Holliday made a tutting sound behind her from the doorway. “Kids these days, huh? No respect for themselves or anyone else. God, how I miss those days.”

Jessica turned and pushed past him back into the hallway and stood in front of the final door. Alicia’s room. The door was closed. She could feel the heat from Holliday’s body close behind her, his breath on her neck. She reached out a hand and turned the doorknob and crossed the threshold into the smaller of the two bedrooms.

It was dark and empty, but she could imagine a small bed with a pink cover and the window framed by matching curtains. Stuffed toys on the bed, maybe a dollhouse in the corner of the room.

Without knowing why, Jessica made her way to the closet and threw open the slatted doors. She pulled the Maglite from her bag, flicked the switch, and trained the flashlight’s beam inside. It wasn’t quite a walk-in closet, but it was still fairly deep. There were no hangers on the rod, and the floor was covered with a rectangle of thin beige carpet crusted with rat droppings. On the walls were messy crayon scribbles in rainbow colors at toddler height.

Jessica crawled into the cramped space and pulled at a corner of the carpet, ripping it all the way back until the hardwood flooring underneath was fully exposed. She ran her hands across the wooden boards, pressing and testing each one. The one closest to the wall in the back corner was slightly looser than the rest. Pressing down on one end of the board, she saw the other end pop up a half inch. It was enough to dig her fingers underneath into the tiny gap. She was able to get just enough purchase to wiggle the floorboard completely free. Jessica threw it behind her and shone the Maglite into a space that was about ten inches long, five inches wide, and three inches deep.

Inside, under a layer of thick dust, was a tightly folded plastic bag.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Holliday said at her back. “How did you know where to look?”

Jessica couldn’t explain the pull toward the closet to herself, never mind Holliday.

“The house doesn’t have a basement or an attic,” she said. “The next logical hiding place is in the closet. I’ve seen this kind of thing a lot in my job.”

Holliday crouched down next to her and watched as she pulled the bag free from its hiding place. Jessica shook it clean of dust to reveal a red-and-white logo.

“Thrifty Drug Store,” Holliday said.

“Never heard of it,” she said.