“We’ve been neighbors for almost five years. Not that we did a whole lot together, but I certainly knew her.”

“I’m wondering if you might have any recent photographs of her, or know someone who might?”

“I might have something.”

“I have to make sure of the identification,” I then said, although my motive was other than that.

I wanted to see for myself what Shephard had looked like in life.

“And if there’s anything else you can tell me about her, I would appreciate it,” I went on. “For example, does she have family here?”

“Oh no,” Harvey said, staring at her neighbor’s ruined house. “She was from all over. Her father was military, you know, and I think he and her mom live somewhere in North Carolina. Kellie was very worldly from having moved around so much. I used to tell her I wished I could be as strong and smart as her. She didn’t take crap off anyone, let me tell you. One time there was a snake on my deck, and I called her, all hysterical. She came on and chased it in the yard and killed it with a shovel. I guess she had to get that way because the men just wouldn’t leave her alone. I always told her she could be a movie star, and she would say, But Sandra, I can’t act. And I would say, But neither can most of them!”

“She was pretty streetwise, then,” I said.

“You bet. That’s why she had that burglar alarm put in. Feisty and streetwise, that’s Kellie. If you want to come in with me, I’ll see what I can do about pictures.”

“If you don’t mind,” I said. “That’s very nice of you.”

We cut through a hedge and I followed her up steps into her big, bright kitchen. It was apparent that Harvey liked to cook, based on a well-stocked pantry and every conceivable appliance. Cookware hung from hooks in the ceiling, and whatever was simmering on the stove smelled rich with beef and onions, perhaps a stroganoff or stew.

“If you want to sit right over there by the window, I’ll go get what I’ve got from the den,” she said.

I took a seat at the breakfast table and looked out the window at Kellie Shephard’s house. I could see people passing behind broken windows, and someone had set up lights because the sun was low and smoldering. I wondered how often her neighbor had watched her come and go.

Certainly, Harvey was curious about the life of a woman exotic enough to be a movie star, and I wondered if someone could have stalked Shephard without her neighbor noticing a strange car or person in the area. But I had to be careful what I asked, because it was not publicly known that Shephard had died a violent death.