Daisy has no idea who this maid is who drives a little yellow Subaru. She has always preferred to think of her as an anonymous house fairy. Not some woman with a fully fleshed life. Daisy doesn’t even know her name. She makes a decision.
It’s maid day again on Monday. Daisy will stay home until the maid arrives on Monday morning. She will ask the maid to her face whether she has witnessed anyone suspicious lurking around Rose Cottage.
And Daisy will ask the maid directly if she has seen her diamond pendant.
Maybe the woman just stashed the diamond somewhere “safe,” because Daisy does not want to assume the worst of her servant. Holly’s Help came well recommended. The service has incredible reviews online. It’s bonded. Reputable. Even Vanessa uses them.
But it’s time to meet her maid.
MAL
November 1, 2019. Friday.
It’s almost 10:00 p.m. when Mal and Benoit pull up outside Boon-mee Saelim’s rented house on the east side of the city.
Saelim answers the door as soon as they knock. He’s expecting them because they called ahead. Saelim is slightly taller than average height for a male. Smooth brown skin. Broad forehead. High cheekbones. Intense, black eyes. A nose ring. Silver ear spools. He wears a black T-shirt and jeans. He’s a good-looking guy, thinks Mal.
“Call me Boon, please,” he says after they have introduced themselves. “Do you mind if we talk outside, in your car or something? I share the house with a bunch of tenants, and it’s full of people right now, and—” His voice cracks. His eyes glisten with tears. “It’ll be easier to talk away from the noise,” he says.
Mal and Benoit take Saelim to their vehicle. He sits in the back while they sit in the front, turned to face him. They keep the inside light on. Rain patters on the roof and squiggles down the windshield. It’s cold, so they have the engine running, and the windows are fogging up.
“When did you last see Kit?” Benoit asks him.
He closes his eyes, and Mal immediately senses he’s going to lie. She’s a veteran interrogator. Or perhaps he’s just struggling to hold in his emotion.
“I think it was two days ago.”
“Youthink?” Mal says.
His eyes flick to hers.
“Here’s the thing, Boon,” Mal says. “Sam Berkowitz, Kit’s neighbor, says you went around to her apartment looking for her. Sam tells us you were worried. Holly McGuire at Holly’s Help also says you expressed concern for your close friend. You’ve been looking for Kit all day, and you haven’t yet determined when you last saw her?”
“Am I a suspect here or something?”
“Are you?”
His eyes narrow. His energy turns hostile. “I didn’t see her today. Nor yesterday. I saw her the day before Halloween, so that would have been Wednesday. For our D&D session.”
“D&D?” Benoit asks.
“Dungeons and Dragons. It’s a game.”
“How did Kit seem when you last saw her?” Mal asks.
“Not herself, to be honest. She hasn’t been herself since July 15.”
“That’s very specific,” Mal says. “What happened on July 15?”
“It’s the anniversary of her mother’s death. Kit was pretty messed up by her mom’s dying. It was a long and difficult process for her. Afterward, she was unable to scatter the ashes. But when July 15 rolled around again this year, I said I’d go with her. We went to Lighthouse Park and released them. So that was one thing that happened on that specific day. It was on the same day, right after the scattering of her mother’s cremains, that she started a new cleaning job. She’s been getting progressively weird since then.”
“Do you know which new job?” Benoit asks.
“Rose Cottage. The Rittenbergs.”
Mal’s energy sharpens. “And Kit told you about the Rittenbergs specifically?”
“Yeah. We share a lot about each other’s lives. We’re real close. We grew up in the same ski town, except she was a few years behind me atschool, so I didn’t know her back then, but we connected here in the city some years ago when we ran into each other in a coffee shop at a mall.”
