I hung up and packed my bag. I’d had a sneaking suspicion that I was losing my mind over the past few days. Jesse’s odd behavior made me realize I wasn’t the only one. I hugged Padma and promised to call her. Then I went out, past the guards, and to the street.

The temperature had risen, but the trade-off was gray sky and drizzle. I walked to Second, expecting to see the bright baby blue of Ginger, Jesse’s beloved Camaro. Instead, a burgundy sedan pulled up beside me and the passenger window slid down. I stared at Detective Renfrew, startled about what she was doing there on a Saturday morning. “Good morning, heartache, what’s new?” she said, quoting a song of Billie Holliday’s. “Hop in.”

“How did you know I would be here?” I asked as I got into her car.

She gave me a sardonic smile and ignored the question. “Hold on.” She flicked a switch on the dashboard. On went the light and siren, and we peeled down Second Avenue, cutting through the crosstown traffic at intersections. A few blocks down, she turned it off but kept driving. “Always have an ace in the hole,” she said.

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”

She turned onto Fifty-Ninth Street, heading for the Queensboro Bridge. “Word came down from on high this morning. That woman from your sister’s place? Her death’s being ruled accidental. Your sister’s disappearance is going to the bottom of the missing persons caseload.”

“But Claudia’s still missing, and that woman didn’t die accidentally.”

“Thought you’d say something like that,” Renfrew answered. “Predictable.” She shook her head. “Missing persons just had two huge cases fall into their lap, both involving kids. Nothing else matters till they find them, so don’t get worked up about that part. The death? You can make a case for accidental, based on the lack of forced entry to the apartment and the fact the woman didn’t have any wounds, defensive or otherwise. Remember, she died because her heart gave out. Nobody choked her or shot her or beat on her.”

“But it’s obvious that something very wrong was going on. You know that.”