I froze in place. The Rolodex was flanked by framed pictures, all with their backs to me. Did he have children? Maybe I could appeal to his sense of decency… And then I saw what was on his wall. There was an enormous photograph of a blond, plump Trina sitting on Herrold’s lap, one freckled arm slithering around his neck. Across from it was another picture, this one just a portrait of Trina. She was squeezed into a black, corset-like dress that her breasts popped over top of while she dangled a red stiletto pump off one foot. She was more attractive than I’d realized, but she looked hard and cheap. Claudia was tough, but also dreamy and romantic.

“The police are outside, Curtis. They’re waiting for you. They know what you did and you’re not getting out of here.”

“Shut up,” he said. “This is all your sister’s fault.”

It took him three tries to dial the phone, because he kept glaring at me. He put it on speakerphone and I heard it ring, and then a woman’s voice, as breathy as a Marilyn Monroe impersonator’s. “You know the deal, don’t you? So leave a message.”

“Trina?” Herrold said, after the beep. “Trina, dammit, where are you? Why aren’t you answering your phone? Trina, baby, I’ve been waiting for you to call me. Where have you gone now?”

“She’s never going to call you back. She’s dead.”

Herrold dropped the receiver. “What… what did you say?”

“Trina Greene is dead. She died in Claudia’s apartment.”

“No!” Herrold cried. “No, no, no, no. My poor baby.” His sweaty hand was shaking so much I was terrified the gun would go off.

“She died on New Year’s Eve,” I said coldly. “If you didn’t hear from her before then, it’s because she didn’t want to talk to you.”

“Trina wouldn’t do that. We’re getting married. I gave her a diamond from Tiffany’s.”

“Let me guess: a two-carat princess-cut solitaire?” Herrold nodded dumbly. “Trina stuck that in the back of a drawer. She was showing off a much bigger, much nicer diamond ring to everyone in New York.”

“She loves me,” Herrold whispered in a warbling voice. “Something’s wrong with her cell phone, that’s all.”

“Did you hear what I just said? Trina has been impersonating Claudia for months. Now she’s dead. Where is my sister?”

“I don’t have to talk to you.”

“Maybe not, but you’ll talk to the police.”

“The police? They know?”

“What did you think, I just wandered in here alone?” I wondered if I could sprint down the hallway and out of the house without him getting off a shot. My luck wasn’t that good. “I came in here to get the truth, before they arrest you.”