Rose’s phone number, Vera sat on the edge of the lumpy sofa bed and rehearsed what she might say into the Spenserian scholar’s answering machine—something about needing urgently to reach his pupil Bret Folger—and was thrown for a loop when an actual human voice answered the phone, a voice that sounded vaguely English and vaguely perturbed. “Dr. Rose? I’m sorry to bother you. My name is Vera Lundy. I’m Jensen Willard’s teacher—Jensen is your student Bret Folger’s girlfriend, and I believe you may have met her once. I need to get in touch with Bret about something concerning her.” “Bret Folger’s girlfriend?” The old professor sounded more puzzled now than annoyed. “I don’t remember a girlfriend.” “She came to your apartment, and you took a photograph? Sometime this past fall, I think?” “Oh, Jen-seen. You mean Grendel.” “Grendel?”
