Cut to the Bone by Joan Boswell Page B

Crystal said, not meeting Hollis’s gaze.
    â€œLet’s have a look.”
    Hollis opened the second bedroom door. Two bunk beds, one with bottom and top neatly made, contrasted dramatically with the tangle of bedding and clothing on the other. It was as if an invisible line divided the room. Order versus chaos. Hollis imagined how difficult it must be for the neatnik to live with her absolute opposite.
    Hollis turned back to the girls who hovered in the hall. She pointed to the cyclonic confusion. “Crystal, is this half of the room always like this?”
    â€œI don’t know. I never come in. They keep the door closed.”
    â€œWho lives here with you?” That was the first thing to determine. Then she’d find out what they’d been doing.
    Crystal allowed her short-bobbed black hair to swing forward and partially hide her face as she scuffed her shoe and fixed her gaze on the floor. “Different people,” she muttered.
    â€œThat doesn’t tell me much. Why did they live here?”
    â€œAunt Mary never said. I asked once and she told me it was better if I didn’t know.”
    Crystal’s obstinate refusal to provide meaningful information irritated Hollis. “You must have wondered. Didn’t you talk to them? Didn’t you ask their names?”
    Crystal shook her head. “Mary didn’t want me to know and I stopped asking. I didn’t want her to send me away.”
    Send her away? What had gone on in this room? “I don’t think we’re going to find out anything here,” Hollis said, although she longed to search the drawers, lift mattresses, read clothing labels, and go through pockets. She might be the building’s custodian, but until she had a few more answers, she’d be abusing her job if she succumbed to the urge
    Stepping out of the room, she gently put her hand under Crystal’s chin and raised her head until the girl finally looked at her. “Did your aunt have enemies?”
    Crystal shook her head. “I don’t know.”
    â€œI don’t understand any of this and you’re not helping,” Hollis said.
    The angry lines around Crystal’s mouth and eyes disappeared. Her brown eyes filled with tears. “I’ll never see her again,” she sobbed.
    Not the time to give the child the third degree. Hollis pulled her close and hugged her. “I’m sure you will, but you must help me if we’re going to find her. Let’s have another look in your room and see if we can figure something out.” She released Crystal. With shoulders bowed like a prisoner facing execution, the child walked directly to the cupboard in her room, where she clutched a blue velour robe hanging on the back of the door, buried her face in the robe’s soft folds, pulled it from its hook, and sank to the floor.
    Jay squatted beside her, wrapped her arms around her friend, and rocked her. “You don’t know she’s gone for good. Hollis will find her. She’s really smart and her boyfriend’s smart too. Don’t worry, we’ll get her back.”
    Tears filled Hollis’s eyes. Given that Jay had lost her own mother when she was a young child and her longtime foster mother only months earlier, it was clear that she related to Crystal’s pain. Maybe, if they could find Crystal’s aunt, in some small way it might compensate Jay for her losses.
    â€œI’ll speak to the police at the door….” Her voice trailed away. What would she say? If there had been an abduction, how had the abductor managed to get a grown woman out of the apartment and the building without attracting attention? It seemed like an impossible task. Furthermore, unless there were clear indications of foul play, the police counseled waiting twenty-four hours before filing a missing persons report.
    Crystal dropped the dressing gown, stopped crying, and stared wide-eyed at Hollis. “No. No police.