Leah had no doubt, no hesitation. She went right to the bundle. It might have been because she had been a homicide detective for more than ten years, and had gone to look at so many victims, especially when she had worked at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. This one was way past the worst stages, and had moved into the realm of archaeology, but Leah’s nose was sensitive to a remaining hint of the distinctive smell.

The woman had been old, a small person, about five feet three and quite thin. Leah could tell from the fit of the woman’s tracksuit that she had probably weighed about a hundred pounds or less at the time of her death. The usual decomposition process had completed itself a long time ago, probably a year or more. She was now mostly desiccated, dried and leathery. Leah looked closely at the visible parts, the fabric of the tracksuit and sneakers, and decided the woman probably had died a natural death.

She rewrapped the body and went back inside the house. She climbed the stairs back to the man’s room. It looked to her as though Weiss must be using the room only occasionally, or only for short periods. A few pieces of clothing were in the closet—jeans, a stack of folded T-shirts, underwear, socks in a cardboard box. She went into the next room, which shared a wall with the man’s room. It was smaller and nearly square. But something very odd had been done to the room. All four walls, the floor, and the ceiling had been altered.

She took out her flashlight and went over the place. There were no windows, but there was still a closet. All the room’s walls and the floor had been covered with particleboard sheeting, and it gave a bit when she walked on it. She pushed on the wall, and it moved inward a little too. She went to the side where the edge of the false wall was visible and saw under the particle board a layer of insulation almost three inches thick. There was a small bed made of steel with a single mattress on it, like one of the two components of a bunk in a barracks. Everything was clear. There was no possible misinterpretation. The walls, floor, and ceiling had been remodeled to be soundproof. The insulation and sheeting had also covered the windows. She examined the things she could see, and then she walked to the closet and opened it.