Inside the house, Mrs. Walsh offered her “coffee or tea or anything,” but Julianne declined. She knew there was no Mr. Walsh—he’d passed away a year ago. Heart attack. “I understand that Miranda was studying at NYU but that she still had some of her belongings here?”

“Yes. In her room. I haven’t moved anything. It’s just the way she left it. I mean, except for the boxes of things from her dorm room. I haven’t even opened them up yet. It’s just too . . . well . . .”

“I understand. It can be difficult. May I have a look?”

“Yes.”

Mrs. Walsh directed Julianne to the stairs and led her up, somewhat slowly, as she favored a creaking right knee. A variety of angel paintings hung on the walls.

“Can you tell me about Miranda’s interest in that author in particular?” Julianne asked.

“Author?”

“The one whose book signing she attended on the night she disappeared. Timothy Sabian.”

“Oh, I don’t know anything much about that. She mentioned that she was going to it: the Mystorium. It’s a bookstore that specializes in crime books.”

“Yes,” Julianne said.

“That’s about all I know.”

“Had she ever met him before?”

“I really couldn’t say. Is he a suspect?”

“No. Not at this time.”

Mrs. Walsh paused at the second room on the left and eased the door open but did not step inside. “It’s all in there. The boxes are in the corner. That’s all of her things from the dorm.”

“Thank you.”

“Do you need anything else?”

“No. I shouldn’t be more than a few minutes.”

After Mrs. Walsh left, Julianne started with the dresser drawers.

It felt a bit invasive to be looking through a dead girl’s dresser—if Miranda really was dead, which certainly appeared to be the most likely scenario.

The young woman’s body had never been found, but there was no reason to believe that she would have run away. Neither her phone nor credit cards had been used since she disappeared.

The girl was close to Julianne’s size and she was tempted by a certain blouse, but in the end she left it behind, expecting it might be difficult to secrete it past the girl’s mother. However, Julianne did help herself to a pair of frilly panties and a pearl necklace that Miranda would no longer be needing and tucked them into her pocket.

From her inquiries, it didn’t seem like Timothy had ever been on the suspect list, hadn’t even been questioned. The officers had focused on an ex-boyfriend of Miranda’s—arrested him, even—but then had to cut him loose because of lack of evidence.

The case hadn’t gone anywhere.

Julianne turned her attention to the bookshelf but saw no books by Timothy.