“That’s why you came, isn’t it?” Diana asks.
“Let’s hope Mr. Cigarette stays out of the house.”
When the clock on Diana’s phone indicates it’s 11:20 a.m., she pulls down the car’s visor to check her makeup. She’s chewed off her lipstick, so she takes a few seconds to reapply, hoping the dark-pink color makes her look less pale and nervous. She drops the lipstick back in her purse, zips it closed, and tucks her hair behind her ears. “It’s time. You stay here, Lax. It might intimidate her if there’s two of us.”
“No way. I’m coming with you.”
Diana smiles gratefully and walks with Lakshmi to the house and through the unlocked front door. Diana listens to Lakshmi’s sure steps behind her as they climb the stairs.
A crooked silver metal2hangs on a door on the second-floor landing. Diana touches the number and knocks, tentative at first and then with force.
There’s a slow shuffling as someone comes to the other side of the door. The deadbolt clanks, and the latch turns. The door swings open to reveal a tall, rangy woman wearing a black camisole and underwear, her bleached hair hanging limply around her pinched face.
“Who are you?” The woman squints at Diana and Lakshmi, her eyes darting between the two women. “What do you want?”
She imagined Jessica differently. More solid, less worn.
“Are you Jessica O’Connor?”
“Fuck no, I’m Nikki. You looking for Jess? I haven’t seen her in months.”
Diana hadn’t considered Grace’s information could be inaccurate. “She’s not here? Where did she go?”
“No idea. She moved out last year. She disappeared one day while I was at work. She left behind a bunch of furniture. Even some clothes.” Nikki speaks deliberately, enunciating each word, her tongue clicking against the roof of her mouth. “I tried calling her, like, five times but could never get a hold of her.”
“Do you have her forwarding address?” Lakshmi asks.
“No, she left without telling me anything.” Scowling, Nikki opens an overflowing drawer in a dresser by the front door and grabs a stack of paper. She thrusts it at Diana. “She got mail here for a while after. You give it to her. I don’t want it.”
Heavy footsteps clump up the stairs. Lakshmi puts her hand on Diana’s arm.
“What’s going on?”
Mr. Cigarette appears on the landing, carrying a six-pack of beer and a plastic bag imprinted with the name of the corner sub shop. As he slouches past Diana, she smells his body odor and a strong vinegar scent and reflexively steps back, bumping into Lakshmi.
“These people are looking for Jess,” Nikki explains as he joins her inside the apartment. “I told them she’s gone and we haven’t heard from her.”
Mr. Cigarette puts his arm around Nikki, and her face is in his armpit. Diana squeezes Lakshmi’s hand to keep from retching. “She was a real partier, wasn’t she, babe? You guys into that?” His eyes trail up Diana’s body and then Lakshmi’s. When he notices Diana watching him, he winks. “Why don’t you come on in?”
Lakshmi yanks Diana toward the stairs. “Not our scene, thanks.”
Diana glances back when she and Lakshmi reach the front door. Nikki and Mr. Cigarette stand in the apartment doorway. When they notice Diana looking, they slam the door shut, and the crooked2swings.
Lakshmi propels Diana across the street and into the car. Of all the outcomes Diana fantasized about, not being able to find Jessica hadn’t crossed her mind. It isn’t until she and Lakshmi are inside the car, with the doors locked, she realizes she’s still holding Jessica’s mail.
“What am I going to do with this?” Diana flips through the pile. Most of it is junk, but at the bottom is a cell phone bill.
Lakshmi points to the bill’s postmark. “This is from thirteen months ago. Tell me again: Why did you believe she lived here?”
“Grace said she lived in Nashua and called her daughter every Sunday morning. I assumed her information was accurate. That was so stupid of me. Jessica could be anywhere, Lax.”
“This isn’t—”
Diana rips open the envelope.
“Wait!” Lakshmi says. “It’s a crime to open someone else’s mail.”
“I’m amazed Nikki and Mr. Cigarette never opened it.” Diana scans the pages. “I didn’t think people got paper copies of their bills anymore. You’d think she’d have signed up for electronic statements.”
