Fright at the Apartment ATTN Cobra

As Liam returned to his apartment, he was startled to realize that his door was unlocked. He was quite certain that he had locked it. Peering within the door; he saw that all of the lights in the apartment were off. In the low light gloom; he was pretty certain every thing was as he left it.

Lowering his eyes, he sees a piece of paper lying by his feet.

His stomach sank a bit when he realized the door was unlocked. Leaving it unlocked in a place like this was certainly not a good idea. Liam slowly walked over to the light switch and flipped it on. He was quite sure most robberies left the place looking like a mess. Or maybe that was just the terrible, careless robbers or something, but the guys who had been there were smarter than that. Maybe it was nothing, but still, there was definitely something not quite right here. Liam felt like maybe, just maybe there was something he overlooked. He tried to see if there was anything else there amiss.

Spoiler:

He then took a seat on the battered couch and looked at the piece of paper. He figured it might be a note or something. Maybe it was just his roommate fault and the note was his, he halfheartedly reassured himself.

As Liam investigated his apartment, he noted that every thing appeared to be where he had left it. The television, the radio, all remained apparently untouched. He had a sense of unease as he looked over his things, but he couldn't place it.

As he read the note; the words seemed to leap up off of the page at him.

The words were written in blue ink with fine penmanship; each cursive loop perfectly composed. The elegance of the penmanship made the words that much more odd.

Good evening.

I have followed you from where you met with my associate in Salem. I implore you to return the items my associate had on his person; most importantly a particular ring.

I will call on you this evening.

"Oh shit" Liam mouthed when he read the note. These guys were obsessed with that piece of jewelry. He immediately got the hammer out from under the couch and immediately called Chrissy. Maybe she knew where it was and what to do about it, because he certainly had no clue. He got the lighter and hairspray canister he kept around and put them in his pockets. Probably the best $12 he ever spent.

"Hey Liam," Chrissy greeted him. "How have you been? You planning on coming over for dinner tomorrow night?"

"Uh, yeah sure, I'll be done with everything I need to do by then. Anyway, yeah so, someone broke into house and left some fancy looking note. It's about that thing we took from the Italian guy.....they want it back. I don't even know where the damn thing is. What do I tell them? I could stall them or tell them I threw it into a volcano or something. Or just tell them to go fuck themselves." He said back

"The ring?" Chrissy came back quickly.
"I thought that that archaeology guy took the ring and left a note that he had left town."

"Oh, well, problem solved I guess...." Liam said with much uncertainty. "Well, thanks I guess. Not sure I'm safe here though."

"Damn, they know where you live..." Chrissy breathed.
"Maybe you should come over to my house. We can try and talk this over."

"Yeah okay. I guess I'll head over there in a bit. " Liam hung up. He got out his duffel bag and packed the hammer in it. He took one last glance at the apartment before heading out with the duffel bag. He'd make sure to lock that door this time.