I pushed open the door to Higgenbotham & Hudson ten minutes before closing. Already I was irritated with the whole thing, myself most of all. There were fifteen other items on my to-do list, and serving as Lane’s errand boy wasn’t one of them. Why did I let her guilt me into these stupid favors? It wasn’t that the auction house wasn’t terribly out of the way, but I resented the intrusion in my schedule. Knowing Lane’s history, I suspected there was bound to be something about this favor that wouldn’t be as simple as she said it would be. It never was. I looked at my watch again, calculating whether I would have time to make it over to the property and then run back to my apartment to change before meeting my friend Cai for drinks and dinner.
Lane had emailed me a copy of the purchase receipt, so with any luck, this would simply be a matter of exchanging the receipt for keys and the deed. Then all I’d have to worry about was battling the rush hour traffic.
A young woman lifted her head up from her computer and smiled at me as I approached the desk.
“I’m here to pick up a deed,” I said, handing her a copy of the receipt. “The property was purchased by Lane Kellner.”
She took the sheet, glanced it over, then turned back to her screen and typed. “Just give me a moment to look this up.”
After a few clicks of the keyboard, she smiled, got up from her chair, and walked around the corner. I opened my phone and typed the property address into my map app, trying to estimate how much time it would take me to get there. Forty-five minutes at least, this time of day. I was tempted to wait until the morning to check on the property, but a quick look at my calendar showed me that was an even worse idea. “Damn,” I mumbled under my breath.
The receptionist returned, a large manila envelope in hand.
“Here is a copy of your deed, and we include some literature on various city resources such as the contact for the zoning department and utility hookups.”
I took the envelope from her and quickly flipped through the documents. Everything looked to be in order as far as I could tell. So I slid the envelope in my tote bag.
“Great, looks like the only other thing I need is the keys.”
“Oh, these properties are sold as is. That means it’s the buyer’s responsibility to gain access. We don’t ever have keys.”
“No keys? So how do I get in?” I asked, feeling my blood pressure shoot up a few degrees.
“Well, it’s possible that there is no lock on the door. That happens sometimes with these abandoned properties. If not, you’ll need to call a locksmith. Just show them the paperwork, and there should be no problem.”
She gave me a slight smile, and her tone was only slightly patronizing. Clearly I wasn’t the first dumb schmuck unaware of the proper protocol.
No problem? Right. Had Lane known this when she’d asked me for the favor? Damn, damn, damn! I thanked the receptionist and headed toward the elevator knowing I was sporting an expression this woman had seen many times in the past.
I arrived at the property on Pierce fifty minutes later and scanned the stoop for signs of the locksmith I had phoned from the car to hedge my bet. Another hundred bucks that would go on Lane’s tab. No sign of the guy. What a surprise. I shook my head and sighed. Going home to change was clearly off the table.
Humboldt Park was a transitional West Side neighborhood still mired in the inconsistencies of gentrification. Chicago’s ethnic divisions still favored its Puerto Rican history, but rising property taxes were having their impact. This made the real estate vultures happy, and Lane aspired to be one. Having some inside knowledge, she flirted with property flipping, but her pockets were never deep enough, nor her contractor ties strong enough to rack up any serious profits. By the looks of it, this one would be break even, at best.
I parked across the street from the ramshackle brick home, then walked up to the chain-link fence and lifted the latch. Remodeling was one of my side passions, and I was always up for a challenge, but I wasn’t sure what Lane saw in the place. It looked more like a teardown. Lane was likely in over her head and grossly underestimating the size of the budget she would need to make this habitable. The brick seemed to be in decent shape, at least nothing a little tuck pointing couldn’t cure, but the roof was a tear-off, the porch needed to be completely rebuilt, and the windows were barely holding in their frames. One good storm would send glass shattering, if it hadn’t already. I could only imagine what condition the mechanicals were in. Had Lane even looked at this property? Or had she gotten sucked in to another sight-unseen fantasy moneymaker from an online auction? Oh well. Her problem, not mine.
Where in the hell was that locksmith? I looked up and down the street, hoping to see the van. Nothing. May as well check the door while I waited. I grabbed the handrail and put some weight on the first step, testing for strength and expecting wood rot to cause the whole thing to collapse. So far so good. Gingerly, I made my way up to the front door and turned the knob. Locked. I stepped to the right and put a hand up to the front window, trying to peer in through the dark and dirty glass. Inside I saw nothing but dark shapes.
“You Andrea?”
Startled, I gave a small jump, my purse slipping from my hand. I turned to see a red-faced middle-aged man whose waist circumference likely matched his height.
“Yes,” I said, glancing at my watch in a deliberate attempt to make him feel bad for not getting here faster, a message he ignored as he huffed up the fragile stairs with barely a creak. Apparently they were sturdier than they looked.
“This should just take a couple minutes. These old locks are pretty easy to hack unless it’s all rusted out. Then we just bust open the door.” He grinned, apparently amused by the look on my face.
He pulled out a selection of files and tools I didn’t recognize from his bag and got to work while I silently cursed my sister. There was no way I’d get back downtown on time. I sent Cai a text asking to push dinner back to seven o’clock, then pressed my nose back up against the dirty glass of the front bay window. If Lane expected me to arrange her junk hauler too, she was about to be disappointed.
The sound of a hammer hitting metal jolted me back. The locksmith looked up at me with an accomplished smile.
“See, I told you it was easy.” He tossed his tools into his bag, then hauled himself up off his knees with a grunt.
I stepped over to take a look at his handiwork, seeing an empty hole where the doorknob once was. “And do you put something new in there?”
“Did you bring one?” I shook my head. “Then nope, not today. That’ll be a hundred and twenty-five bucks.” He scratched out a handwritten receipt while I fished out my wallet and handed over the cash.
