Death said, hands over ears. “I’m outta here.” Death disappeared, walking right through the wall into the aerobics room.
Voices drifted around the corner from the public stairs, and Casey stepped closer to Krystal, to hide her from view. “Krystal, have you slept at all?”
Krystal sniffed, and wiped her nose with her sleeve. “Yes.”
“In the past two days?”
“Oh. Well, I’m not sure about that.”
Casey pulled out her phone and glanced at the clock. “Okay. I’ve got a few minutes. Come on.” Casey pulled Krystal into the service stairwell. “What floor do you live on?”
“What?”
“Your apartment. What floor?”
“Same as Andrea.”
So, the fourth. “Let’s go.”
Krystal squinted up the stairs. “Up there?”
“Move.”
Casey propelled Krystal up three flights of stairs, having to prod her at every landing. When they reached the fourth floor, Casey dug through Krystal’s pockets to find her key. There was nothing to indicate which door it opened.
Krystal gripped the jamb of the stairwell door. “It’s all my fault.”
“No, it’s not.”
“It is. I should have been there with her, instead of…”
Casey waited. “Instead of where, Krystal?”
Her face crumpled. “Instead of in the guard room.”
Casey sucked in a breath. So she and Death were right. “What were you doing in the guard room?”
Krystal’s eyes widened. “Have you seen the night guard? He’s so…hot.”
“So you decided on a whim to go down and seduce the guard?” Casey couldn’t believe it was a coincidence.
“No. He sent me a note.”
“A note?”
She gave a wavery smile. “It was so sweet. He said he loved me, that I was so beautiful…”
“And?”
“And that I should come down to be with him that night. Around midnight, he said. No one would know. No one would find out.” She frowned. “He was surprised when I showed up. Like he didn’t think I’d really come. But we had…a good time.”
So Krystal had distracted the guard. But if she was telling the truth, she’d been invited to visit him. A coincidence? Or trickery? Not a trick of the guard’s. He wouldn’t need to distract himself from seeing the monitor. Whatever it was, at least Krystal hadn’t betrayed her best friend on purpose.
Even if she was a skank.
“I went back to check on Andrea afterward,” Krystal said. “I saw you in the aerobics room, so I figured she was gone.”
Casey peered down the hallway at the look-alike doors. Andrea’s door was closed, and the strip at the bottom was dark. Casey hoped the Parkers had been able to fall asleep. “Which door is yours, Krystal?”
Krystal swayed on her feet.
“Which one!” Casey barked.
Krystal staggered ahead and stopped at Andrea’s door, leaning her head against it. “This one. This one’s mine.”
Casey pulled her away. “No, that’s Andrea’s. ”
Krystal’s breath hitched, and she looked at the door with confusion, touching one of the “missing you” cards. She spun around and pointed at the door directly across from Andrea’s. “Then it’s that one.”
Casey used the key and swung the door open. Krystal stood unmoving in the hallway, and Casey yanked her into an apartment with the exact same layout as Casey’s, and as Andrea’s, for that matter. The curtains were closed, but with the light from the hallway, Casey could see food lying on the table, and a few days’ worth of newspapers scattered over the floor just inside the door. Other than that, what she could see looked neat, like no one had been in it for a few days. Casey made a quick check of the entire apartment, to be sure there weren’t any stalkers or anything, and it was no surprise there weren’t piles of dirty laundry, or even wet towels on the floor. Krystal obviously hadn’t changed for quite some time, as she was still wearing the same clothes she’d had on when she and Dylan made their impromptu appearance in Casey’s office the other night.
Casey strode to the living room window and flung open the curtain. The beginnings of a sunrise lightened the sky, but not enough to illuminate the room, so Casey turned on all the lights she could find. The first thing she noticed was another stack of papers spread over the sofa. They’d been ripped in half. Casey picked up one fragment, and saw that it was the petition Krystal had been circulating to get Casey fired.
Casey shook her head. “At least she’s come to her senses about that.” She dropped the paper back onto the pile. “Okay, Krystal. Shower.” She pushed Krystal down the hallway to the bathroom and started the water. “Strip.”