“I hope Jesse’s home. He hates to miss anything,” I said as the elevator doors opened on the floor. But even while I was unlocking the door, I knew my friend wasn’t there. The apartment was quiet and dark. I dropped my coat over the back of the sofa and Bruxton shrugged his off and carefully set it beside mine. “Can I get you something to drink? Jesse’s got a cache of sauvignon blanc from Chile, but there’s also a great malbec from Argentina if you’d rather have red.”

“Thanks, but I don’t drink.”

“Ever?”

“I’m an alcoholic,” Bruxton said. “I’m not into the twelve-step crap, but I know what I need to steer clear of.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to pry.” I’d known plenty of alcoholics, but none who admitted to it with such matter-of-fact directness. “Would you like a soda? Juice? Or water?” I blurted out, stewardess-like. He asked for water, and I went into the kitchen and poured two glasses from the pitcher in the fridge. When I came back to the living room, Bruxton’s taut jawbone was already working furiously on the nicotine gum.

“What else have you found out?” I asked.

“We went over the security tape from the apartment building, but there are so many people going in and out on New Year’s Eve, most of them wearing hats or hoods or big coats. Sarah Lyons ID’ed a couple different women who might’ve been the woman she saw on the stairs, but they’re wrapped up like mummies. Unfortunately, it was a hell of a cold night.” He paused for a minute. “Norah and I talked to your sister’s doctors, managed to get ahold of some of her friends. We already had the phone LUDs, bank records, credit. We were able to put together something of your sister’s life in the past year. It looks like she pulled away from her life last spring. A lot of her friends haven’t seen her in a while.”

“Where did she go?”

“We know Claudia Moore, the real one, went to a rehab center in western Massachusetts. Place called Idylhaven,” said Bruxton. Score one for Melissa, I thought. “Then she checked herself out of rehab but didn’t go home. She just vanishes. For weeks, there’s nothing. She didn’t spend any money. Didn’t call anyone. She was totally off the grid.”