“All right. What, then? You can’t ask me to find your sister for you and then start cutting off lines of inquiry.”
“I don’t see why not if I don’t think it’s appropriate. I don’t see why you can’t just let it go at this.”
This time I was silent, wondering at the nature of her uneasiness. “Beverly, did I miss something here? Are you telling me to drop it?”
“Well, I don’t know. Let me think about it and I’ll call you back. I just didn’t think it would be a problem and I’m not sure I want you to go on with this. Maybe Mr. Wender can proceed without her. Maybe he can find some loophole that will let him hold out only her portion of the estate until she turns up,”
“You didn’t seem to feel that way two days ago,” I said.
“Maybe I made a mistake,” she said. “Let’s just don’t worry about it right now, okay? I’ll be in touch if I want you to go on with it. In the meantime, why don’t you send me a report and an itemized bill of some kind? I’ll have to talk to my husband about what to do from here.”
“All right,” I said with puzzlement, “but I have to tell you, I’m worried.”
“Well, don’t be,” she said and the phone clicked in my ear.
I stared at the receiver. Now what was all that about? Her anxiety had been unmistakable, but I couldn’t ignore the message. She hadn’t fired me outright, but she’d put me on hold and I wasn’t technically supposed to proceed without her instructions to do so.
Reluctantly, I went back through my index cards and typed up a report. I was stalling for time and I knew it, but I wasn’t ready to let go. I put a carbon in my files and slipped the original in an envelope, which I addressed to Beverly, enclosing an itemization of my expenses to that point. Beyond the seven-hundred-and-fifty-dollar retainer she’d given me, she’d authorized an additional two hundred and fifty dollars for a total “not to exceed one thousand dollars without further written notice”-which was contractual double-talk for the fact that so far, we were covered. With the plane fare, the rental car, long-distance calls, and approximately thirty hours of my time, the charges came to $996 plus change. She owed me two hundred and forty-six bucks. I suspected she’d pay me off and wash her hands of it. My guess was that she’d enjoyed hiring a detective, officiously stirring up trouble for Elaine, who’d annoyed her by not signing on the dotted line as she’d
been asked. Now suddenly, she must have realized that she’d opened up a big can of worms.
I locked up the office and dropped the report in a mailbox on my way home. Elaine Boldt was still among the missing and that didn’t sit well with me.
Chapter 5
My phone rang at 2:08 A.M. I picked up the receiver automatically, my brain still blank with sleep.
“Kinsey Millhone.” The voice was male and the tone was neutral, like someone reading at random from a telephone book. Somehow I knew it was a cop. They all sound like that.
“Yes. Who’s this?”
“Miss Millhone, this is Patrolman Benedict of the Santa Teresa Police Department. We’ve been called on a 594 at 2097 Via Madrina, apartment 1, and a Mrs. Tillie Ahlberg is asking for you. Would it be possible for you to lend some assistance? We have a policewoman with her, but she’s asked for you specifically and we’d appreciate it if you could respond.”
I raised up on one elbow, a few brain cells switching to ignition. “What’s a 594?” I said. “Malicious mischief?”
“Yes ma’am.”
It was clear Patrolman Benedict didn’t want to risk anything by rushing right in with a lot of facts.
“Is Tillie okay?” I asked.
“Yes ma’am. She’s unharmed, but she’s upset. We don’t mean to disturb you, but the lieutenant okayed us to get in touch.”
“I’ll be there in five minutes,” I said and hung up.
I pushed the quilt back and grabbed for my jeans and sweatshirt, pulling on boots without ever getting up off the couch. I usually sleep naked in a fold of quilt because it’s so much easier than opening the sofa bed. I went into the bathroom, brushed my teeth and splashed water on my face, combing my unruly hair with my fingers as I snatched up my keys and moved to the car. I was wide awake by now, wondering what kind of 594 we were talking about. Tillie
Ahlberg was clearly not the perpetrator or she’d have called an attorney instead.
The night air was cold and the fog had rolled in off the beach and halfway across town, filling the empty streets with a fine mist. Stoplights blinked dutifully from red to green to red again, but there was no traffic and I ran the lights every chance I got. There was a black-and-white parked out in front of 2097 and the lights in Tillie’s ground-floor apartment were all on, but things seemed quiet; no flashing red lights, no neighbors gathered on the sidewalk. I announced myself on the intercom and somebody buzzed me in. I pushed through the door to the right of the elevator and moved quickly down the corridor to Tillie’s apartment at the end. Several people in robes and pajamas stood in the hall near the door, but a patrolman in uniform was encouraging them to go on back to bed. When he spotted me, he approached, hands on his hips as though he didn’t know what else to do with them. He looked like he’d probably still be asked for his I.D. when he ordered a drink, but up close I could see signs of age: fine lines near his eyes, a slight loosening of the taut skin along his jaw. His eyes were old and I knew he’d already seen more of the human condition than he could assimilate.
I held out my hand. “Are you Benedict?”
“Yes ma’am,” he said, shaking hands with me. “You’re Miss Millhone, I take it. Nice to meet you. We appreciate this.” His grip was firm, but brief. He nodded toward the door to Tillie’s apartment, which stood ajar. “You can go on in if you want. Officer Redfern is with her, taking down particulars.”
I thanked him and moved into the apartment, glancing to my right. The living room looked like something left in the path of a tornado. I stopped and stared for a moment. Vandalism in a place like this? I moved into the kitchen. Tillie was sitting at the table with her hands tucked between her knees, the freckles standing out on her pale face like red pepper flakes. A uniformed policewoman, maybe forty years old, was seated at the table taking notes. She had short-cropped blond hair and a birthmark like a patch of rose petals on one cheek. Her name tag identified her as Isabelle Redfern and she talked to Tillie in low, earnest tones like someone trying to persuade a flier not to leap off a bridge.
When Tillie caught sight of me, tears spilled out of her and she beean to shake, as though my appearance were tacit permission to fall apart. I knelt down beside her, taking her hands. “Hey, it’s okay,” I said, “what’s going on?”
She tried to speak, but nothing came out at first except a wheezing sound like someone stepping on a rubber duck. Finally, she managed to choke out a response. “Someone broke in. I woke up and saw this woman standing in the door to my room. My God, I thought my heart would stop. I couldn’t even move I was so terrified. And then… and then, she started… it was like this hissing sound and she ran in the living room and started tearing everything up… .” Tillie put a handkerchief over her mouth and nose, closing her eyes. Officer Redfern and I exchanged a look. Bizarre stuff. I put my arm around Tillie’s shoulders, giving her a little shake.
“Come on, Tillie,” I said, “it’s over now and you’re safe.”
“I was so scared. I was so scared. I thought she was going to kill me. She was like a maniac, like a totally crazy person, panting and hissing and crashing around. I slammed the bedroom door shut and locked it and then dialed 911. Next thing I knew it got quiet, but I didn’t open up the door until the police got here.”
“That’s great. You did great. Look, I know you were scared, but you did it just right and now it’s okay.”
The policewoman leaned forward. “Did you get a good look at this woman?”
Tillie shook her head, beginning to shake again.
This time the policewoman took Tillie’s hands. “Take a couple of deep breaths. Just relax. It’s over now and everything’s fine. Breathe deeply. Come on. Do you have any tranquilizers on hand or alcohol of some kind?”