Nick trotted up the shallow stone steps of Alderman Library, the largest and oldest collection of books and rare manuscripts at the University of Virginia. He squeezed past a group of students exiting the building with their ever-present cell phones pressed against their ears and entered the lobby, a cavernous room with a twenty-five-foot ceiling and towering arched windows that made it look even taller. On his left there was a coffee shop, offering both companionship and chemical enhancement for each student’s study needs; across the aisle there was a rectangular study area lined with padded vinyl chairs. On the right there was a grid of low cubicles equipped with charcoal gray computers, and across the aisle he found what he was looking for—the reference desk. Nick crossed to the desk and approached the first worker he saw, a young man in a blue scrubs top with the letter V embroidered on the breast pocket and a pair of crossed sabers below.

The student glanced up. “Need some help?”

“Yes,” Nick said, “I’m looking for a master’s thesis titled ‘The Utility of Arthropods in Medicolegal Investigations.’ It was completed at Penn State University.”

The young man looked at him blankly. “I—don’t think we have that one.”

“I didn’t expect you to keep it on a shelf next to Seventeen. I want to know if you can find it for me.”

The student began to slowly peck at a computer keyboard. “Um— I’m not sure what to look under. Let me see if I can find someone who could—”

“Never mind,” Nick said. “You can go back to Facebook now.”

Nick walked down to the opposite end of the reference desk where he found a woman seated at a computer. Her hair was a dyed reddish-orange and pulled back in a simple ponytail with short strands that dangled down over her forehead. She wore black-framed glasses with the logo “D&G” encrusted in rhinestones on the temples, and a silver post protruded from the right side of her nose. She wore a navy UVA hoodie even though it was almost summer, which was no surprise to Nick since she was a woman and the library was kept at the temperature of a meat locker.

She looked up as he approached. “May I help you?”

“Yes—I’m looking for a doctoral dissertation titled ‘Systematics, Morphology, and Ecology of Chrysomya rufifacies, the Hairy Maggot Blowfly.’ Can you find it for me?”

“Where was it done?”

“Penn State.”

“Which one? Penn State has twenty-four campuses.”

“The main campus—University Park.”

Her fingers began to skitter across the keyboard. “Let’s try Dissertation Abstracts Online—they cover every American dissertation accepted at an accredited institution since 1861 and selected master’s theses since 1962. Do you need an abstract or is this just an author search?”

“I’d like an abstract.”

“The abstracts only date back to July of 1980.”

“It’s more recent than that.”