It was clear from the state of the apartment that the occupant was not a natural homemaker. It was a tip, by anyone’s standards. Jo felt a pang of protectiveness, but also one of recognition. Her own place might have been bigger, but it had looked similar before Amy moved in, with pictures still leaning on the wall where she’d not had time or inclination to hang them, washing drying on the radiators, and piles of unopened post. It didn’t seem right, somehow, that Ruby’s place was so untidy, so uncared for. The Ruby that lived in Harper’s head was the sort of person who liked order and neatness; her bedroom at home had always been pristine. Jo had pegged her as a neat freak. Another thing she’d been wrong about, by the looks of it.

What furniture there was in Ruby’s place was well-worn, secondhand stuff: a small TV on a low table, a carton of tatty books. The bed, which had been made up with cotton sheets that showed their age, stood out as the only tidy corner of the room. By the door there was a tangle of dirty washing spilling from a plastic laundry sack. She picked up the familiar washed-out gray T-shirt featuring “Last Splash” by The Breeders, that Ruby used to sleep in. She’d “borrowed” it from Joanna probably fifteen years previously, when it was already a relic. Jo pressed the fabric briefly to her face. Her throat swelled up and she choked back tears. Ruby had kept this old thing for all this time; it must have meant something. But now it was screwed up in a dirty ball in this unloved apartment, and Ruby was missing.

“What’s that?” asked Atkinson.

“Nothing,” said Jo. “Just stuff. Doesn’t matter.”

She tossed the shirt back with the rest of the washing. Atkinson was giving her that look again. It occurred to her that it wasn’t usual to sniff things during a search. She ignored him.

Joanna wondered about practicalities: Who had helped Ruby get the bed up here? Gregor? Someone else entirely? Why hadn’t she bought nicer stuff, or more of it—she earned good enough money at the Music Service, or she had been when Jo last saw her. Ruby loved that job. Jo remembered her saying she’d been lucky to snag it without a teaching degree, that they’d taken her on audition and recommendation. It was only part-time, though, and when she lived with Marianne, Ruby would also teach from home to make up the shortfall. How was Ruby supplementing her income now? No student would want to come up here, to this.