Booktree.ng_Forgotten-Witness

The overhead fixture was out but there was enough light
coming from the hall to let her see the layout of the room so
she left the door open. In front of her was an entry that was no
more than five feet long. To the right was a partially closed
pocket door. Flat-palmed, she slid it back to reveal a small
bathroom. Josie turned on the light. There was a hairbrush on
the counter, a glass with two toothbrushes, and a small bar of
soap near the sink that had been opened and used. Two towels
hung neatly on a bar. The mirror was glued to the wall and
plastic clamshell brackets held it in place. It looked like the
bathrooms in the base housing where Josie grew up. The
mirror itself was cracked on one corner and the silver backing
was showing through and turning black in another. The shower
curtain was drawn over the tub. She pulled it back with one
finger. There was a bar of hotel soap and bottle of cheap
shampoo. A woman’s shampoo.
Josie went to the main room. It was standard: two beds, a
low bureau, a chair, tall and narrow french doors overlooking
the street. Those doors were framed by chiffon sheers
yellowed with age, sagging where the drapery pins had come
loose. They rippled like the hem of a ghostly gown.
Convinced she was alone, positive she wasn’t going to trip
over a corpse, Josie walked to the window and looked out.
What she assumed to be a balcony was only an illusion. A
railing had been bolted to the building outside the window as a
safety guard for sleepwalkers and drunks. Summers in D.C.
could be brutal and there was no air-conditioning when this
place was built. Tonight the doors were closed. She pulled the
drapes aside and put her hand up to the glass. Cold air was
seeping through cracked caulking and yet the room was
relatively warm. She touched the radiator. It was cool but not
cold. Someone had been there to turn it on and off.
The spreads on the full-size beds were thrown over the
pillows but the sheets were un-tucked. She walked between
them, fumbled with the switch on the lamp that sat on the table
between them and finally managed to turn it on. The dim bulb
under the fringed, grey shade shed light that made everything