“Meg? Meg Devlin?” I said.

“Yes,” came the reply. “Who is this?”

“Merle Corey.”

“Who?”

“Merle Corey. We spent an interesting night together some time back —”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “There must be some mistake.”

“If you can’t talk freely now I can call whenever you say. Or you can call me.”

“I don’t know you,” she said, and she hung up.

I stared at the receiver. If her husband were present I’d assumed she’d play it a bit cagey but would at least give some indication that she knew me and would talk another time. I had held off on getting in touch with Random because I’d a feeling he’d summon me back to Amber immediately, and I’d wanted to talk to Meg first. I certainly couldn’t spare the time to go and visit her. I could not understand her response, but for now at least I was stuck with it. So I tried the only other thing that occurred to me. I got hold of Information again and obtained the number for Bill’s next-door neighbors, the Hansens.

It was answered on the third ring — a woman’s voice I recognized as Mrs. Hansen’s. I had met her in the past, though I had not seen her on my most recent trip to the area.

“Mrs. Hansen,” I began. “It’s Merle Corey.”

“Oh, Merle… You were just up here a while ago, weren’t you?”

“Yes. Couldn’t stay long, though. But I did finally get to meet George. Had several long talks with him. In fact, I’d like to speak with him right now if he’s handy.”

The silence ran several beats too long before she responded.

“George… Well, George is over at the hospital just now, Merle. Is it something you could tell me?”

“Oh, it’s not urgent,” I said. “What happened to George?”