lack of warmth, but the doorman was proving otherwise.
“I see you brought everything you own,” he said, surveying the two bags. Kate sensed, more than saw, a woman pass by her and into the building. The doorman didn’t seem to notice.
“If you can get the suitcase, I can get the duffel,” Kate said, and the two of them managed to navigate the three worn marble steps that led to the building’s lobby. He left the suitcase on the tiled floor and moved swiftly to the other side of the front desk. He was light on his feet for a heavy man.
“I promised Mrs. Valentine I’d call when you got here. She’s the president of the building association, and wanted to give you the tour of your new apartment.”
“Oh okay,” Kate said, looking around. The lobby was narrow but beautiful. A glass-encased four-lamp chandelier hung from the high ceiling. The walls were painted in a lustrous shade of cream.
“Miss Priddy is down here in the lobby,” he said into the telephone, then replaced the receiver. “She’ll be right down. Let’s get your luggage onto the elevator. You’re on the third floor of the north wing. You have a nice view of the Charles. Have you been to Boston before?”
While Kate told him that she had actually never been to the States before, a tall, painfully thin woman somewhere in her seventies came down one of the side stairs, her shoes clacking percussively on the tiled steps. She wore a long black dress and a floral scarf around her neck. Her hair was silver and pinned up into an elaborate bun. Kate wondered if she always dressed like this or if she was going out later. The woman introduced herself as Carol and shook Kate’s hand. Her hand was like a bundle of chopsticks covered in a layer of tissue paper.
“I’m sure you could have figured out Corbin’s apartment all by yourself, Kate, but I thought it wouldn’t hurt to have a welcoming committee.” After the doorman had loaded Kate’s luggage into the elevator, Carol got the key from him, then took Kate up the winding stairway. “Do you mind walking? It’s my daily exercise.”
Kate told her she was happy to walk, relieved that she didn’t have to ride the elevator.
At the third floor, Carol turned left and Kate followed her down a dark, carpeted hall, with a doorway on the left, one on the right, and one at the end. A woman about Kate’s age was rapping on the door on the left. Kate thought she was the woman who had flitted by earlier in the courtyard.
“Can I help you?” Carol asked loudly.
The woman turned. She wore jeans and a scoop-neck sweater. Her dark hair was cut in a bob, and she was almost pretty, except for the lack of a chin. It was so noticeable that Kate wondered, for a moment, if she’d been in some kind of terrible chin-obliterating accident.
“Do you work here? Could I get a key for this door? I’m worried about my friend.” Her voice was nasal, pitched high with anxiety.
“Why are you worried?” Carol asked. “Is everything okay?”
“I can’t get in touch with her. We were supposed to have lunch, and I called her work and she didn’t show up there, either. And now I’m worried.”
“Did you talk with our doorman?”
“No, I just came straight up here. It’s not like her, you know. I’ve texted her, like, a thousand times.”
“I’m sorry,” Carol said. “I don’t have a key, myself, but maybe you should speak with our doorman Bob. He’ll know something. What’s the name of your friend?” Carol had started to walk again, and so did Kate.
“Audrey Marshall. Do you know her?”
“I’ve met her, dear, but don’t know much about her. Go talk with Bob. He’ll help you. He should have helped you when you first arrived.”
Kate found herself walking along the edge of the hall, her shoulder almost rubbing against the paneled wall. The upset friend, with her shrill, panicked voice, had caused Kate’s chest to seize up again, the panic inside of her like an expanding balloon. She thought of her pills, in the toiletry bag in the rollie, unreachable for now.
“It’s so unusual,” Carol was saying, as she slid a key into the lock of the door at the end, “for someone to be in here without having gone through the doorman first. I’m sure there’s actually nothing wrong with anybody.” She said this as though nothing bad had ever happened to