“Come see me, then I’ll tell you.”

“Give me a name.”

“I’ll give you a name. When I get to know you better. I give all my boyfriends special names. So when am I going to meet you?”

Gurney said nothing.

“You still there?” Her tone was wandering fluidly back and forth between clarity and intoxication.

“I’m here.”

“Ah. That’s the problem. You need to come here.”

“Alyssa … you either know something useful, or you don’t. You’re either going to tell me what it is, or you’re not. Up to you. Decide now.”

“I know everything.”

“Okay. Tell me about it.”

“No way. Phone might be tapped. Such a scary world we live in. They tap everything. Tippety, tippety, tap. But you’re a detective, so you know all that. Bet you even know where I live.”

Gurney said nothing.

“Bet you know where I live, right?”

Again, he said nothing.

“Yeah, I bet you do.”

“Alyssa? Listen to me. If you want to tell—”

She interrupted with an exaggerated, slurry seductiveness that might have been comical in other circumstances. “So … I’ll be here all night. And all day tomorrow. Come as soon as you can. Please. I’ll be waiting for you. Waiting just for you.”

The connection was broken.

Gurney laid his phone down and looked at Madeleine. She was studying a fork she was about to put in the silverware drawer. She frowned, turned on the water in the sink, and began scrubbing it. Then she rinsed it, dried it, examined it again, seemed satisfied, and placed it in the drawer.

“I think you were right,” said Gurney.

The frown came back, but now it was directed at him. “About what?”

“About the young woman being stoned or crazy.”

She smiled humorlessly. “What does she want?”

“Good question.”

“What does she say she wants?”

“To see me. To tell me who killed her father.”

“Carl Spalter?”

“Yes.”

“Are you going to see her?”

“Maybe.” He paused, thinking about it. “Probably.”

“Where?”

“Where she’s living. The family house on Venus Lake. Out by Long Falls.”

“Venus as in the goddess of love?”

“I guess.”

“And venereal disease?”

“I suppose.”

“Nice name for a lake.” She paused. “You said ‘the family house.’ Her father’s dead and her stepmother’s in prison. Who else is in the family?”

“As far as I know, no one. Alyssa’s the only child.”

“Quite a child. You’re going there alone?”

“Yes and no.”

She looked at him curiously.

“Maybe with some simple electronic backup.”

“You mean you’re going to be wired?”

“Not like on television, with a van full of electronics geeks and satellite equipment sitting around the corner. I’m thinking a low-tech substitute. Are you going to be home tomorrow or at the clinic?”

“I’m working in the afternoon. I should be here most of the morning. Why?”