Cut to the Bone by Joan Boswell

and Mary’s name never appeared on his list, so she must pay her rent on time. Whenever Hollis met Mary in the lobby, the woman responded minimally to Hollis’s attempts to chat.
    Not much to go on. She tried to think if anything in the files would help. A few months earlier at the start of the job, she’d read through all the lease agreements and found out as much as she could about the building’s tenants. For some she made notes to help her remember their idiosyncrasies and obsessions, but she had none for Mary.
    Hollis sat down. She’d probably get more information if she didn’t loom over the child. Being almost six feet tall, she knew she could be intimidating.
    â€œCouldn’t your aunt have gone out and forgotten to lock the door?” Hollis asked.
    Crystal reached for a cookie, swallowed a mouthful of hot chocolate, and shook her head. “No way. Whether she’s home or out she never, never leaves it unlocked. She has three locks and she’s super careful to always lock the door.”
    â€œThere are other people living with you, aren’t there. Are they gone?”
    Crystal shrugged. “They’re not there.”
    â€œHow many people live with you?”
    â€œSometimes one, sometimes two or three.”
    â€œFamily? Friends?”
    Crystal eyed her warily and shrugged.
    â€œI suppose they’re your aunt’s friends. Maybe she left you a note to tell you where she’s gone,” Hollis said.
    Crystal tipped her mug and finished her drink before she replied. “I doubt it. Aunt Mary took me because my mother’s dead and my grandmother’s sick. She didn’t want me but there was no one else.” The bitterness in Crystal’s voice shocked Hollis.
    What had happened to the child’s mother? Why didn’t Crystal think Mary would leave her a note if she’d unexpectedly gone out? Clearly, Crystal didn’t want to tell her anything about her aunt. Maybe the apartment would reveal more.
    â€œWhen you finish your drink we’ll go upstairs and search for clues to tell us where your aunt went.”
    Jay, jiggling from one foot to the other as she followed their conversation, took the matter in hand. “Hey, just like Nancy Drew. Maybe we should wear gloves and take a magnifying glass.” She looked at Hollis. “Have you got stuff like that?”
    Hollis shook her head. “I have, but we haven’t reached that stage.” She registered that the puppy had inserted his nose into the pocket of the jean jacket Crystal had hung on the back of the chair. Hollis pointed to the jacket. “Don’t leave anything where Barlow can get it,” she said as she did every time they left the dog alone.
    Crystal grabbed the jacket, shrugged into it, foraged in the pockets of her blue jeans, and yanked out three keys on a grubby blue satin ribbon. “I didn’t need these. I didn’t lock the door when I left in case my aunt came back.” She frowned at Hollis. “We should lock it after you see that there’s no way to tell where she’s gone. You could write a note telling her I’m here and stick it to the door. I don’t know why you don’t believe me, but if it makes you happy we’ll look.” She picked up her cup and carried it to the sink before she headed out.
    Jay left her mug on the table and scrambled to join Crystal. Hollis sighed as she followed the girls. She suspected Crystal was right and they wouldn’t learn anything about Mary’s whereabouts.
    Upstairs, the three hesitated outside the apartment before Hollis led them into a small foyer that opened directly into an apartment that was the mirror image of Hollis’s. The door might have been open when Crystal came home, but nothing untoward appeared to have happened in the hall. The pictures hung on the wall, the rug lay on the floor, and a bowl of keys sat on a demi-lune table. Only rhinestone-encrusted