Chapter 6: The Maids' Rooms

On Saturday morning Craig took Eli to soccer.

Britt went along to carry the cooler and the folding chairs.

"We'll be back by noon," Craig said, and kissed the top of my head. "Dorothea's at church till then. Stay in bed."

"I will."

I stood at the window until his car turned the corner.

Then I took the master key from the hook inside the pantry door and went out through the garden.

The maids' rooms were over the garage, up a wooden stair on the back side.

My mother had built that little apartment for her own mother, who never lived long enough to use it.

There were two bedrooms and a bathroom between them.

I tried Britt's door first.

It was not locked, which told me something about Britt.

Her room smelled like vanilla body spray.

The bed was made with the corners tucked tight and a stuffed rabbit on the pillow.

A pile of nursing school textbooks sat on the dresser.

I stood there a minute, surprised.

Then I opened her closet.

The shirts were hung by color.

On the shelf at the back, in a shoebox under her sneakers, I found a pair of blue stone cufflinks.

They had been Craig's grandfather's, and I knew them well.

Under the cufflinks was a folded lease.

I opened it.

It was for a two-bedroom apartment at Lakeview Commons, thirty minutes from here, starting the first of next month.

The tenant was Britt Colby.

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