Page 1 of The Fall Risk

Seth Chapter 1

The stairs are gone.”

I stood outside at the top of the landing just beyond the door of my second-story apartment, on the phone with my best friend and gawking at a straight drop-off. The demolished remnants of what used to be steps sat piled into a metal dumpster in the carport below in a mess of splintered wood and rusted wrought iron.

“What do you mean they’re gone?” Gabe asked.

“Gone. As in someone removed them.”

Silence.

“I’m coming over.”

He hung up.

I dragged a hand down my mouth. I’d heard banging this morning, but they were reroofing the carport, so I didn’t think anything of it.

The property manager had been doing repairs—finally. The place was dated, it needed it. And we did need new stairs, I just thought maybe I’d get a text first?

I was searching for the number to call him when the door to the unit across from mine opened. A woman stood in the doorway. My new neighbor. I hadn’t met her yet, she’d just moved in. Pretty, around my age, maybe twenty-seven, twenty-eight. Brown hair.

Bear spray in her hand.

She balked in the threshold, looking at me like she might back up and slam the door and bolt it. Then she glanced at the missing steps and did a double take. “Uh, where are the stairs?”

“I think they’re in that dumpster?” I gestured to the carport. “I’m Seth, I’m your neighbor. I was about to call the property manager,” I said, already dialing.

He picked up on the second ring. “This is John.”

“Hi, John, Seth in apartment sixteen. Were you aware that my stairs are gone?”

A long pause. “Your stairs are gone . . .”

“That is correct.”

I heard water shutting off. “Are there workers there?”

I peered around. “None that I can see.”

He cursed under his breath. “I’ll be there in five.”

I hung up. “He’s on his way.”

She wrapped her sweater protectively around herself. “I heard the banging. I just thought it was the carport thing.”

“Yeah, me too,” I said.

“Who do you think did it?” she asked.

“Probably a mistake,” I said, leaning over the edge.

“Uh, please, don’t.”

I glanced at her. “What?”

“That. You could fall.”

“I’m not going to fall. Trust me.”