'What?'

'What the hell are you asking him this for? I can see you're on a roll, but we already got this stuff from Jim, and it wasn't any more relevant then.'

Will was shorter than Spencer, who had to bend his head to reply. 'Will, I want to see if their story is the same. I want to catch one of them in a lie.'

'So?' Will said wearily, rubbing his eyes. 'So you catch one of them. One says one thing, one says another. You gonna go through this with Conni too, to get a third side? So what if one of them is lying? This is three-year-old shit. Who cares?'

'This is where you're wrong, Baker,' said Spencer. 'This is two-hour-old shit. A girl has been found dead, and her three best friends didn't report her missing for nine days.'

'They were away!' Will raised his voice.

Spencer also raised his voice. 'They didn't report her missing! That's all I care about, Will,' Spencer said, quieter. 'They didn't report her missing, and I'm going to find out why.'

Will groaned.

Back at the table, Spencer continued, 'Tell me something, Albert. Why didn't you go out with Kristina? Jim was seeing Conni.'

Smiling bemusedly, Albert said, 'Is that what he told you? Well, to be perfectly honest, I couldn't help that Conni liked me. She just didn't want to hurt Jim's feelings. And Kristina really liked Jim.'

'Jim said you told him there was no chemistry between you and Kristina.'

'I told him that, yes. I wanted him not to be upset about Conni and me. I also told him that Kristina really liked him.'

'He didn't tell me that.'

'No, he wouldn't.'

Will nudged Spencer under the table.

Spencer proceeded to ask Albert the questions he had already asked Jim. When was the last day and time Albert saw Kristina? Albert said he had seen her after poker on Tuesday night after midnight, to wish her a happy Thanksgiving.

'Was Conni with you?'

'No, she wasn't.'

'You're going out with Conni, right?'

'Right.'

'You often visit other girls' rooms after midnight without your girlfriend?'

Albert looked at Spencer with surprise. 'We're all very good friends. Besides, Kristina and I were on the same floor, and Conni was downstairs packing. It was no big deal. I went upstairs to pack my stuff anyway.'

Albert said he didn't know what Kristina had planned for the holidays. Conni had invited Kristina to come with them, but Kristina had refused, something about a girl at Red Leaves House and a basketball game on Saturday.

Spencer remembered Kristina's boots. 'Her boots I noticed one of them was tied, one untied. When you went to see her, you didn't happen to lace up one of her boots, did you?'

'I don't recall,' said Albert. 'I might've. She'd been hurt in an accident, and her arm wasn't working well. I might have helped her with the boots.'

'You mean the boot?'

'Do I?'

'Only one was tied.'

Albert smiled comfortably. 'Maybe one got untied.'

Spencer studied him. 'Maybe,' he said.

Will said, 'We'll have Ed Landers dust the boots, Tracy.'

Nodding, Spencer asked, 'If your fingerprints are all over the boots, would that help you remember?'

'Not really,' replied Albert. 'So much has happened, and it would have been such a little thing. I can't recall.'

'Albert,' said Spencer, 'when you came to see her, was she naked? Would you recall that?'

'Sure.'

'Was she?'

'I don't recall.'

'I see.' Spencer paused. 'Because if you were kneeling in front of a naked woman, who was not your girlfriend, and lacing up her boot, you'd recall that, wouldn't you?'

'I think I would.'

'Yes. I think you would, too. You wouldn't mind giving up a fingerprint sample, would you? Hair and blood?'

'No,' said Albert. 'Of course not.'

'Did Kristina seem normal to you?'

'Yes,' said Albert. 'Sweet.'

'Where was she headed after midnight?'

'I don't know. She didn't say.'

'Did she mention wanting to walk the bridge wall?'

'I don't recall her mentioning it, no.'

'You don't recall a lot of things about seeing Kristina.'

'It wasn't that important.' Albert smiled. 'That's why I don't recall it.'

'A few more questions.' Spencer stared pointedly at Albert.

Politely cocking his head, Albert said, 'Whatever I can do to help, I'll be glad to do.'

Prodding Albert along, Spencer asked him what happened to Kristina's dog.

'We took the dog with us,' Albert replied.

'Why?'

'It's not unusual. We also took him with us last year for Thanksgiving. Kristina sometimes likes a break from the mutt, and Conni's got a great backyard for him to run around in.'

