“But the image of her in one of the photographs,” I said. “Where do you think it came from if you don’t believe something happened to Grace? And why not take the exhibit down, especially after a second person has disappeared?”

“Someone’s tampering with my exhibit,” said Susan, clearly growing more annoyed with each of my questions. “I don’t pretend to know why. And I haven’t taken it down because, well, people have a right to see those photographs!”

She didn’t seem entirely convinced by her own argument. “Oh, I agree,” I said, hoping to calm her down and get her back on my side. “People should absolutely be able to see them. It’s not as though you have anything to hide.”

I wasn’t sure that I really felt this way. Two missing people seemed like more than enough of a good reason to shut down the exhibit. But I also wanted Susan to continue talking to me, so I had to make her think I agreed with her.

Now that she seemed to believe I wasn’t arguing with her, Susan’s shoulders slumped. “Honestly,” she said, lowering her voice, even though we were still alone, “the museum isn’t doing very well. I thought we were going to have to close by the end of this year. But ever since Grace went missing, and now this other boy, well, we’ve never been so popular. I know the police are threatening to shut everything down in a few days, but if I took the exhibit down now, I’d have to close anyway. I might as well make some profit while I can. Does that sound just awful?”

I took a moment before answering. Really, I didn’t think it sounded very good at all. I thought that Susan should be more worried about the missing people, especially since one of those people had been an employee of hers. I was still trying to think of something to say when it became clear that I had taken too long to respond and lost my chance to say anything at all. Susan took a step away from me and seemed to realize what she had just said.

“I’ll take whatever publicity I can get for the museum,” she said. “But remember that none of that was on the record.” It was clear that we were done with our conversation.

“Of course,” I said. “Thank you for speaking with me. I’ll go now.”

I walked quickly back to the STAFF ONLY door and turned the knob to exit, leaving Susan in the dusty hallway behind me.

I made my way outside the Carlisle Museum, and it looked as though the sun had finally managed to break through all that cloud cover. All the grass and the fall-colored trees outside were still flecked with drops of rainwater, but now everything was also sparkling in the new light.

I stood for a moment and studied the museum building. It was large, made of the same red brick as most of the buildings in town. At first glance it looked impressive. But when I looked a little closer, I could see that one of the windows was actually cracking, the brick was badly damaged on the far left edge of the building, and the roof was missing its shingles in more than one section. Susan’s admission that the museum wasn’t doing well financially certainly explained the building’s run-down condition.