Almost every place has a moment of the day, an angle and intensity of light, in which it looks its best. When you're stuck someplace, you learn that time and you look forward to it. This, midafternoon, was probably the time for the Licking River behind Fell Street. Was this the Bimmel girl's time to dream? The pale sun raised enough vapor off the water to blur the old refrigerators and ranges dumped in the brush on the far side of the backwater. The northeast wind, opposite the light, pushed the cattails toward the sun.

A piece of white PVC pipe led from Mr. Bimmel's shed toward the river. It gurgled and a brief rush of bloody water came out, staining the old snow. Bimmel came out into the sun. The front of his trousers was flecked with blood and he carried some pink and gray lumps in a plastic food bag.

"Squab," he said, when he saw Starling looking. "Ever eat squab?"

"No," Starling said, turning back to the water, "I've eaten doves."

"Never have to worry about biting on a shot in these."

"Mr. Bimmel, did – Fredrica know anybody from Calumet City or the Chicago area?"

He shrugged and shook his head.

"Had she ever been to Chicago, to your knowledge?"

"What do you mean, 'to my knowledge?' You think a girl of mine's going off to Chicago and I don't know it? She didn't go to Columbus I didn't know it."

"Did she know any men that sew, tailors or sailmakers?"

"She sewed for everybody. She could sew like her mother. I don't know of any men. She sewed for stores, for ladies, I don't know who."

"Who was her best friend, Mr. Bimmel? Who did she hang out with?" Didn't mean to say "hang. " Good, it didn't slick him-- he's just pissed off.

"She didn't hang out like the good-for-nothings. She always had some work. God didn't make her pretty, he made her busy."

"Who would you say was her best friend?"

"Stacy Hubka, I guess, since they were little. Fredrica's mother, used to say Stacy went around with Fredrica just to have somebody to wait on her, I don't know."

"Do you know where I could get in touch with her?"

"Stacy worked at the insurance, I guess she still does. The Franklin Insurance."

Starling walked to her car across the rutted yard, her head down, hands deep in her pockets. Fredrica's cat watched her from the high window.

CHAPTER 54

FBI credentials get a snappier response the farther west you go. Starling's ID, which might have raised one bored eyebrow on a Washington functionary, got the undivided attention of Stacy Hubka's boss at the Franklin Insurance Agency in Belvedere, Ohio. He relieved Stacy Hubka at the counter and the telephones himself, and offered Starling the privacy of his cubicle for the interview.

Stacy Hubka had a round, downy face and stood five-four in heels. She wore her hair in frosted wings and used a Cher Bono move to brush them back from her face. She looked Starling up and down whenever Starling wasn't facing her.

"Stacy-- may I call you Stacy?"

"Sure."

"I'd like you to tell me, Stacy, how you think this might have happened to Fredrica Bimmel-- where this man might have spotted Fredrica."

"Freaked me out. Get your skin peeled off, is that a bummer? Did you see her? They said she was just like rags, like somebody let the air out of--"

"Stacy, did she ever mention anybody from Chicago or Calumet City?"

Calumet City . The clock above Stacy Hubka's head worried Starting. If the Hostage Rescue Team makes it in forty minutes, they're just ten minutes from touchdown. Did they have a hard address? Tend to your business.

" Chicago?" Stacy said. "No, we marched at Chicago one time in the Thanksgiving parade."

"When?"

"Eighth grade, that would be what?-- nine years ago. The band just went there and back on the bus."

"What did you think last spring when she first disappeared?"

"I just didn't know."

"Remember where you were when you first found it out? When you got the news? What did you think then?"

"That first night she was gone, Skip and me went to the show and then we went to Mr. Toad's for a drink and Pam and them, Pam Malavesi, came in, and said Fredrica had disappeared, and Skip does, Houdini couldn't make Fredrica disappear. And then he's got to tell everybody who Houdini was, he's always showing off how much he knows, and we just sort of blew it off. I thought she was just mad at her dad. Did you see her house? Is that the pits? I mean, wherever she is, I know she's embarrassed you saw it. Wouldn't you run away?"

''Did you think maybe she'd run away with somebody, did anybody pop into your mind-- even if it was wrong?"

"Skip said maybe she'd found her a chubby-chaser. But no, she never had anybody like that. She had one boyfriend, but that's like ancient history. He was in the band in the tenth grade, I say 'boyfriend' but they just talked and giggled like a couple of girls and did homework. He was a big sissy though, wore one of these little Greek fisherman's caps? Skip thought he was a, you know, a queer. She got kidded about going out with a queer. Him and his sister got killed in a car wreck though, and she never got anybody else."

"What did you think when she didn't come back?"

"Pam thought maybe it was some Moonies got her, I didn't know, I was scared every time I thought about it. I wouldn't any more go out at night without Skip, I told him, I said uh-uh, buddy, when the sun goes down, we go out."

"Did you ever hear her mention anybody named Jame Gumb? Or John Grant?"

"Ummmm… no."

"Do you think she could have had a friend you didn't know about? Were there gaps in time, days when you didn't see her?"

"No. She had a guy, I'd of known, believe me. She never had a guy."

"Do you think it might be just possible, let's say, she could have had a friend and didn't say anything about it?"

"Why wouldn't she?"

"Scared she'd get kidded, maybe?"

"Kidded by us? What are you saying, because of the other time? The sissy kid in high school?" Stacy reddened. "No. No way we would hurt her. I just mentioned that together. She didn't… everybody was like, kind to her after he died."

"Did you work with Fredrica, Stacy?"

"Me and her and Pam Malavesi and Jaronda Askew all worked down at the Bargain Center summers in high school. Then Pam and me went to Richards' to see could we get on, it's real nice clothes, and they hired me and then Pam, so Pam says to Fredrica come on they need another girl and she came, but Mrs. Burdine-- the merchandising manager?-- she goes, 'Well, Fredrica, we need somebody that, you know, people can relate to, that they come in and say I want to look like her, and you can give them advice,how they look in this and stuff. And if you get yourself together and lose your weight I want you to come right back here and see me,' she says. 'But right now, if you want to take over some of our alterations I'll try you at that, I'll put in a word with Mrs. Lippman.' Mrs. Burdine talked in this sweety voice but she turned out to be a bitch really, but I didn't know it right at first."

"So Fredrica did alterations for Richards', the store where you worked?"

"It hurt her feelings, but sure. Old Mrs. Lippman did everybody's alterations. She had the business and she had more than she could do, and Fredrica worked for her. She did them for old Mrs. Lippman. Mrs. Lippman sewed for everybody, made dresses. After Mrs. Lippman retired, her kid or whatever didn't want to do it and Fredrica got it all and just kept sewing for everybody. That's all she did. She'd meet me and Pam, we'd go to Pam's house on lunch and watch 'The Young and the Restless' and she'd bring something and be working in her lap the whole time."