Morgan smiled back and walked into the building, leading Michaels inside. The façade of the building was fairly plain, but the interior bordered on elegance. The entryway was paneled in knotted pine, lightly oiled to bring out the natural colors in the wood. A curved archway opened into the main lobby, the floors of which were tiled so smooth and seamlessly that they appeared to be carved from one giant slab of granite. Michaels could see his reflection staring up at him from his feet, the finish was polished so brightly. The walls of the lobby were paneled in the same pine as the entry but only a third of the way up – a chair rail separated the paneling from the wallpaper, which was an incoherent mesh of colors that brought out the patterns in the almond-colored floor beautifully. The centerpiece of the lobby was a dazzling stairway that split to the right and left after climbing half the distance to the second floor. Michaels had not realized he had stopped walking and was just staring around the room until Morgan cleared his throat, the sound echoing through the room.
“Pretty nice, huh? This place used to be a private residence, some big-shot lawyer’s house or something. Guy had it built from plans based on a mansion he saw in Europe somewhere. Poor rat only had it for about a year before he went and got himself killed. One of his clients unhappy with their sentence or something, I suppose. Anyways, this investment company came in and converted it into apartments – it had twenty-four rooms to start out with; they converted the first-floor kitchen and half the rooms into a shared party space and fitness center, and the 2nd and 3rd floor rooms into ten apartments, five on the 2nd floor and five on the 3rd. The landlord lives in a space on the first floor built out in the half opposite the old kitchen.”
The cop continued into the building, walking up the center staircase, turning to the right, and continuing to the top. Michaels followed in his wake, slowly looking around as he did. He had already picked up some vibes from the building when they were still outside, but they were much stronger, almost fierce, on the inside.