The tones from someone trying to unlock the apartment door resonated through the entryway. Whoever it was either didn't live there or had forgotten the code. Jessie didn't care which. She was exhausted from worry and ready to face anyone or anything if only she could find her missing husband. His promise to see her in a few minutes was almost twenty-four hours overdue. No one had seen him, and the police wouldn't do anything about a missing person until that magic twenty-four-hour mark.
A muffled cough and the sound of something solid landing on the door, like an elbow or a newspaper, or for all she knew, a severed head, spurred Jessie into high gear. She rushed down the hall, her slippered feet sliding beneath her. She flailed her arms to help her maintain balance and slammed into her side of the door with a grunt.
With shaking hands, she opened the door, trying not to imagine the worst when the door gave way, and she had to move aside for it to open fully.
