Her Quiet Roommate

Sam answers an ad for a room in a south London flat. No deposit, no contract, move in tomorrow. Esme is thirty, tidy, warm, and always home. It is a good flat. Sam is happy for three weeks. Then she finds an earring behind the washing machine that belongs to the previous roommate, who is supposed to have gone back to Chennai in April. Priya's social media went dark in March. Priya's mother still calls the landline, every fortnight, asking for her daughter. Esme says Priya is fine. Esme always says everything is fine. She also has a spare bedroom she has never once shown Sam, and a folder, and a lock, and — Sam is starting to realise — a plan that is already six weeks underway. The door locks are on the outside of the frame. Sam has just been too polite to notice.