She was a psychologist with a corner office that overlooked the fine arts building and lush live oak trees. I had always been fascinated by the personality behind offices. Where she worked was soothing and unprovocative but shrewd in its arrangement of chairs that suited very different personalities. There was a papasan chair for the patient who wanted to curl up on deep cushions and be open for help, and a cane-back rocker and a stiff love seat. The color scheme was gentle green, with paintings of sailboats on the walls, and elephant ear in terra cotta pots.

“Good afternoon,” Dr. Booth said to us with a smile as she invited us in. “I’m very glad to see you.”

“And I’m very glad to see you,” I replied.

I helped myself to the rocking chair, while Ginny perched on the love seat. Marino looked around with self-conscious eyes and eased his way into the papasan, doing what he could not to be swallowed by it. Dr. Booth sat in her office chair, her back to her perfectly clean desk that had nothing on it but a can of Diet Pepsi. Lucy stood by the door.

“I’ve been hoping that someone would come see me,” Dr. Booth began, as if she had called this meeting. “But I honestly didn’t know who to contact or even if I should.”

She gave each of us her bright gray eyes.

“Claire was very special—and I know that’s what everyone says about the dead,” she said.

“Not everyone,” Marino cynically retorted.

Dr. Booth smiled sadly. “I’m just saying that I have counseled many students here over the years, and Claire deeply touched my heart and I had high hopes for her. I was devastated by news of her death.”

She paused, staring out the window.

“I saw her last about two weeks prior to her death, and I’ve tried to think of anything I could that might hold an answer as to what might have happened.”

“When you say you saw her,” I said, “do you mean in here? For a session?”

She nodded. “We met for an hour.”

Lucy was getting increasingly restless.

“Before you get into that,” I said, “could you give us as much of her background as possible?”

“Absolutely. And by the way, I have dates and times for her appointments, if you need all that. I’d been seeing her on and off for three years.”

“Off and on?” Marino asked as he sat forward in the deep seat and starting sliding back into its deep cushions again.