“There are ten on the message board. We know there are others, but for whatever reasons, they're not into it.”

“Maybe you could tell me about the ones who are,” suggested Emme.

“There's Ali-she's eighteen. She lives in Pittsburgh. She's going to college at Bryn Mawr next year, so I'm going to apply there, too, when I'm a senior. We thought it would be fun to go to the same school and see each other more often.”

Emme took a small notebook from her bag. “I have to write this down. I'll never remember everyone.”

“I thought you just wanted to know about Belle.” Hayley frowned.

“I do want to know about Belle. But I need to know the people she cared about, if I'm going to be able to understand where she might have gone.”

“Hayley, you don't think she would have gone to stay with one of the other kids, do you?” Nick asked as if the thought had just occurred to him.

Hayley shook her head. “Uh-uh. Someone would have said.”

“So we have you, Belle, Ava and Ali-who are the others?” Emme tapped her pencil on the tabletop.

“There's Henry-he's twenty-two and he lives in Connecticut. He just graduated from college. Lori is his sister-they're from the same donor and the same mother so they're, like, full siblings. She's twenty and goes to Yale. Jessie-she's nineteen-she used to live in Florida but last year her dad moved them to France. She used to be on the board a lot, but now, not so much.” She thought that over for a moment before amending, “Not ever anymore. Wayne and Will, they live in North Carolina. They're seventeen and they're twins. No one's met them except for Belle.”

“When did Belle meet them?” Nick asked.

“She drove down to meet them one time last year. She said they're both really sweet guys but their mom doesn't want any part of the donor-sib thing, so they don't get to come to any of the get-togethers.”

“Why would Belle drive all the way down there just to meet them?” Emme wondered aloud.

“Because they never got to meet anyone and they were both feeling left out, I guess.” Hayley shrugged. “Belle didn't make a big deal out of it, she just went. The rest of us probably wouldn't have even known if the guys hadn't posted a picture of the three of them on the board. That was Belle, though. She'd do something nice but never talk about it.”

“So that makes nine, if I counted correctly,” Nick said.

“There's Justin, he's twenty-one and lives in Virginia. He's in college so we don't hear from him very often.”

“Where does he go to school?” Emme looked up from her notes.

“I don't know. He transferred someplace but didn't say where. He's pretty much dropped out.”

She rested an elbow on the table and planted her chin in the palm of one hand and looked wistful. “That happens sometimes. People drop out, they drop in, they drop out again, depending on what's going on in their lives. They get busy.”

She smiled ruefully and added, “Sometimes they get grounded. That's sort of what we thought about Belle, that something was going on and she didn't have time for us for a while. We-me and Ava and Ali-figured she'd be back when it suited her.”

“So it's really not unusual to not hear from someone on the list for a while.” Nick said. “But you wouldn't have thought it odd that someone dropped out for several months?”

“No.” Hayley shook her head. “Sometimes you just get overwhelmed with work. Plus, Belle said she was getting really busy with sorority rush coming up. We all thought she'd be back at the end of the school year.”

“Have you met, face-to-face, with everyone on the board?”

“No. Just Ali, Ava, Henry, Lori, and Belle. We've gotten together a few times. Well, Ava only once, ′cause she's in grad school and is real busy.”

“How about last January?” Nick asked.

Hayley turned to Emme. “That's the day you said she had on her calendar? The day she disappeared?”

“Yes. Did you get together that day?”

“We met in Philadelphia, me, Ali-she was in the area to visit Bryn Mawr-Belle, Henry, and Lori. I told my parents I had to go to the Philadelphia Art Museum for a school project, and that's where we all met. We went through the museum together and then we had lunch there. It was so much fun.” Hayley rested her elbow on the scarred tabletop, her fingers absently tracing a heart that someone had carved long ago, the inscription AS & MR still visible. Emme noticed the entire top of the table was one mass of carvings, as if people had been leaving their mark for generations.

“Did anything unusual happen?” Nick asked.

Emme kicked him under the table. My job.

He sat back against the seat. I got the message. She's all yours.

“I can't think of anything,” Hayley told him.

Emme sat back to permit the waitress to serve their pancakes. The aroma reminded her that she hadn't eaten since six thirty that morning. By the way Nick was eyeing his plate, she suspected that he'd had an early breakfast as well.

“Anyone following you? Or maybe paying too much attention to your group, or to Belle?” Emme waited for Hayley to finish with the syrup.

“No.” Hayley shook her head, then a moment later, her eyes widened slightly. “Oh. Well, there was this guy in the restaurant when we went downstairs to have lunch who was kind of flirting with her.”

“What did he look like?”

“Tall, kind of thin. Real, real light blond hair.” Hayley shrugged. “I didn't pay much attention to him. I just remember that much because she sat across the table from me, and Henry said something like, ‘Hey, Belle, your boyfriend's back,’ and I turned around and saw him sit down at a table behind us.”

“What did he mean, he's back? Had he been hanging around her, following her?”

“I don't know. I hadn't noticed if he did.” She bit her bottom lip. “I guess I should have been more observant. I should have noticed-”

“No, no,” Emme assured her. “It's probably nothing. But just for the record, after lunch, where did you go? Did you go back to the exhibits?”

“Lori, Henry, and I went upstairs to the second floor, because he wanted to see the arms and armor display. He's all into that Knights of the Round Table thing. Ali and Belle wanted to look at the photography exhibit on the ground floor. We all met up later outside, on the front steps. Then everyone sort of went their own way.”

“How did everyone travel that day, do you know?” Emme continued to make notes.

“Lori, Henry, and I all came in by train, so we shared a cab back to Thirtieth Street Station. My train was already there, so I left as soon as we got there. Ali and Belle both had cars.”

“Do you know where Ali and Belle parked?”

“Ali got to park in the museum parking lot because she was early, but Belle was parked on some street somewhere.” Hayley nodded. “I remember that because Ali said she'd drive Belle to her car but Belle said it was okay, she'd walk, ′cause it was such a nice day.”

“Have you heard from Belle since the day at the museum, Hayley?”

Hayley stared into space, as if trying to recall.

“Maybe… but I'm not really sure. Maybe I did… but maybe not. I don't know when I last heard from her. I didn't really pay attention.” She shook her head. “I… I don't remember. But you said that was the day she disappeared, right?”

Emme nodded.

“So whatever happened to her, it must have happened to her there, right?” Horrified, Hayley looked up at Emme. “Something bad happened to her right there, that day, and none of us even knew.”

“There's no way you could have known.” Emme put her arm around Hayley in an attempt to comfort her. “And there's no way to prove that whatever happened, happened there and then. Something could have happened on her way back to school, or once she got there.”

“Or someone could have kidnapped her after she left us!” she sobbed softly.

“Hayley, I'd like to have the email addresses and phone numbers of the other donor siblings,” Emme told her, while making a mental note to find out if the art museum has surveillance cameras in the restaurant. “Can you give me those? I think it's time we spoke directly with them.”