“No one lives here, Myra. There’s no stuff. Everyone has stuff. Everyone brings something with them from the old place to the new place, even if it’s only a dying plant. There’s always a bit of the past you want to bring with you to the present to remind you where you’ve been. This is just a shell, a cover of some sort. Everything is new, the sheets on the bed still have the creases on them from being packaged, and they smell new. Everything is minimal, drugstore cosmetics, all new. Clyde’s shaving kit and his sundries are new and unused. They forgot to take the tag off the towels. The chest of drawers holds brand-new clothing from JCPenney. Seven of everything. It still smells new. The closet has shoes, they’re new, too. No DNA anywhere in this place, and that’s a guarantee.”

“It’s the same thing in the kitchen,” Myra said. “There are four of everything. Nothing extra. Two pots, two fry pans. The refrigerator has a bottle of wine, three bottles of beer, and a six-pack of bottled water. There are two dried-up oranges in the fruit bin. In the freezer there are two frozen TV dinners, a can of frozen juice, no pitcher to mix it in. That’s it. The coffeepot has never been used, and the can of coffee hasn’t been opened.”

“This place is carpeted, but there’s no vacuum cleaner. No cleaning supplies. I don’t think Charles was expecting this. What do you think, Myra?”

“I think you’re right. This place is just a cover. I think like you do, there must be another apartment inside this complex where they really live.”

Myra looked at her watch. They both ran to the door and waited for the power to go back out. Just as Myra turned the knob on the door, the apartment went dark. Like the conspirators they were, they raced to the end of the hall. The only light to be seen was the red EXIT sign over the stairwell door. Inside the dark stairwell, they waited for the power to come back on before they made their wild scramble back to the eighth floor and their apartment.

Inside, both women collapsed onto a soft, nubby off-white sofa.

Her voice sounding jittery, Annie said, “That was fun, wasn’t it, Myra?”

“About as much fun as a root canal. Do you realize you could live in a place like this for years and never see or know your neighbors?”

The two women waited through three more power surges, darkness, then light before Annie called Charles to report in. “There has to be another apartment here. All your people saw was Bonnie and Clyde exiting and entering the building. They didn’t see which apartment they came out of. Myra and I are tired, so we’re going to bed. That means we will not be checking in during the next eight hours.” Annie rolled her eyes at Myra, and so it was obvious Charles was berating her for something.