I waited a minute before going out to the landing. My neighbor was interrogating Morrell: “Is she expecting you this late at night, young man? She never mentioned you before that I ever heard of.”

I laughed a little but ran down the stairs in my bare feet before the woman who lived opposite Mr. Contreras came out to complain about the noise. “It’s okay. He’s got some information for a case I’m working on.”

I introduced Morrell to Peppy. “This is the police dog. The big guy is her son. And this is my neighbor and good friend, Mr. Contreras.”

The old man had been looking hurt that I hadn’t told him about Morrell earlier, but my introduction appeased him slightly. He took the dogs back inside the apartment after only a very small discourse on how I needed to let him know what strangers to expect when the police were on my butt.

Morrell followed me up the stairs. “I suppose with a neighbor like that you don’t need a security system. Reminds me of the villages in Guatemala, where people seem to look out for each other more than we do here.”

“He drives me crazy half the time, but you’re right: I’d feel mighty lost without him.”

I ushered Morrell to the stuffed armchair and sat astride the piano bench. In the lamplight I saw that his thick hair was streaked with white and the laugh lines around his eyes were more deeply grooved than in his book–jacket photo.

“This really will take only a minute, but my years in South America make me nervous about giving confidential information over the phone. I managed to find Nicola Aguinaldo’s mother. She didn’t know her daughter was dead. And she definitely doesn’t have her body.”

I looked at him narrowly, but there’s no real way to tell whether people are lying to you or not. “I’d like to talk to Señora Mercedes myself. Can you tell me where you found her?”

He hesitated. “She’s not likely to confide in a stranger.”

“She confided in you, and last night you assured me you’d never laid eyes on her.”

His mouth twitched in the suggestion of a smile. “I’ve talked to a couple of people about your work, and they were right: you are a very astute observer. Can you please take my word for it, that Señora Mercedes doesn’t have her daughter’s body?”