Chapter 6: Under the Boards

Burke came through the front door with his gun low and his eyes everywhere, and I opened my bedroom door before he could knock.

"Where?" he said.

"Back bedroom."

He went down the hall in three long strides and pushed the door open with his shoulder.

The room was empty.

The window over the radiator stood wide open, and the curtain moved in the night air.

The duffel bag was gone.

On the floor, where she had knelt, there was nothing but a faint gray smudge of a handprint on the pale wood.

"She went out the window," Burke said, leaning over the sill. "There's an alley, and a gate. I didn't see the back of the house."

"You couldn't have."

"It's my job to see it." He holstered the gun and rubbed his face. "Did she see you?"

"I don't think so. She said something about a few more weeks."

"Weeks until what?"

"I don't know."

In the kitchen the table held a folded note under the wine bottle.

Had to run, work thing. Love you lots. Don't be mad!

The handwriting was perfect.

It was Carly's loops and Carly's tiny heart dotting the i in thing, and I had to turn away from it.

Burke read it and set it down carefully with two fingers.

"All right," he said. "I want to look at that floor."

"It's the new boards," I said. "She was pressing her hand on them."

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