“And her books to be rebound, and her pictures to be framed, and-”

“I get the point, Bern. It was a dumb idea.”

“All she left,” I said, “is a little Scotch tape residue on the wall, where the map was hanging. And her fingerprints, maybe, but for all I know she wiped the place down before she took off.”

“Why would she do that?”

“I don’t know. I’ll ask you one. Why would she disappear like that?”

“I don’t know, Bern. Was it something you said?”

“Very funny.”

“You know what I mean. What was she like afterward?”

“Sad. But she said lovemaking always makes her sad.”

“Right away? I don’t get sad until the next morning, when I wake up and find out who I went home with.” She shuddered at a memory and chased it with a sip of Scotch. “If it always makes her sad,” she said, “maybe that explains why it took her two weeks to get around to it. But I still don’t get the disappearing act.”

“Neither do I.”

“Do you think she could have been abducted?”

“I thought of that. But if you were going to kidnap her, why pack up all her things?”

“That way she disappears without a trace.”

“What do you mean?”

“When’s the last day of the month, Tuesday? Wednesday whoever took her calls her landlord and tells him he can rent the place, because she’s not coming back. So he looks and everything’s gone but the furniture, and you said you thought that came with the place?”

“It didn’t look like anything she would have picked out for herself.”

“So she’s gone, bag and baggage, and he gets a new tenant in there and that’s it. Gone without a trace.”

“Why not just leave her stuff? Then no one would even know she was missing. I wouldn’t even have a clue she’d moved out if there’d been clothes in the closet and all the other stuff where it had been last night.”

“So that means she must have left voluntarily.”

“I would think so,” I said. “And she packed everything because she wanted to keep it. Maybe she was behind in her rent or skipping out on a lease, maybe that’s why she left so abruptly, but there has to be more to it than that. Why didn’t she call me? Even if she wasn’t going to meet me at the movies, why stand me up? Why not spend a quarter and clue me in?”