On Wyre Eumenides’s birthday the parents surprised her with tickets to a Broadway musical and a special dinner at the Russian Tea Room. She was turning seventeen and was as near to perfect as she’d ever be. Ever since the winter Wyre Eumenides had collected canned food for the local soup kitchen, and she often worked there on holidays, peeling potatoes and slicing carrots. People said she resembled a young Elizabeth Taylor, whose photograph had graced the cover of Life magazine earlier in the year, when Miss Taylor won the Oscar for best actress in BUtterfield 8. Wyre Eumenides was an A student at Starling and had never caused her parents a single bit of worry until this Levi Willard business, but the parents were relieved that folly seemed to be old news now. Wyre Eumenides seemed to have
