I made myself acknowledge what I was seeing and smelling-the deadness of her-and then I let myself snap back up straight and move a step away from the car. I stood gasping until I felt steadier, thinking of what I should do next.

Another alien color, not natural to these greening woods, caught the corner of my eye and I began to look around me, trying not to move. In fact, I was hardly breathing in my effort to make no imprint on the scene around me.

The biggest patch of color was a cream-colored blouse tossed over a thorny vine that had woven itself between two trees. A few feet from that was a black skirt, cut narrow and short. It was on the ground, and it was as crumpled as the blouse. A pair of pantyhose and-what was that? I leaned over to see more clearly, making an effort to satisfy my curiosity without moving my feet. Deedra’s pearls. The pantyhose and pearls were festooned over a low branch. I was missing the bra, which I eventually located hanging from a bush, and the shoes, which had been thrown separately some feet farther down the trail. Black leather pumps. That left the purse. I almost leaned over again to see if it was in the car, but instead I replayed the scene in my mind. The purse wasn’t in the front seat of Deedra’s car; she would’ve been carrying the little black leather shoulder-strap bag she usually used with the pumps. You don’t work for someone as long as I’d worked for Deedra without knowing her clothes and her habits.

So I wouldn’t have to decide what to do about this for a few more seconds, I looked hard for the purse, but I didn’t spot it. Either it had been tossed farther than her clothes, or the person in the woods with her had taken it with him.