“No, you don’t,” he said right back. “If you did, you’d know she’s not a comp major. She’s a piano major. I’m a lyric baritone, and she’s accompanied me a number of times.”

Nice guy. “So you haven’t seen her?”

“Not in days.” He looked at the clipboard, flipping pages. “And she hasn’t used any of the practice rooms in the last few days either.”

This dead end led me off the campus and into an aimless walk along Oxford Street. I wished I’d known other acquaintances of Gail’s, but except for Toby Ackland, the only other person I’d met who knew Gail was Adeline Head, and I was just as confused about her as I now was about Gail’s composing career.

I wondered if it would cause any harm to try calling Ada at her old number. If that had been her at RC Copying, her elopement might have been stymied and she could have gone contritely back to her landlady. I had no idea how close she and Gail had been; perhaps they were nothing more than friendly musical rivals. But Ada might know some other friends of Gail’s, or some other phone numbers at which Gail might be reached.

Surely I would learn something. I had nothing to lose but a nickel.

I spotted a Ben Franklin five-and-dime and found a phone booth near the lunch counter. Within the booth there were phone books for Oakland and for San Francisco. I first looked for “Ackland” but could find no listing for a “Toby” or “T” in either volume. He probably lived in a frat house. I then looked up Adeline Head in the San Francisco directory. There she was, on Larkin, a Hemlock exchange. I repeated the number in my head as I put a nickel into the appropriate slot, heard the dial tone, and dialed the number. But I didn’t get Adeline.

“Please deposit an additional five cents for the first five minutes,” said an operator.

I fumbled in my pocket. Damn. I was out of change. But wait, she had it wrong. “Listen, Operator, I’m quite certain this is a five-cent call.”

“I’m sorry, sir, but you are calling from a Berkeley exchange. All calls to the San Francisco zone are ten cents for the first five minutes and an additional five cents for each three minutes after that. Please deposit an additional five cents for the first five minutes.”

“Operator, I was with my friend just the other day, and she placed a call to this same number and she only had a nickel, I’m sure of it. There must be some mistake, unless the rates went up.”

She said they hadn’t. I suddenly realized the operator had it right.

It was Gail who’d done something wrong.