The desk phone rang twice before Mark lifted the receiver.

He listened for thirty seconds without a word, his eyes on Claire’s master chart.

“Forensics just wrapped up with the wall cavity behind the closet,” Mark said, putting the phone down.

At three thirty, down in the police forensics bay, technician Ray Miller swung an overhead fluorescent lamp across the stainless steel inspection bench.

Officer Daniel Harris shifted his weight onto his back heel, watching Ray turn a gray plastic junction box over in his gloved hands.

The box had been cut right out of the drywall behind the hall baseboard at 1427 Maplewood Drive under the search warrant.