Park's front door was open, but her shoes were still inside. That was the first strange detail. She never walked on her clean floor without them. A half-eaten apple sat on the kitchen table, turning brown. Her purse lay on the sofa, full of cash.

Detective Neal arrived within twenty minutes. The apartment was silent and cold. Nothing looked stolen, and nothing looked broken. However, a small red mark on the window caught his eye. It looked like paint, but it was too fresh.

He questioned the neighbors one by one. Most of them said Mrs. Park was quiet and kind. But the man next door, Mr. Ellis, seemed nervous. He said he had been sleeping all evening, yet his television was still on. Neal noticed a key on Ellis's table. It matched Mrs. Park's lock.

That night, Neal could not sleep. Something about the apple troubled him. Why would she bite it and then simply walk away? Therefore, he returned to the building at dawn. This time, he checked the basement. There, behind old boxes, he found Mrs. Park. She was alive but weak. She had been hiding for two days.

She explained everything. Mr. Ellis had been entering her home for weeks. He copied her key and watched her routines. She heard him come in that night and escaped through a back stairway. She hid because she feared he would find her.

Ellis was arrested that morning. The red mark on the window, Neal later learned, was from her hand as she pushed it open. Mrs. Park now keeps her door locked twice. Her apple, she says, is the reason she is alive.