“It’s OK.” Isa yawned. “I have a ton of research to do anyway.”

“Late night?”

“Yeah. I’m working on a project for the Pendleton grant.”

“Congratulations,” Louisa said. “That’s a lot of work.”

Isa smiled. “It is, but I’ll power through it.”

“Good attitude.”

“What did you want to talk to me about?”

“Zoe.”

“I don’t know what else I can tell you. The police were already here. I told them everything I knew. They searched her room and everything.” Isa nodded toward a closed door off the living room.

“Would you mind if I took a look?”

She lifted a shoulder. “I guess not. They took a bunch of stuff.”

Louisa walked to the doorway and peered inside Zoe’s closet-size bedroom. The bed was made. A small desk in the corner held books and papers stacked in neat piles. Zoe’s backpack hung by the straps over the back of her chair. “You’re sure she didn’t come home Monday night?”

“Yeah, I pulled an all-nighter.” Isa walked to the fridge and poured Diet Coke into a glass. “Want a Coke?”

“No, thanks. Is that normal for her not to come home?”

“We’ve only been rooming together since the beginning of the semester. So we really haven’t established norms yet.”

Louisa rephrased the question. “Had she ever not come home before?”

“No. Not that I’m aware of.”

“You were here all night? You didn’t run out to the library or to grab a pizza?”

“I said I was here all night.” Isa’s voice grew irritable.

“Why didn’t you answer Zoe’s texts Monday night?”

“My phone battery was dead.” The words were flat, as practiced as a child reading a memorized line in the school play. “I’m terrible about keeping it charged.”

Louisa could hear Conor in her mind. Lame. Charging a cell phone was as second nature to twentysomethings as brushing their teeth.

“I feel terrible about it. If I had picked her up . . .” Isa’s eyes watered. She brushed at the corner of one.

Real or fake tears? Louisa scanned the apartment. No boxes of tissues. No tissues in the trash can. Isa’s eyes didn’t show any signs of previous crying. Louisa just couldn’t shake the sense that something wasn’t right.

Isa returned the two-liter soda bottle to the refrigerator. “I fell asleep around eleven.”

“How long had she been dating Heath?” Louisa’s gaze swept the cluttered surfaces. “She said he was new, but how new?”

“Maybe a few weeks?” Isa opened a white box emblazoned with the pink-and-orange Dunkin’ Donuts logo. She held it out to Louisa. “Doughnut?”

“I’m fine. Thank you.”

“When she didn’t come home, I thought maybe she spent the night at Heath’s.”