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through a pile of junk mail. Aside from some nice towels on sale in the Martha Stewart line, there wasn’t anything of interest. A drawing of a house done in red and green crayon was taped to the refrigerator. Annie’s, I thought. The dishes were neatly stacked in over-the-counter cupboards. Glasses were spotless and lined by threes on the shelves. The refrigerator was filled with condiments but empty of food that might spoil. No milk or orange juice. No fresh vegetables or fruit.
    I drew some conclusions from the kitchen. Evelyn’s cupboard was better stocked than mine. She left quickly but still took the time to get rid of the milk. If she was a drunk or on drugs or loony tunes, she was a
responsible
drunk or druggie or loony.
    I didn’t find anything of help in the kitchen, so I moved on to the dining room and living room. I opened drawers and checked under cushions.
    “You know where I’d go if I had to hide out?” Lula said. “I’d go to Disney World. Have you ever been to Disney World? I’d especially go there if I had a problem, because everybody’s happy at Disney World.”
    “I’ve been to Disney World seven times,” Kloughn said.
    Lula and I both jumped at his voice.
    “Hey,” Lula said, “you’re supposed to be in the car.”
    “I got tired of waiting.”
    I gave Lula the evil eye.
    “I was watching,” Lula said. “I don’t know how he got past me.” She turned to Kloughn. “How’d you get in here?”
    “The back door was open. And the window was broken. You didn’t break the window, did you? You could get into big trouble for something like that. That’s breaking and entering.”
    “We found the window like that,” Lula said. “That’s how come we’re wearing gloves. We don’t want to screw up the evidence if anything’s been stolen.”
    “Good thinking,” Kloughn said, his eyes getting bright, his voice up an octave. “Do you really think stuff has been stolen? You think anybody got roughed up?”
    Lula looked at him like she’d never seen anybody that dumb before.
    “I’m checking upstairs,” I said. “You two stay down here and don’t touch anything.”
    “What are you looking for upstairs?” Kloughn wanted to know, following me up the stairs. “I bet you’re looking for clues that’ll lead you to Evelyn and Annie. You know where I’d look? I’d look—”
    I whirled around, almost knocking him off his feet. “
Down
” I said, pointing stiff-armed, shouting at him nose to nose. “Go sit on the couch and don’t get up until I tell you.”
    “Yeesh,” he said. “You don’t have to yell at me. Just tell me, okay? Boy, it must be one of those days for you, hunh?”
    I narrowed my eyes. “One of
what
days?”
    “You know.”
    “It is
not
one of those days,” I said.
    “Yeah, she’s like this on a good day,” Lula said. “You don’t want to know what she’s like on one
of those
days.”
    I left Lula and Kloughn downstairs, and I poked through the bedrooms on my own.
    There were still clothes hanging in the closets and folded in dresser drawers. Evelyn must have only taken essentials. Either her disappearance was temporary or else she was in a rush to leave. Maybe both.
    As far as I could tell there was no sign of Steven. Evelyn had sanitized the house of him. There were no leftover men’s toiletries in the bathroom, no forgotten men’s belts lurking in the closet, no family photo in a silver frame. I’d done a similar house cleaning when I’d divorced Dickie. Still, for months after our breakup I’d get bushwhacked by an overlooked item . . . a man’s sock that had dropped behind the washing machine, a set of car keys that had gotten kicked under the couch and been given up for lost.
    The medicine chest contained the usual . . . a bottle of Tylenol, a bottle of kids’ cough syrup, dental floss, nail scissors, mouthwash, box of Band-Aids, talcum powder. No uppers or downers. No hallucinogens. No happy pills. Also, conspicuously missing was