“Yeah. She gave me one for emergencies when she moved into her new place. She doesn’t have any family living in the area. But she’s very fussy about her personal things. We have to be a hundred percent sure something is up. If Alissa is truly living her best life in some tropical paradise, she’d be beyond pissed that I went into her apartment without her permission.”
“Honestly, Dinah, if I were acting as weird as Alissa was before her quote-unquote vacation, I’d want people to be snooping around making sure everything was okay.”
Another pause. “Fair point.”
“I know it’s late, but can you meet me at Alissa’s place in thirty minutes?”
“Sure. My shift tomorrow starts late, so I can just sleep in this morning.”
“Great. Thanks, Dinah. See you in a bit.” I end the call and down the rest of my beer, turning to Bianca. “Let’s roll, babe.”
Dinah is waiting for us at Alissa’s apartment when we get there, wearing gray yoga pants under a puffy pink jacket. She raises an eyebrow as we get out of the car. “Who’s your friend?”
“Dinah, this is Bianca. Bianca, Dinah.”
“Pleased to meet you,” Bianca says.
Dinah shakes Bianca’s hand hastily and then turns to me, shivering. “I’ve been waiting in the cold forever.”
“Why didn’t you let yourself in?” I ask. “You have the key.”
Dinah bites her lip. “I mean… I wasn’t sure what might be waiting for me in there. I wanted to have backup just in case.”
“Fair enough.” I open the front door of Alissa’s apartment building and step into the entryway. “Let’s check it out.”
We walk up the flights of stairs to Alissa’s apartment and I put the key in her door, unlocking the deadbolt. With a deep breath, I open the door, and…
Nothing.
It’s a little dusty, but other than that, everything is tidy and neat.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen dust here,” Dinah says. “Alissa is normally so clean.”
“But that’s normal. She’s been gone for over a month. Not exactly a clue that something weird is up.”
“True.” Dinah crosses toward her bedroom. “I’ll check her dresser. See if all her clothes are still there. If she left on a big vacation, she would have packed a big bag.”
“Good move,” I say.
I’m glad Dinah’s here. I would feel like a weirdo going through Alissa’s dresser. And I’m sure Bianca wouldn’t want to do it either.
I look around her kitchen in the meantime. Nothing seems out of place. I open her fridge, expecting a rotting stench to hit me. But it’s been cleared out, just a few condiments along the shelves on the door.
“Anything in the bedroom?” I call over to Dinah.
“No. Nothing. There’s a big empty spot in her closet where I think her suitcase was, and her underwear and sock drawer is cleared out.” She walks out of the bedroom, sighing. “Maybe she really did take off on a big vacation. She had it pretty bad for Maddox.”
I shake my head. “Bianca and I have been snooping around. There have been other disappearances like this. If Alissa was taken, she would have had her keys on her. Whoever took her could have come to the apartment and made it look like she left.”
“If that’s the case, is there really any point in us looking around?” Bianca asks. “My sister is nothing if not thorough.”
“She’s still human, though. Which means she could have made a mistake. Let’s comb the place, see if there’s anything out of the ordinary.”
We spend the next thirty minutes looking under every cushion on the sofa, every dish in the kitchen cupboard, every tiny knickknack on the living room shelves. Of course, the only person who has been here is Dinah, so she’s the only one who would be able to tell if something was out of place. But our search is fruitless.
Until Bianca emerges from the bathroom holding a small plastic bottle.
“Is this anything?” she asks. “There’s a small hotel-sized bottle of shampoo. It’s unlabeled, which seems kind of odd.”
