Shade hurried through the night and knocked on the door below Dorothy's Apartment. The landlady naturally recognized Tobesk's renowned detective standing before her. Though she thought poorly of the Detective's romantic exploits, she still told Shade what Miss Writer had been doing:
"Louisa has been in her room ever since she returned from the Publishing House this afternoon. She did not even go out for dinner. She is probably trying to lose weight again. That is not a good habit, young girls these days. Mr. Hamilton, are you going upstairs to see her? But you can only stay until nine thirty."
This apartment building only rented rooms to women, and one of its rules was that men were not allowed to stay overnight. Shade had known that already, so he thanked the landlady, who looked stern but actually took very good care of Dorothy.
Just as expected, after Shade reached Dorothy's apartment on the third floor, he could tell with his eyes closed that there was no heartbeat in the room. Even so, he used illusion to fabricate Dorothy's voice and invite himself inside.
"Is that Shade? Please come in."
The sound of the door opening followed, also fabricated by illusion. Shade did not have a key to Dorothy's Apartment, but the spirit consumed by the Door Key to deal with this sort of lock had not even recovered as quickly as it was spent.
"Good evening, Dorothy."
He spoke to the empty room and walked inside. Shade had visited this apartment more than once. After closing the door, he quickly checked the interior, then spotted the manuscript Dorothy had been writing on her desk.
The manuscript stopped at the word "corpse," with two letters still unwritten. The way Dorothy's favorite chair behind the desk was positioned also made it