was an expense-paid Christmas trip to Mexico.â
âYou both went?â
âWe were saving money. She couldnât cash in her prize, so she went without me.â
Barney frowned. But at that point his caller came back on the line. âOne mugging in that neighborhood, thatâs all. Two kids lifted a drunkâs wallet for twenty-two bucks. We got the kids.â
âWhat time was it?â
âTen-thirty.â
âThanks, Clyde.â He hung up the phone. âSo she couldnât have witnessed a crime and been kidnaped to keep her quiet. That leaves us with the oppositeâthat she was kidnaped in order to make her talk. What could your wife know? The ad business? Your firmâs trade secrets? Neither of you had access to that kind of information, I take it. Which brings us back to the beginning: that Liz took off on her own.â
âI canât accept that,â said Ed Tollman.
âWhy not?â
âAre you married?â
âNo.â
Ed shrugged. âI know Liz wouldnât leave me. She wanted nothing I couldnât give her.â
Barney did not smile. He had known couples like thatâa self-enclosed, self-sufficient unit, like a double-yolked egg. (He had often wondered how it must feel to have that sort of rapport with a woman.) When someone threw a rock at the egg, it must be hell, he thought. Ed was Humpty-Dumpty, waiting to be put back together.
âJust the same,â Barney said, âweâll cover that loophole. People who disappear seldom break it off completely. Sometimes theyâll get in touch because of habit. Who were Lizâs closest friends?â
âA girl who worked in the agency, Connie Greenberg. Another old schoolmate who lived in Charlevoix, Michigan. Liz grew up there.â Ed Tollman added, âSo did I.â
âOkay. Iâll take on a couple of helpers, one to watch the agency, the other to keep his eyes open in the home town. Theyâre just kids learning the game, but they can do the job. Twenty-five a day for them and expenses.â
Ed nodded. âSomething else,â he said. âI donât know where it fits in, but two nights ago a woman called from long distance and asked for Liz. I tried to find out who she was, but she hung up. The operator traced the call to a pay phone in a bus stop in Kingdom City, Missouri.â
Barney said thoughtfully, âSomebody who was traveling.â
âBut who? Iâve been in touch with all her friends.â
âNot all of them, buster, if she didnât leave you voluntarily. Letâs go to your place. I want to check through her stuff.â
Ed was apologetic about the basement apartment. âWe were saving money. Thatâs why we donât even have a car.â
Barney examined a gadget fastened to the top of the door.
âAn automatic door opener of my own design,â Ed explained. âI hooked it up while Liz was in Mexico. If the dog wanted to go outâhe was housebrokenâhe stepped on this grid.â He laid his palm on a metal plate in the floor to one side of the door; an electric motor whirred and the door opened. âWhen Iâm busy I donât like to be disturbed.â
Barney strolled into the living room. Waist-high bookshelves, mere planks laid on bricks, held statuettes, bric-a-brac, doodads, souvenirs, and stacks of new books in slick dust-jackets.
âDid your wife read a lot?â
âNot much, but she had the idea she should. Besides, Liz couldnât resist those cheap book-club offers.â
Barney glanced at Edâs drawing board, bare except for a pile of sketches. Beside the table were ranked the tools of his tradeâruler, compass, speed-ball pens, eraser. Nearby, another table was a mareâs nest of newspaper fragments, crossword puzzles, notes, and papers filled with spiraling doodles.
Barney went through the litter, on the hunt for anything. All he found was