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“Down the hall, just past the guest room,” Pamela said with a finger pointed in the direction they’d just come from.

Jack gave a grateful smile and hurried off to do his business, which just now was snooping, though in truth he actually could use a bathroom. He so often could these days, which made him very grateful for the stash of Depends in Margaret’s upstairs bathroom.

Back in the primary bedroom, Jack carefully eased open the drawers of the teal bedside tables, finding nothing more than reading glasses and stacks of old Time magazines. A small family of dust bunnies greeted him from under the bed, and the dressers boasted only socks, underwear, and an unexpected hot pink lace bra.

The guest room yielded little more than a closet of empty hangers. Eventually Jack made his way to the bathroom he was meant to visit in the first place, finding hemorrhoid ointment and contact lenses in the medicine cabinet but otherwise nothing of note. With a pang of mild defeat, Jack allowed himself a commiseration pee before returning to the living room.

Greer caught his eye as soon as he walked in, and Jack tossed her a subtle headshake in answer to the question she didn’t need to ask.

“Well, it’s been lovely chatting with you,” Greer said to Pamela as she rose. “You’ve been so kind to let us have a little tour of your beautiful home.”

“Of course, of course, anytime,” Pamela enthused, flashing a warm smile over her guests. She and the little white dogs walked Jack and Greer to the door, where she offered each a hug, nearly smooshing the dogs, who were back under either arm.

As they made their way back to Margaret’s car, Jack recounted to Greer the nothing he’d found in Pamela’s apartment.

“So it wasn’t her,” Greer said.

“I doubt it,” said Jack. “She may have been the last one down in the Room of Records, but all the directors knew where to find the list, and they’d all have access. It could’ve been any of them.”

“So we rule her out and look into the other ones?”

“That’s what I’m thinking.”

“It’s weird, right?”

Jack tilted his head up at her.

“It’s just, we’re usually the ones who have people trying to track us down for theft. I’m not used to being on this side of things.”

“No, I feel you,” said Jack. “But I seem to be going through a big trying-new-things phase at the moment.” He gestured to Margaret’s body with a wave of his hand.

For a brief second he thought he saw a crack of laughter flash behind Greer’s eyes before her trademark steely determination smothered it.

“Who’s next?”

24

Next on the spreadsheet was the answer to the “something with an F” Brenda had mentioned a few mornings ago. One Mr. Joaquín Flores primarily worked out of the branch one town over, but also did the hiring for Jack’s office. In fact, there was a good chance he’d given Margaret the job Jack had now, which meant it was very possible the two knew, or at least had met, each other.

Jack tossed around ways to use this to his advantage as Eli fed him information from his semilegal web searches. He also tossed around a tennis ball as he lay on his back across the leather couch in the living room, the ball soaring to the second-floor balcony before returning to Jack’s palm. Dale sat on the ottoman in the middle of the room, watching the ball on its exploration of gravity like a cat watching a laser.

“Divorced, two kids,” Eli continued. “Boys. Ages fifteen and twelve.”

“Good ages,” Jack said. In many ways he was pretty sure he was still somewhere in that general bracket himself.

“Anything in there you can use?” Greer asked from the kitchen island, where she sat perched beside her brother.

“I’m working on it,” said Jack. Working on it. Working. Wait. He sat up, the airborne ball forgotten just long enough to come down directly into his lap. For the first time since his death, Jack found himself grateful for the new arrangement of body parts. “What time does Carter get off work?”

“He said he’d be here by seven,” said Greer.

Jack checked his watch. It was just past six-thirty.

“What is it? What’s the plan?” Dale asked.

“This guy’s in charge of hiring, right?”

Eli nodded.