“Just give me a call when you’re ready with that new lock set.” He hoisted his toolkit to the other hand and wobbled down the stairs.
I placed a hand on the door and gave it a shove. It stuck briefly, then creaked as I pushed harder, swinging open with the additional force. A cloud of dust flew up, and the rank scent of mold and rotting wood assaulted my nose. I stepped inside, waiting a moment to stifle a sneeze and for my eyes to adjust to the dim light. A staircase rose straight in front of me with a living room to my right. Beyond enough dust to cause an asthma attack, the room was empty.
Good. Maybe they were all empty and I’d be out of here in ten minutes. The thump of my feet sent hollow echoes as I walked through the living room toward the back. With this much dust, it was impossible to tell the condition of the floors, but the fireplace was boarded up with plywood, a sure sign it wasn’t functional or had become a squirrel hotel. I wasn’t going to be the one to find out.
I walked through a small, equally empty dining room into a kitchen that hadn’t been updated since the ‘40s—chipped linoleum tile, a handful of painted wood cabinets, and two windows partially boarded up from the outside. The air was thick and stale and rancid. The build-up of dust I had inhaled was settling into my nose threatening a sneezing fit. Pausing, I fished around in my bag for a packet of tissues. My nose tended, I pulled open several of the upper cabinets to find only a smattering of old dishware before realizing footprints dotted the dirty floor. Not fresh, but they didn’t seem like they’d been there for years, either.
I ran my eyes around the space. It was hard to make out whether more than one individual had left the tracks, but someone had used of the kitchen. Smudged prints ran from the back door, took turns through the kitchen, and continued on to a closed door on the left side of the room. I hadn’t noticed prints when I’d walked through the living room. Had I missed them? I turned back toward the front of the house and saw only the clear prints of my narrow wedges in the dust.
My phone pinged a message. Michael.
You free tonight? his text read.
Dinner with Cai. Tomorrow? Call me later?
He sent back a thumbs-up emoji, and I put the phone back in my bag. We’d been dating for about nine months, and our relationship was both comforting and fear inducing, at least to me. Michael was another story. Skittish was a more succinct way of describing how I felt. Despite Michael’s best attempts at moving the relationship into more permanent territory, noncommittal was the best I could do after one failed marriage. It didn’t sit well with him, but for the most part, he was giving me the space to work it through for myself.
I stood for a moment, contemplating the closed door and wondering if a squatter had taken up residence. No, the tracks weren’t fresh enough. I stepped over to the back door and found it unlocked, the latch no longer functional. That was one explanation for the footprints. It was also a hundred and twenty-five dollars down the drain, but I was going to hit Lane up for the reimbursement anyway. After poking my head out of the back of the house, I quickly scoped out the backyard. Seeing nothing concerning, I decided I could leave the yard to Lane and instead moved my attention to the closed door in the kitchen.
Alert for intruders and even more irritated with my sister, I shook my head, turned the knob, opened the door a few inches, and listened for sounds. Hearing nothing alarming, I pulled the door the rest of the way open and found myself at the top of a dark staircase to the basement. Instinctively I reached for a light switch before remembering the utilities had probably been shut off ages ago. Pulling my phone out of my purse, I hit the flashlight app. Its weak stream shone about twelve feet into the dark stairwell. I cursed and gingerly moved forward.
Halfway down, a cluster of cobwebs grazed my cheek. I recoiled, brushing at my face. In the process, my heel caught on the wooden stairs and I wobbled. Reaching out to the stone wall, I steadied myself, then quickly pulled back as another web brushed my hand sending a new shiver down my body. Why the hell was I doing this? Lane should be the one cozying up to arachnids. Enough of this. I’d go as far as the bottom of the stairs, shine my light around what would be an empty, filthy space, and then get the hell out of here. This wasn’t my problem. And a spider factory wasn’t what I had signed up for.
I let out a breath, shaking off the eight-legged creepy-crawlies as much as I could, and swung my light up and down, trying to read the obstacle course the spiders had created. Another four steps and I would probably be able to duck my head low enough to see if the basement was empty. Then I was gone.
As I reached my target, I leaned forward, swinging my phone into the darkness. Damn! Boxes were stacked as far as I could see, and the stench that I had first noticed upstairs was stronger now. Trash? A dead rat? I couldn’t tell. It was earthy and rotted and repulsive. I panned the flashlight slowly over the assemblage. I had no interest in learning their contents, but it seemed odd that someone would go to the trouble of packing their belongings and then leave them with the house.
As the light inched over the containers, it illuminated a section of the basement clear of boxes. Beyond the last stack I could just make out a rug on the concrete floor and the edge of what appeared to be a vintage dresser with a mirror. Odd.
Why would someone lay out a rug in the middle of this mess? Curious, I continued down the stairs hoping to get a better view. As I got closer, I could see that a partially covered window well was washing light onto the rug. Hesitantly I stepped forward, drawn to the clearing. The stacks of boxes obscured much of my view, so I continued cautiously, listening for something other than the sound of my own breath, my thoughts on the footprints in the kitchen.
Pausing as I reached the last tower of cardboard, I debated my next move; caution was firing grenades in my brain. I could now see that the rug was an Oriental pattern and probably not a cheap one. My eyes went to the dresser, where an array of small items rested. From this distance, I couldn’t tell what they were, but my sense was that they had been arranged. Sweat began tickling the back of my neck as I lifted my flashlight to the bureau. A reflection in the mirror stole my breath, and my phone clattered to the ground. Shaking, I scrambled to retrieve it, holding it tightly to my chest as I stepped around the cardboard wall. There, spotlighted by the light of the window well, sat a large wingback chair. In it, the decaying body of a woman.