Page 113 of The New Couple in 5B

“He’s not there, Ms. Lowan. He never checked in,” says Detective Crowe. “We have a warrant for his arrest. And to search this apartment.”

“Who’s this?” he asks, nodding toward Sarah, who regards him with naked suspicion.

“My sister is visiting from out of town.” She gives him a curt nod, grabs my hand and pulls me back away from the detective. She’s always been protective, even when she was too small to protect anyone.

When we step inside the apartment, I’m grateful to see that she’s cleared the cards and put them back in her bag.

I stand by helpless as the police fan out in our apartment, our dream home, the place where I thought we’d conceive our first child. Every footfall takes me further away from the future I imagined here.

When I look back in the elevator foyer, Miles and Willa fade before my eyes, absorbed into the walls of this cursed place.

Two, three calls to Olivia go straight to voice mail and don’t get returned. Not like her at all. Why can’t I reach either of them? Are they together?

My head is spinning, fear and anger dueling in my chest. The police take their time. Ivan’s box is removed. They take my computer, which luckily is backed up to the cloud. All I’ll need is another device to access my work. I fight for my research papers and lose as they, too, are boxed up and taken away.

“This is my work,” I protest to Detective Crowe. “It has nothing to do with anything.”

“I can’t know that until I’ve looked at it all,” he says. “I’m sorry.”

He’s not. He’s not sorry at all. It’s just like Chad said. He has an idea, a theory, and he’ll do anything he can to prove it.

Luckily, we have very little else for them to rifle through, a closet of clothes, a filing cabinet with personal documents beside my desk.

“I just saw your text,” he says when I try to leave the room.

“What text?” I ask.

He holds up the phone and I see with dismay the panicked message I fired off in the church basement when I thought I was trapped. I had forgotten all about it.

“My husband—what?” he asks. “You didn’t finish. What about your husband, Ms. Lowan?”

“I was scared,” I say. “I followed someone down into the basement of the church. Then I thought someone was after me, that I was trapped. I panicked, sent you that text.”

“Who were you following?”

Oh, you know, just the ghost of one of the people I’m researching for my book. Yeah, she died here in this building—she was murdered, actually, by her husband. She was trying to tell me something. That I was in danger. So, yeah.

“No one. I made a mistake.”

“And who was following you?”

“My sister. My sister came after me, to see if I was all right.”

He squints at me—part concern, part suspicion. “Let me read it back for you.”

“That’s not necessary.”

“I’m in trouble. Trapped in the basement of the Church of the Ascension on Madison Avenue. Dana, then Xavier wanted to tell me something. Now they’re dead. I think I’m next. Abi is a liar. Xavier and Dana knew each other; check her Instagram feed. My husband—”

“I know what I wrote. Did you know? That Dana and Xavier knew each other? Is that a connection you’re exploring?”

He shakes his head slowly, not answering me. “What did you want me to know about your husband?”

“Nothing,” I say. “I don’t remember—like I said, I was panicking. I don’t think we should talk anymore, Detective. Not without my lawyer.”

We lock eyes. It’s a standoff.

“It doesn’t seem like it, I know. But I’m trying to help you, Rosie.”