Fine, I guess, Claire said. Look, I gotta go. Thanks for writing that recommendation letter . No big deal . Very big deal. The kids ranked four and seven in her class both applied and didn't get in. You were the difference . I doubt it. Aimee's a great candidate . Maybe, but thanks anyway . There was a grumbling noise in the background. Sounded like Erik . I n his mind, there was Aimee's voice again: Things aren't so great with them right now. Myron was trying to think of something else to say, a follow-up question maybe, when Claire hung up the phone . Loren Muse had landed a fresh homicide case double homicide, actually, two men shot outside a nightclub in East Orange. Rumor was that the killings were a hit carried out by John The Ghost Asselta, a notorious hitman who'd actually been born and raised in the area. Asselta had been quiet for the past few years. If he was back, they were about to be very busy . Loren was reviewing the ballistics report when her private line rang. She picked up and said, Muse . Guess who?She smiled. Lance Banner, you old dog. Is that you?It is . Banner was a police officer in Livingston, New Jersey, the suburb where they'd both grown up . To what do I owe the pleasure?You still investigating Katie Rochester's disappearance?Not really, she said . Why not?For one thing, there's no evidence of violence. For another, Katie Rochester is over eighteen . Just barely . I n the eyes of the law, eighteen might as well be eighty. So officially we don't even have an investigation going on . A nd unofficially?I met with a doctor named Edna Skylar. She recounted Edna's story, using almost the same words she'd used when she'd told her boss, county prosecutor Ed Steinberg. Steinberg had sat there for a long while before predictably concluding: We don't have the resources to go after such a maybe . When she finished, Banner asked, How did you get the case in the first place?Like I said, there was no case, really. She's of age, no signs of violence, you know the drill. So no one was assigned. Jurisdiction is questionable anyway. But the father, Dominick, he made a lot of noise with the press, you probably saw it, and he knew someone who knows someone, and that led to Steinberg.... A nd that led to you . Right. The key word being led. As in past tense . Lance Banner asked, Do you have ten minutes to spare?Did you hear about that double homicide in East Orange?I did . I 'm the lead . A s in the present tense of led?You got it . I figured that, Banner said. It's why I'm only asking for ten minutes . I mportant? she asked . Let's just say he stopped, thinking of the word very odd . A nd it involves Katie Rochester's disappearance?Ten minutes max, Loren.