A Grave Beneath the Floorboards novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: April

I asked him to take me to Pelham Road.

Burke didn't ask why.

He parked at the curb, and we climbed three flights in a stairwell that smelled of cabbage.

I stopped at the door of 3C.

"This one," I said.

"This one."

A laminated sign on it said NO SOLICITING.

The paint around the knob was chipped from other people's keys.

I had never stood here.

For five months I had been told Carly lived behind it.

I had believed it so completely that I'd sent flowers to this address in May.

"Show me where you stood," I said.

Burke stepped onto the mat and turned to face the door.

"Here."

"And she opened it."

"She opened it about this wide." He held his hand up, a foot of space. "She kept her body in the gap."

"What did she say?"

"That she'd had a rough winter and wanted to be left alone." His jaw worked. "That she was sorry for worrying people."

"Did she smile?"

"She smiled, and I thought it was a nice smile."

I looked at him.

I had practiced this speech since the hallway of the station.

Now every word I had saved went out of me at once.

"She had perfect teeth," I said.

"Yes."

"She had Carly's face with a different mouth. You would have seen it in one second."

"I look at what's in the file," he said. "The file had a photo of Carly from her license, and the license photo was closed-mouth. I matched the eyes and the hair, and I wrote it down."

"That's not good enough."

"No."

"She was under my floor," I said, and my voice broke. "Do you understand? She had been in the dark for a month when you knocked on this door. You were four miles from her, and you said thank you, and you went home and ate dinner."

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