'You took the dog.'

'Yes.'

'Well, how was Kristina supposed to know that Aristotle had gone with you?'

'I thought you said Kristina was dead?'

Spencer did not take his eyes off Albert. 'I said that, yes. But you didn't know she was dead before you left for the holidays. Did you?'

'No, of course not.' Albert's eyes never left Spencer's.

'And Conni? She also didn't know?'

'You'd have to ask Conni that,' Albert said, smiling affably.

'Back to my question. How did you tell Kristina you were taking her dog?'

'I think Constance left her a note.'

'Where?'

'I don't know. On her desk?'

'You walked into her room last Wednesday morning to take the dog and write her a note?'

'I didn't. Conni did.'

'Okay.' Spencer had a lot to talk to Conni about. 'And then you went away for four days.'

'Five, actually. We came back on Monday.'

'Right. Did you return the dog to Kristina?'

'No, she wasn't around. Jim took her.'

'Did you inquire where Kristina might be?'

'We didn't know she wasn't around. It was Jim who asked us if we'd seen her. And we hadn't.'

'You speak for both Conni and yourself?'

'Yes, because we hadn't left each other since the previous week.'

'Not even for a second?'

'No.'

'That Tuesday night, you were together every minute?'

Albert became puzzled. 'Which Tuesday night are you talking about now?'

'The Tuesday night Kristina died.'

'Oh. That Tuesday night.' He scratched his head. 'I think so. I mean, not every second.' He smiled. An open smile. 'We went to the bathroom separately.'

Spencer wasn't biting. 'Remember what time that was?'

Albert shook his head, saying pleasantly, 'I'm only joking. I mean, we weren't together every second.'

'Do you remember the seconds you were not together?'

'Am I or are we both under suspicion, Detective O'Malley?' The question was asked mildly, but Albert's eyes hardened.

'Right now, even the dog is under suspicion, Albert, so the answer to your question is yes. I have a body that's been lying in the snow for a week and a half and three friends who weren't curious where Kristina was during that time. Now I'm trying to piece together what I think was the last night of her life. Didn't you worry when you hadn't seen her?'

Will interrupted Spencer. 'I spoke to the women's basketball coach. She was very surprised that Kristina didn't play in the first game of the season on Saturday. Apparently, two of her teammates went to her room to see if everything was all right Saturday after the game. On Sunday, the coach herself called Kristina, to chew her out, as she put it. Kristina is their star player, and they lost to UPenn without her.

'On Monday, a couple of girls returned to the room, but they weren't that concerned, because they said Kristina had been known to miss practices and sometimes games. So Tuesday and Wednesday they just kept calling her room. They even called Red Leaves House.'

Spencer nodded, scribbling in his notebook. 'That's interesting, Will. Wouldn't you say, Albert? The women's basketball team is concerned enough to come to her room, to call her, to even call her place of employment. But not you guys. I'm trying to figure out why Kristina's best friends weren't concerned that she was missing for four days. Nine days actually. Why didn't anyone report her missing, at least to the undergraduate advisor, who might've notified the police?'

'That's a lot of questions,' Albert said, smiling. 'Which one would you like me to answer first?'

'All of them.'

'Kristina leads a very busy life. She's got two majors, she writes for the Dartmouth Review, she works three days a week and practices basketball five and plays two games. There are often days when we don't see each other.'

'Are there?' Spencer didn't believe it. 'Are there many days between close friends on a small campus when you don't see each other? I went to a university with eighteen thousand students, and whether I wanted to or not, I ran into people I didn't like. As far as my friends were concerned, there was always time at night for them. There was always the phone. And somehow you just made time. Two majors or not. Red Leaves or no Red Leaves. Basketball or no. Especially when there is a dog involved. Especially when a long holiday weekend just passed.'

'Look, maybe that's you,' said Albert. 'I'm just telling you that we all keep pretty busy.'

'What about that night? Tuesday night? What happened during the poker game?'

'Not much. We played, then Frankie left, then Jim, and then Kristina went up to her room, I guess. Conn and I went to pack.'

'Wait, wait,' said Will. 'Everything was pretty normal during the poker game?'

'During the poker game? Yeah, pretty normal.'