The Maid's Diary

It is Halloween night around midnight. Two people drive to an abandoned dockyard on the north shore of Vancouver where they intend to have sex. They are surprised to see two cars driving up to the dock and watch the drivers get out. They drag something rolled in a large carpet to the ocean inlet and drop it into the water. They roll one of the vehicles, a yellow Subaru Crosstrek, off the edge of the dock and then drive off in the other car. The couple watching assumes they have witnessed the disposal of a body. They won’t report the incident to the police for fear of having their affair discovered by their families: They are both high-profile individuals.

A young woman who works as a maid has started to keep a diary. Her therapist encouraged this practice, so the maid writes down the thoughts that she wouldn’t tell anybody else. She is 34-year-old Kit. Kit confesses that she is a snoop. She likes to go through the houses she cleans, searching for clues to the secrets that rich people hide. Because she is the help, her employers consider her invisible. Kit’s friend Boon warns her that one day she might stumble across a secret that her wealthy patrons would kill to keep.

The story skips back to the morning of the murder. An elderly woman named Beulah Brown sits in her upstairs bedroom, looking out the window. She is terminally ill with cancer and passes the time by using her binoculars to watch the world outside. She considers this her personal reality show and takes notes.

The house across the street is a “monstrosity” completely made of glass, known as the Glass House. Beulah notices a yellow Subaru Crosstrek pulling into the driveway. Beulah knows this is the maid’s car which arrives every day. She waves at the maid. Beulah sleeps until she is woken at 11.21 pm by a woman’s scream. A short while later, a car door slams. Beulah dials 911, sure that something terrible has happened.

The following morning, November 1, Detective Mallory Van Alst arrives at the Glass House. She is joined there by forensics examiners and her partner, Benoit Salumu. The home’s owners are Vanessa and Haruto North. They aren’t on site, but their two vehicles are still in the garage. There are signs of a violent struggle: blood but no body. A bouquet of crushed flowers lies on the ground in front of the door. There is also a fallen cake box and a note from someone named Daisy that reads, “Good luck before autonomy dies, friend. It’s been a ride. Thanks for the support” (20). The detectives intend to question Beulah as a witness.

Two weeks previous, Daisy Rittenberg is busy staging furniture for an open house. Her mother is Annabelle Wentworth, Vancouver’s most prestigious realtor, and Daisy is helping with the family business. She is also expecting her first baby and feels physically drained. Her husband Jon, a former Olympic gold-medal skier, now works for her father’s company: TerraWest Corporation builds and operates ski resorts around the world. Daisy and Jon couple recently relocated from Colorado to Vancouver and their marriage is on the rocks. Daisy thinks the baby will help solidify their relationship.

Daisy also worries about sinister text messages she’s been receiving since returning to her hometown. Daisy remembers her reckless behavior as a teenager and fears that someone from her past has caught up with her. As she gets into her BMW to drive home, a note from her anonymous stalker is tucked under her windshield wiper: “I SEE YOU @JUSTDAISYDAILY. I KNOW WHO YOU ARE. TICKTOCK GOES THE CLOCK” (27).

Daisy is unnerved. While she and Jon were living in Colorado, they were harassed by an obsessed stalker. Even though Jon assured her that the matter was handled, Daisy has her doubts. She is further upset when she can’t reach Jon later that evening. He is having dinner with a business associate but is gone far longer than his wife expected. When she finally reaches him by phone in a noisy restaurant, he says that nothing is wrong. Daisy is sure she hears a woman’s voice in the background, suggesting that he is on a date.

The day after the murder, Mal and Benoit continue to investigate the crime scene. The first floor of the Glass House is covered in blood spatter and the detectives try to piece together what happened. There is evidence of three people drinking and then a fight. Mal finds a diamond pendant beneath the sofa cushions and bags it for evidence. More blood stains on the floor indicate that the victim was rolled in a rug and dragged out through the terrace. A knife is missing from the kitchen. Upstairs, the main bedroom is drenched in blood and a single sneaker lies on the floor. The shoe is too small to belong to the home’s owner, Vanessa North.

It is July. Kit writes that her therapist is trying to get to the root of her snooping problem. She explains that two recent events triggered an escalation in her odd behavior. Kit’s mother died a year earlier, and she is bracing herself to scatter the ashes. Kit is the daughter of Ukrainian immigrants who both wanted her to succeed in life. She was a model student until something happened to change her behavior. After this, she remembers her father saying, “You are disgusting, Katarina. You whore. You have disgraced this family” (45). Her mother nagged her about dropping out of school: “We struggled for you […] And look at what you have done to us” (43). Even though Kit hated her mother’s nagging, she felt dependent on her and couldn’t let go of their relationship.

Kit and her friend Boon go to a park overlooking the ocean to scatter the ashes, and Kit feels her mother’s relief at being set free but also feels completely lost. Later that morning, Kit is working at a new house, Rose Cottage.

Two weeks before the murder, Jon is having dinner with a Director of TerraWest, Henry Clay. Jon’s father-in-law has decided to step down from running the company, and Jon always assumed he would take over the top position. Henry informs him that the board has chosen a man named Ahmed Waheed instead. Jon is furious. Henry expresses racist views about the new boss and suggests that Jon should hire a private investigator to dig up some dirt on Waheed.

Jon considers his life. He hates his corporate job and misses the adrenaline rush of being a skier. He also doesn’t really want to become a father. Meanwhile, a woman sitting at the bar has been giving him the eye.

The scene now returns to July. After scattering her mother’s ashes, Kit goes to Rose Cottage, excited to snoop in a new house. In the kitchen, she finds an ultrasound photograph and concludes that the couple who owns the place is expecting. When she walks into the living room, she is shocked by two large pictures hanging above the fireplace. They show a male skier who Kit recognizes. She wants to scream. This is Jon Rittenberg. Kit has many bad memories of Jon Rittenberg, and now he’s about to be a father. While her first instinct is to cancel the cleaning contract, she decides to stay and gather information.

On the morning after the murder, Mal and Benoit pay a visit to Beulah Brown’s house. Benoit questions Beulah’s son downstairs while Mal goes up to speak to her. Beulah is mentally sharp and shows Mal the log that she keeps for monitoring her medication, where she also logged the strange events of the night before. Beulah describes the occupants of the Glass House and mentions that the wife is pregnant. She noticed that a couple had visited the house the night before. The female guest was also pregnant. She was carrying flowers and a cake box. When Beulah was awakened by the scream, she saw all the lights on in the Glass House.

She saw a couple dressed in rain gear dragging a heavy white carpet out the back and loading it into the yellow Subaru Crosstrek. She identified the vehicle as belonging to the maid. The other car was an Audi. Beulah couldn’t tell whether it was the guests or the homeowners who dragged the carpet out of the house. She also didn’t see the maid leave the premises. Beulah describes the maid as a pretty, blond girl in her twenties named Kit. She always wears shoes that match the description of the bloody shoe that the detectives found in the bedroom.

Months earlier, Kit assesses the risk of cleaning Jon’s home. She wants to go into snoop mode but realizes that she is treading on thin ice. Kit persists in snooping, and some of what she finds triggers painful memories, especially one of the mountain community Kit grew up in: Whistler.

She remembers being the daughter of impoverished immigrants in the wealthy ski community of Whistler. In school, Kit was overweight, suffered from acne, and was treated as a social outcast. She also recalls suffering a pregnancy loss and a damaged uterus that will never allow her to have children. This situation ended her brief marriage. Before she starts cleaning, she snaps a photo of herself with the ultrasound she has found. She posts this on her fake Instagram account where she curates an imaginary life.