Duncan put the book back in place and checked the rest of the furnishings in the room. He found nothing of value—the contents of this small bedroom were pitifully scant and it seemed rarely used. The most valuable clues were that book and the two old notebooks in the desk drawer.
The notebooks were filled with content related to steam engines and engineering principles, occasionally interspersed with complaints about certain teachers or classmates.
This made it easy to conclude that the occupant was a young person of school-going age.
After slowly sorting through fragments of memory, Duncan returned everything in the room to its original state and went back to the master bedroom.
Sitting on the edge of the bed for a while in thought, he then stood up and approached a nearby wardrobe, almost instinctively pulling open the door and opening one of the drawers.