“I can’t answer that honestly. Because lately, I haven’t seen much of Marie.” Paula sighed again. “I found another boyfriend. A good guy, also with commitment problems.” She laughed nervously. “But at least he’s up front about it. We’ve been going together almost four months. Now that things are going okay for me, Marie’s sort of dropped out of the picture. I call and invite her out. But as soon as she finds out Joe’s gonna be there, she backs off. Joe’s a fun-loving guy, and Marie is…”

“She doesn’t approve of Joe?”

“No, it’s not like that. Marie isn’t judgmental. She just does better one-on-one. This was the first time I’d seen her in months. I was planning to take her out to dinner for her birthday. Just the two of us. Now I find out…this is so horrible. I feel guilty. Maybe she was sending me signals I didn’t pick up on.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know,” Paula said. “Like I said, I obviously didn’t pick up on them.”

“When was the last time you talked to Marie?”

“A week ago. When we made plans.”

“And how’d she sound?”

“Fine.”

“Did she say anything unusual to you regarding babies or mothers?”

“No.”

“Did she mention her prior tragedy at all?”

“No.”

“Did she mention your miscarriage at all?”

“No.”

“Do you know of any men past or present in Marie’s life?”

“No.”

“But she told you she lost a baby.”

“Yes.”

“She never said when this happened?”

“Just that she was young.”

“And she never mentioned the father?”

“No.”

“Did she ever talk about having another baby, Paula?”

“No. And she only talked about her tragedy after I lost the baby. To be empathetic, I think.”

“Paula, when you were close to Marie, did you know or meet any of Marie’s other friends?”

“I don’t think Marie had very many friends.”

“Well, when you used to visit her, did she ever get any phone calls?”

“From the hospital.”

“How about personal phone calls?”

“No…wait, her mom called several times. Marie told me her mom lives in a nursing home in Arcadia. She’s kind of nuts, and every so often she escapes and calls Marie on a pay phone. Marie used to visit her twice a week. I’m sure she still does.”

Marge paused and looked through her notes. There it was. Pete had played Marie’s messages for her. In them had been a gravelly voice on the run. She looked up from her notebook. “Do you know the name of the nursing home?”

“No, I don’t know. I’m sorry. I’m terrible with names.”

“But it’s in Arcadia.”

“It was as of six, maybe seven, months ago.”

“The only calls you ever heard Marie receive were from her mom?”

“She’s the only one I remember calling Marie’s house.”