New York City becomes the urban setting in which Roy Freeman’s investigation moves from archival inquiry toward direct encounters with people connected to the Wieder case. Its medical center and bookstore provide sharply different kinds of access to Laura Baines: first through a scheduled professional meeting, then through a public event where Freeman hopes to speak with her again.

Medical Center in Washington Heights

Freeman travels to Columbia University Medical Center in Washington Heights, following a route via 12th Avenue, NY-9A, and 168th Street. The destination is a pair of tall buildings joined by glass walkways, a modern institutional landscape that contrasts with the older events he is investigating.

The meeting takes place in the McKeen Pavilion, on the ninth floor of the Milstein Hospital Building. Freeman gives his name at reception and says that Dr Westlake is expecting him; a secretary contacts her, and Laura Baines comes down a few minutes later. The arranged visit brings the investigator face to face with a woman whose earlier connection to Richard Flynn and Professor Wieder remains relevant to his inquiries.

Meetings in the City

New York City also provides a convenient place for Freeman to meet Sarah Harper. After Harper offers to come into the city rather than have him travel to the Bronx, he gives her the address of a pub near a corner. She arrives carrying the green travel bag by which she said he could recognize her. The meeting gives Harper an opportunity to explain that she is leaving town and wants to speak before she goes.

The city encounter follows a period in which Freeman has heard conflicting accounts and has begun to lose interest in the investigation. His willingness to meet Harper therefore marks a practical return to the case, even as his personal difficulties make the old events feel remote to him.

McNally Jackson Books

McNally Jackson Books becomes the site of Freeman’s attempt to approach Baines in public. After noticing a poster announcing her lecture there, he decides that a book event will give him a chance to speak with her that he would not have in a private setting. He arrives on Wednesday at 4:45 p.m., fifteen minutes before the event begins, buys her recently published book on hypnosis, and takes a seat downstairs. Nearly every chair is occupied.

The lecture is part of Baines’s promotional tour, less than a month after the book’s publication. Freeman listens to her as an experienced public speaker while wondering how quickly she will dismiss him once she recognizes who he is and understands why he has come. The bookstore thus turns an ordinary public appearance into a point of possible contact between the investigator and a central figure from the past.