My name is Crystal and as do Madge and her friends, I also live in the Colonial Building in Freedom Village, in Bradenton, Florida. I have been here for a little over 6 years with my roommate, a beautiful muted calico cat, named Love. And as a widow, being alone, I have always felt very safe – inside the buildings if I walk down the hall in the late evenings or any time if I walk outside to the Landings or the Villas. I also take that elevator, where the murder took place, sometimes alone and sometimes with other residents, so I was very upset with what happened to Doug Fairhaven, the visiting accountant sent by Hardnose.

Living on the 3rd floor, the elevator or the steps if we are able, are our means of access to another floor, when visiting with friends, often several times a day. Sometimes I see Madge and Donna, and others and have short visits with them, often about their lives before being here in Freedom Village. Few of us are Florida natives, we are mostly from other parts of the United States with different backgrounds and we enjoy comparing notes. Being from the Midwest I was learning much about the East, particularly the Northeast - from the terrain to the speech. You can tell a little about where a person is from by his speech and it’s always interesting to put in a ‘guess’. Sometimes you are correct.

But, back to my story. Occasionally, a workman, security person or aide will join us on our trip in the elevator, up or down - so we are accustomed to people in the elevator whom we do not know. But this day, the day of the MURDER, I was alone.

I was going down to see if there were seats in the dining room. Sometimes I had a place but today I had been undecided, last minute decisions, trying to find someone to dine with.! I know I was late but Donna had just called to ask me to sit with her so I had to see if I could do so. Donna is a very interesting lady and we talk often – I enjoy her company. We are not from the same part of our country so we get to learn about parts that we have never visited and know little about.

This was about an hour before the body was found, so I had left my apartment and walked to the elevator. As I approached, I saw a man waiting by the elevator, whom I had not seen before, so I approached him with apprehension and stood a little ways from him because there was just something about him! I didn’t like his looks and I didn’t want to get too close nor go in the same elevator with him. I did not see which button he pushed, so I didn’t know whether he was going up or down. But he was going without me !

Now, since the murder, I have been watching but I have not seen anyone who looks like him. I’m sure I would know him if I saw him again. He was unforgettable- not only for his looks but for his manners.
He was younger than the residents of our building and had dark, wavy hair, dark brown eyes and a dark moustache but clean shaven with no beard. He was about six feet tall and had a slim build. He was wearing a tan tee shirt and tan shorts and dirty workman’s shoes. So I wondered what he was doing and who he came to see. I also noticed that he wasn’t carrying any tools that I could see – so - probably no workman of any sort. He wasn’t wearing an ID tag from the lobby nor a mask so he had not signed in in the lobby. He did look like an outdoors man and looked and smelled like he needed a shower. I was surprised because we usually don’t see younger men like that here - even the workmen are better dressed. Also, he did not look like the son of any of the residents dressed like that. I had seen a couple of younger men, sons of friends, who were visiting but he did not look like any one I had met.

So I wondered whose apartment he was going to. I knew all the residents on the floor we were on and wondered whom he had seen on that floor - OR - had he walked the stairs to reach that floor.? Did he really not want to be noticed – and used the stairs -- and now was hoping to use the elevator before anyone saw him? Because he was VERY noticeable. But if so, why did he not continue to walk the stairs, instead of using the elevator?

But there he was, standing at the elevator, nervously, for several minutes before he finally pushed the button to bring the elevator. He looked around as if he didn’t know if he wanted to be seen going up or down and he had a suspicious look about him that SAID “I don’t want to be seen”. Then all of a sudden he saw me and he managed a small ‘smile’ and nod. But his smile wasn’t like others’ smiles. –It wasn’t a ‘smirk’ but it wasn’t a “nice to see you” smile, either. It was furtive and had a strange look to it. Should I have called Security then ??? But what would I have told them – that “this man is strange and I’m worried about him being in our building.” Probably, the answer would have been “YES”!, but I didn’t call. I do not have a ‘Smart Phone’ so I would have had to go back to my apartment to use the telephone and who knows where he would have been by then. He truly surprised me because we usually don’t see younger men here unless they are workmen and as I said, he certainly did not look like the son of one of the residents.
So I stood there and waited – a little while longer – but since I didn’t see which floor button he pushed, and our elevators don’t show the floor stopped on, of course I didn’t see which floor he got off on.

A few minutes later, I ran into Ruth and asked her if she had seen the man -- in the elevator or on her floor. She said she thought that Madge had asked for help with her washing machine but our maintenance man would have been the one to come and work on it. And it definitely was not Robert. So that was no help. She said she would call a few other friends and see if anyone that noticed a strange man on their floor.

After speaking with other friends on other floors, I was beginning to get worried for our residents. Where was he? If he were a stranger, who knows what a stranger would be there for? What were his plans? Did he know one person he was searching for? Were we safe? Our Security are very quick to respond to a call so they would have been here fast and might have stopped and interrogated him had I called them. I hate decisions and this was maybe a bad decision that I made but I never would have believed that something like murder would happen in our Colonial Building.

Then I got to thinking -- No one else that I talked with had seen the man, so then I wondered if I had let my imagination run away with me. Maybe the man didn’t look as ‘rough’ as I thought. Maybe his clothes weren’t that dirty. Maybe his clothes weren’t that smelly. Maybe his shoes were ‘just outdoor boots’. Maybe he was a nice man with no ulterior motives. Would I ever know? If everything was OK – he would just leave the building, nothing would happen on the campus, everyone would be OK and that would be the end of my concern.
EXCEPT that we DID have a MURDER in the COLONIAL Building and could I have prevented it by calling Security earlier when I saw him in the hallway? We’ll never know, will we?

Since I never saw him again and the murder was done, Security was not whom I should speak to. We had detectives, Tracy and Franks, on the case. I hoped to find them - they were the ones I should speak with. Maybe I could shed some light on our mystery man While thinking these thoughts, the dining room doors were opened and those in the dining room were pouring out to go their various ways, either to their apartments for the evenings or to the entertainments, if there were any. It took the picture of the man in the elevator out of my mind and I started talking with some friends who had just dined.
All this had made me hungry! So I asked around “ What were the entrees? Were they good? Were they something I would enjoy” ? So FOOD took over!! And I went into the dining room for my dinner.

With everything going on that evening, it took me until bedtime to get my thoughts together again.
I should have called Security earlier because something about him had worried me. But now with the murder and the police here on campus, I made up my mind - “I WILL SEE” the detectives tomorrow. Maybe I can help!!
As I went to sleep that evening – my thoughts were:

Could he have been the murderer??

Could I have stopped him??

Could I have been the last, maybe the only one, except the victim, to have seen him????