"Look," came the cheerful reply, "if you want to murder someone, go ahead. But there's no sense in putting yourself in jeopardy by carrying the mortal remains around with you. Why didn't you dump the thing out in space?" "I want it identified." "Now, for the first time in years, you make sense." "Thanks." "But look," said Stacey suddenly, "just what kind of mess have you gotten yourself into?" "I don't know. I hope to find out." "Well, it's thick." Paul blinked. "I know it. But why?" "You answer that one, it's your question." "What's new?" "Nora Phillips is missing." "Missing?" exploded Paul. "Where did she go?" "I haven't been able to find out yet." "What do you know?" demanded Paul. "Damned little. She left you on your departure day and started to drive back to town. Instead of returning to her office or going home, she turned off on Bridge Street and stopped at a mansion, Number 7111, to be exact. Drove her car into the garage as though she were expected. Hasn't come out since." "You haven't kept a man watching the place for all this time?" "No, but I've had a gent prowl the joint at least once a day for the last two weeks, and the car is still in the garage. You can see it through the windows of the door." "Didn't she come out?" "Garage is connected to the house. She could have gone into the house without breathing fresh air." "That's 7111 Bridge Street?" "Check." "How about her job?" "By careful enquiry, we've learned that she resigned. By letter." "How did you get that?" "Well, law outfits seldom take kindly to characters asking leading questions. But an advertisement appeared for a librarian and I had Milly fill it. She pored through the personnel files and found a typed letter of resignation. Terse; disappointingly uninformative." "Her apartment?" "She ran a three-room job alone. A man appeared, armed with a letter from her. He packed up her stuff and it was removed from the premises by the Howdaille Moving and Storage Company. It is currently there in storage with the bill paid in advance for six months." "Any more?" "I had Morton enquire about a rental at that address and he was told that Miss Phillips had to return home because of illness of her father. That's all we could get. Morton got that information from the landlord after expressing first a desire to live there and second asking why the previous tenant moved out. Put it so that the landlord had to show him her letter to prevent a possible tenant from thinking that there was something odious about the premises." "Then what?" "That's all. Morton considered the place--apparently--for several days after putting down a twenty-buck deposit. Gave it up and forfeited the deposit on the grounds that his wife wanted a four room place." "Um. Gone without a trace?" "Seems so. Excepting that she went into 7111 Bridge, and we've not seen her since." "How long did you watch?" "Constantly for ten days. Not a sign or a trace of her there." "But--"