New Year's Eve Murder Read Free Page A

so I’m sure we were back by then.”
    Eddie suddenly started to cry. “He’s tired,” I said.
    â€œI’ll take him,” Harriet offered. She picked him up, talking to him like a doting grandmother. He stopped crying and laid his head on her shoulder, as I watched with a mixture of hope that he would let her care for himand an unexpected flash of resentment that someone was successfully taking over my sacred task.
    â€œGo on,” Arnold said. “You know you were home before ten. Did you have any idea Susan was coming home to sleep?”
    â€œNone. She has a key, she has a room, she keeps clothes in it, changes the bedding when she wants to. Sometimes she calls to say she’s coming, sometimes she just pops in. I had no idea she was coming this time. She hadn’t called.”
    â€œAny deliveries during the day?” Jack asked.
    She shook her head. “No meter readers either.”
    â€œWouldn’t you have seen her bedroom door closed if she were there?” I asked.
    â€œI wouldn’t. It’s an old house and the floor plan is crazy. To get to her room you have to go around a corner. I had no reason to look for her, so I didn’t.”
    â€œSo we have no way of knowing whether she spent the night in your house or just dropped in and left before you got home.”
    â€œWe don’t even know if she ever set foot in the house,” Ada said. “Kevin didn’t see her go in. Or maybe she went in and then out again.”
    â€œHow did you come to drive her?” I asked Kevin.
    â€œI left work a little early. It was our last work day of the year. We were closed all day yesterday. Susan told me in the morning she wanted to go to Brooklyn, so I drove her. I just didn’t want her taking the subway.”
    â€œWhat kind of mood was she in?”
    â€œGreat. She’s a very ‘up’ person.”
    â€œWhat did you talk about?”
    â€œThe party we were going to. Whether the couple giving it would ever get married.” He thought a moment. “Some personal things. I don’t think they’d matter toyou.” He turned to Jack. “What’s going to happen if I report her disappearance to the police?”
    â€œNot a whole lot unless there’s evidence of foul play. When a child disappears, we raise heaven and earth to find it. With an adult, it’s different. Adults have the right to go where they please and not ask permission or leave word.”
    I had heard it all before and knew it was true. Even though you know in your heart your friend/lover/brother/sister would never go anywhere without telling you, the police see it differently. You can’t invade an adult’s privacy by seeking him out when he doesn’t want to be found, and you certainly can’t force him to return to a place he doesn’t want to be, even if he’s been there his whole life.
    â€œShe didn’t have a suitcase with her when I left her at her mother’s, so she couldn’t have been planning to go to a hotel. She wouldn’t just go somewhere without packing a bag.”
    â€œKevin’s right,” Ada said. “Susan’s very particular. She wants to put on clean clothes in the morning; she hates sleeping on the floor if a friend is short on beds.”
    â€œCould she have packed a bag at your house?” I asked.
    Ada thought. “She has clothes there, that’s true, but I honestly don’t know if she kept a bag in her closet. We’re an independent bunch and we don’t interfere with each other. I don’t go through her closets any more than she goes through mine.”
    â€œSo we don’t know if she’s missing one day or two,” Jack said.
    No one answered. Then Kevin said, “We’re getting nowhere. How are we going to find out what happened to her?”
    â€œI’ve called everyone I could think of,” Ada said. “I couldn’t reach