I have nothing. My eyes scan the room for one.
“Will do. Thanks, Officer Cortez.”
“It’s Maria. We’ll see you tomorrow.”
* * *
—
I can’t say I feel any better after I hang up. I suppose in my head they’d send a squad car straight here and dust the apartment for prints and open an in-depth investigation immediately but then things don’t work like that in the real world, do they.
Joanne is going to be more than a little annoyed at me if I give the police her name tomorrow but I don’t think she’ll go as far as to deny she was involved. If she does, I’m not sure where that leaves me. Because if Joanne is removed from the chain of events that led me here, then it might be assumed that I stole Emily’s apartment keys from her car or broke in.
My mind fizzles along that track. If I had access to her apartment I might have been the woman the cops ID’d here the other night. Might I have been the woman impersonating her? I know for a fact I fit Emily’s description; everyone at that audition four days ago did.
But I’m sure Joanne won’t deny it. It’s one thing to want to avoid hassle and quite another to lie to the police. I shift on the sunken-seated sofa. Besides there’ll be an email chain on Joanne’s computer and her agent’s linking her here. And she was caught on CCTV in my building collecting Emily’s things. I wander back into the kitchen to retrieve Joanne’s padded envelope full of evidence.
I weigh the packet in my hands. I should take this and give it to them tomorrow too. And I should leave. Cortez is right. I’ve already wasted too much of my own time on this. It’s not like I don’t have anything to do out here. I think of Joanne slinking out into the evening light, free. I could just go. It’s clear nobody else is as concerned about this as I am.
But then that’s not true. Somebody else is very concerned about this, about what I know. They are so concerned that they’ve gone to great lengths to make me think Emily is still around. I can’t help but wonder what they’ll do now that I know she’s gone.
I finger the papers inside the envelope, pulling one out absentmindedly.
It’s Emily’s character description.
Character: （Emily） Brunette, late twenties, attractive, native New Yorker. Emily Bryant is an actress pounding the pavements in search of that elusive golden ticket, her big break. While she’s got all the sass and grit you’d expect from a girl who grew up in the big city there is also a soulful and quiet confidence to Emily. And although she’s quick to make friends she never really lets anyone get too close. As this immersive role develops we will come to realize that Emily is living with a secret that may force her to abandon everything she values…or face the consequences.
Jesus, this is meta. A shiver runs through me.
Without stopping to think I grab the package and root through until I find what I’m looking for. I take a breath and read.
Character: （Mia） Brunette, late twenties, pretty, British. Mia Eliot is the classic innocent abroad. Having found success in her native England she travels to LA, on her own, to land the role of a lifetime.
I spin and look around the empty apartment suddenly possessed by the eerie idea that I am being filmed. Right now. I scan bookshelves, the corners of the room.
I’ve heard stories. I know there are whole sections of the Internet given over to secretly filming women, that iPhones get duct-taped under sinks in Starbucks, that laptop cameras get hacked and set to broadcast. My eyes skip to Emily’s computer on her desk. The tiny black camera aperture above the lifeless screen stares blankly back at me. I march over and slam the lid.
The idea that I might have been deliberately led to where I am now comes into my head. Someone could be back at my apartment, right now, doing God knows what. Waiting for me, maybe.