“I didn’t know her well,” he told them. “I just met her briefly. We spoke over the weekend. She told me about her website. She was looking for a partner. She wasn’t at the signing, no.”

How do you describe the sensation of bugs skittering across your skin? Think of a spider on your neck, then think of a dozen, then think of a thousand, but not just on your neck—scuttling all over you. The light touch of tiny feet, the running scurry of invisible bugs.

Tiny mandibles clawing at your skin. You have to dig those bugs out. You have to. You can’t leave them alone or they’ll multiply more and more and more.

But you can’t dig them out now. No. Not when people are watching. Not when—

“A partner?” Agent Hawkins said, and Timothy was back in the moment, his drifting attention refocused again.

“Financial. Sometimes when people think you’re rich or famous they come looking for you to invest in their pet projects or donate to their charities. It’s amazing how many peculiar and necessitous people come out of the woodwork once there’s a Wikipedia page about you.”

++++

“May I use your washroom?” I said, in order to get an excuse to have a look around. Plain view doctrine would come into play, but as long as I was on my way to a bathroom and was simply looking around—range of sight—we would be alright.

“Oh . . . yes. Just down the hall.”

As I walked toward the bathroom that I didn’t really need to use, I heard Ralph follow up with Timothy. “You said it was a website. What kind of site is it?”

“It’s a little troubling, actually. She would photograph dead babies in the arms of their mothers.”

He said “would photograph,” not “photographs.” Past tense. What does he know?

While the young novelist explained that Julianne’s site was set up to help mourning mothers cope with the loss of their children, I scrutinized the house, keeping an eye out for any sign that Julianne had been—or was still—here, but saw nothing.

When I came to the stairs leading to the second level, I noted that I was out of sight of Ralph and Timothy.

It might not be a bad idea to have a quick peek up there.

“And did you see her again after that?” Ralph was saying. “After she asked you to partner with her?”

I started up the stairs.

It smelled like Timothy had done most of his cleaning up here rather than in the bathroom on the first level.

When I reached the top of the stairs, I saw that the doors were all open at least a crack.

Excellent.

I began to peer into the rooms one by one, making my way down the hall.

++++

Timothy wasn’t sure what to think.