"She got part-time secretarial help from the main pool, ran all her own studies, analyzed her own data. That was also irksome. I'm sure she could've applied for ancillary funding, brought more money into the department, but she always wanted to work by herself. I suppose I should be grateful. She took care of herself, never bothered me for anything. The last thing I need is someone who requires hand-holding. Still... I suppose I should've paid more attention."

"A loner," I said.

"But all of us are. In my group. I didn't think I'd been hiring antisocial types, but perhaps on some level..." Wide smile. "Did you know I started as an analyst?"

"Really."

"You bet, classical Freudian, couch and all. This"-he touched the beard-"used to be a very analytic goatee. I attended the institute right after residency, got halfway through-hundreds of hours cultivating the proper 'hmm'- before I realized it wasn't for me. Wasn't for anyone, in my estimation, except possibly Woody Alien. And look at the shape he's in. I quit, enrolled in the biochem Ph.D. program at USC. I'm sure those choices mean something psychodynam-ically, but I'd rather not waste time trying to figure out what. Claire seemed to me the same way-scientific, focused on reality, self-possessed. Still, she must have been terribly unhappy here."

"Why do you say that?"

"Leaving for a place like that. Have you been there?"

"Yesterday."

"What's it like?"

"Highly structured. Lots of high-dose medication."

"Brave new world," he said. "I can't see why Claire would have wanted that."

"Maybe she craved clinical work."

"Nonsense," he said sharply. Then he smiled apologetically. "What I mean is, she could've had all the clinical work she wanted right here. No, I must have missed something."

"Could I talk to the other fellows?" I said.

"Why not? Walt Yee didn't know her, of course, and I don't believe Shashi Lakshman did, either-he's the pharmacologist, has his own lab in a separate building. But maybe she interfaced with the M.D.'s-Mary Hertzlinger and Andy Vel-man. Let me call Shashi first."

A few seconds on the phone confirmed that Dr. Lakshman had never met Claire. We took the stairs down to a second-floor lab and found Doctors Hertzlinger and Velman typing at personal computers.

Both psychiatric fellows were in their thirties and had on white coats. Mary Hertzlinger wore a short brown dress under hers. She was thin, with cropped platinum-blond hair, ivory skin, well-formed but chapped lips. Andrew Velman's coat was buttoned up high, revealing a black shirt collar and the tight knot of a lemon-yellow tie. He was short, broad, with black wavy hair, a gold stud hi his left ear.

I asked them about Claire.