• 'strange, curved eyebrows, each one coiled over like a question mark'
• green eyes
• black hair
• long fingers
• black nails
• black shirt with long, smooth sleeves
• 'music I'd never heard and liked very much'
• small cot in the far corner, with some rumpled blankets and pillows
• large striped suitcase
• long, fancy evening gown
• heavy hiking boots
• 'an apron that a chef might wear'
• red wig
• 'a long, zippered green tube that might have been a purse'
• 'two small hats I'd seen on the heads of Frenchmen in old photographs, both dirty, both worn, and both the color of a raspberry'
• small sink and a short wooden table, completely bare, with one stool tucked under it in the opposite corner
• a dented pair of binoculars on the windowsill
• 'on the floor in the center of the room was a small box with a crank on its side and a funnel on top.' (old-fashioned record player)
• 'the music sounded interesting and complicated'
• no books
• coffee
• an unusual education
• Black Cat Coffee
• father kidnapped by Hangfire
• chasing after every lead (with notebooks, newspapers, envelopes, and parcels)
• father writes articles

—

• 'her green eyes were the same'
• '[her hair] was blond instead, so blond it looked white'
• 'her fingers were still slender'
• 'with long black nails again'
• 'and over her eyes were strange eyebrows curved like question marks'
• 'Killdeer Fields, the nearby town where she had grown up'
• thought Mr. Snicket was part of the Inhumane Society
• saw a wildcat with her father on a hike and still has nightmares about it
• her father was reading The Illiad to her when he disappeared
• "Every night, my father would get home from his fieldwork and leave his boots on the porch. It was during the floods, and his boots got so muddy there was no use in washing them. He'd cook dinner in his socks, and then I'd do the dishes, and he'd poor himself a glass of wine and read me a chapter of something before we put the lights out."
• "My father was a naturalist, so our house was always filled with wildflowers from nearby meadows, or baby animals he had rescued, recuperating in old shoe boxes until they were healthy enough to be set free. And he was a lover of music, so he would wind up the record player first thing in the morning so we'd have music with our breakfast. Then one night I didn't hear his boots on the porch, and now that music is all I have."
• "I still have this." Ellington reached into her pocket and aid a small object between the two coffee cups. It looked like the old-fashioned record player, except that it was the size of a deck of cards. She wound the tiny crank, and we both leaned forward to hear the little, tinkly music. "My father always carried this music box," she said, "so he could have music wit him no matter how far into the wilderness he went. He left it behind on the day he disappeared, so I've been taking care of it."
  • "I recognize the tune," I said...
• "If my father were here, he could fix that," Ellington said. "He would pluck the right herbs growing from the cracks in the sidewalk and concoct something that would work in no time. He's a brilliant scientist."