She did indeed, and also had no problem with a later-than-expected return home. Thus it was that at six o’clock, I parked the bookmobile on the road shoulder in front of the farmhouse, not wanting to risk getting it stuck in the muddy mess that was the driveway. An SUV sat next to the house, near a tall set of wooden stairs that led to an upstairs door.

Julia eyed the long expanse of brown. “Minnie, my dearest ever librarian, you do realize that I did not bring the proper footgear for a trek such as this.” She pointed at her nonseasonal ballet flats.

“That’s okay,” I said, pulling on the bright red rain boots I kept in a cabinet. “You and Eddie can keep each other company.”

“Mrr,” Eddie said sleepily. He’d been snoring most of the day, which was not a Good Thing because that inevitably meant he’d be awake most of the night.

“He wakes!” Julia said, delighted, and I fled, because I was pretty sure a lengthy Shakespearean monologue was about to begin. Though I liked and appreciated the Bard and his work, Julia had a tendency to flit from play to play as it suited her, and afterward I would spend too much time trying to figure out what play and which character.

My boots and I squelched up the drive and up the stairs, which would qualify as rickety within the next year. Up at the top, I knocked and Keegan’s surprised face appeared through the winter-dirty window.

She quickly opened the door. “Minnie? What are you doing here?” Then she looked past me and laughed. “You and the bookmobile! How cool!”

I explained that we’d been in the neighborhood and that I’d stopped to see Ryan’s mom.

Keegan nodded, tucking her long hair behind her ears. “She’s gone, though. Had to go back to work, even if Ryan is still missing.”

“Do you . . .” I hesitated. At this point I’d been hoping I’d have been invited inside, but that was apparently not to be. “Do you think she’s heard from Ryan? And that was why she was okay going home?”

“Oh, wow. I never thought of that.” Keegan pinched her lower lip. “You know, that makes sense. It explains a lot.”

“How’s that?” I asked.

“The night before she left, I was down there and she was looking through Ryan’s stuff. Just to see if she could find anything that might tell us where he went. She’d asked me to help, but it felt weird, you know? Okay for his mom, but Ryan and I, we’re”—she turned a light shade of pink—“we’re friends, is all.”

Hmm, I thought.