The Silent Girl

vacuum cleaner. We can’t find one, so we have no bag to look at, no trace evidence.”
    Jane headed into the bedroom, where she found Tam talking on his cell phone. He gave a nod as Jane stepped into the room. The floor was wood, swept clean. The sheets and bedcovers had been pulled back, the mattress exposed. Dropping to her knees, Jane peered beneath the bed and saw that the floor under the box spring was just as dust-free. A pair of shoes walked into view and Jane popped up to see a Boston PD criminalist looking at her across the mattress.
    “We didn’t find any weapon,” he reported. “Unless you count the cooking knives in the kitchen.”
    “You didn’t see anything like a sword?”
    “No, ma’am. We went through the closets and drawers. Pulled out all the furniture and looked behind it.” He paused, glancing around at the bare walls. “I’m guessing she hasn’t been here very long. Not long enough to settle in.”
    “If she planned to stay at all.”
    “Didn’t bring much in the way of clothes, either.”
    Jane opened the closet and saw no more than a dozen items hanging there, all size two. Three pairs of black pants, a few dark sweaters and blouses, and one sleeveless summer dress of soft peach silk. It was the wardrobe of a temporary visitor who clearly planned to move on. A girl who remained a mystery to them. Jane stared at the dress,trying to picture Bella Li wearing something so feminine, so flirty, but could not see it. Instead she saw the girl’s fierce eyes, her spiky black hair.
    “Sorry to tell you this,” said Tam, holding up his cell phone. “But her alibi for April fifteenth is solid. I just spoke to the program director at the cultural center. That night they hosted a martial arts demonstration. Bella Li performed with eight students from the Dragon and Stars Academy.”
    “What time was it?”
    “The group arrived at six PM , ate dinner, and went onstage about nine PM . They were there for the whole evening.” He shook his head. “This isn’t going to stick, Rizzoli.”
    “She has no alibi for April twenty-first.”
    “That’s not a reason to hold her.”
    “Then let’s find a reason, goddamn it.”
    “Why?” Tam’s gaze was so probing, it made her uncomfortable.
    She turned back to the closet, to avoid his eyes. “Something about her trips my sensors. I
know
she’s involved, but I don’t know how.”
    “All we have is a surveillance video with a female figure. It might be her, but it might be someone else. We don’t have any weapon. We don’t have any trace evidence.”
    “Because she blitzed this place with bleach before we got here.”
    “So what do we have, besides your gut feeling?”
    “It’s served me well before.” She reached into the closet and poked a gloved hand into pockets, searching. Not knowing what she was looking for. She found only stray change, a button, a folded tissue.
    “You know, Tam’s right,” said Frost, standing in the doorway. “We have to release her.”
    “Not till I know more about her. Who she really is,” said Jane.
    “We’re just guessing.”
    “Then let’s find what we need to prove it. There’s a trail somewhere, there has to be.” She crossed to the bedroom window and looked down at an alley. The sash was unlocked, the window openjust enough to let in fresh air. A fire escape landing was right outside, and there was no screen on the window. Any other female tenant would feel nervous about this lack of security, but Bella Li was fearless, striding through life ready for battle. At night, in her bed, did she ever startle awake at the odd noise outside her window, the creak in the floor? Or did she sleep like a warrior as well, unafraid even in her dreams?
    Jane turned from the window and suddenly stopped, her gaze on the curtain. The fabric was a polyester blend that never wrinkles, a print of beige bamboo stalks against a forest of green. On that multicolored background, the silvery streak was almost invisible. Only at that angle, with the room light glancing across the fabric’s surface, did Jane see the strand clinging to the fabric.
    She pulled an evidence bag out of her pocket. Afraid to even breathe, she delicately plucked the strand from the curtain and slipped it into the bag. Holding the bag up to the light, she stared through plastic at the single hair. Then she looked at the window, and at the fire escape just beyond it.
    It was here. The creature was in this room
.

T HE HUNTER SELDOM