New Year's Eve Murder Read Free Page B

them all because last night was NewYear’s, but the ones I talked to hadn’t seen her. Susan knows lots of people I’ve never met, but maybe Kevin knows some of them.”
    â€œThis is getting us nowhere,” he said again. “She didn’t go off and visit a friend. Something happened to her. If she was visiting a friend, she would have called. She’s somewhere where she can’t call. Doesn’t anybody see that there’s a problem here?” He turned to Jack. “And you tell me the cops won’t look for her because her privacy is more important than her safety. What kind of sense does that make?”
    Jack started to answer, but I interrupted him. “Kevin, could we talk in another room?”
    He looked around as though he wanted someone to tell him what to do. Then he said, “Sure,” and he followed me to the kitchen, where I shut the door. We sat at the table.
    â€œWhat is your relationship with Susan?” I started out.
    â€œIf you mean are we sleeping together, yes, we are.”
    â€œThat’s only a small part of what I meant. Are you living together?”
    â€œMore or less.”
    â€œDoes Susan have an apartment of her own?”
    â€œNot anymore. She stays with her folks sometimes for a few days.”
    â€œSo if I asked Susan for her phone number, she’d give me the one in your apartment.”
    â€œRight.”
    â€œAnd how long has that been true?”
    â€œAlmost a year. She gave up her apartment at the end of January of last year.”
    â€œAnd she’s always gone home from time to time and stayed overnight?”
    â€œAlways. She’s close to her family.”
    â€œWhen I asked you if you were living together, why did you say ‘more or less’?”
    â€œBecause…” The question had troubled him. “Because there was nothing formal between us. We played the your-place-or-mine game for a while and then when her lease came up for renewal, she said it was silly to pay for two apartments when she could stay with me or go home to Brooklyn. So she moved her stuff into my place.”
    I could see why it griped him. It hadn’t been a matter of “I can’t live apart from you any longer.” It had been a matter of convenience, of economy, or so he had made it sound.
    â€œAre you in love with her, Kevin?”
    â€œYes,” he said angrily.
    â€œAnd Susan?”
    â€œWe are in love with each other, OK?”
    â€œKevin, you said before that on the way to Brooklyn you talked about some personal things that had nothing to do with any of us.”
    â€œThat’s right.”
    â€œDo you think those things could have anything to do with her disappearance?”
    â€œI don’t see how.” He got up from the table, took a glass out of the cabinet, and filled it with tap water. He stood near the sink drinking it while I wondered whether he was trying to delay my next questions or find an acceptable answer to my last one. Finally he put the glass in the sink. “Anything else?”
    â€œWere you having an argument?” I asked.
    â€œNo, goddammit,” he exploded. “We weren’t having an argument, we weren’t fighting, we were on very good terms, and we were having a conversation. And who the hell are you to be asking me all these questions?”
    â€œI’m an amateur,” I admitted, “but I’ve done someinvestigating, some successful investigating. And I thought you might be more comfortable talking to me than to a crowd.”
    â€œI just want to find her,” he said. “I have a terrible feeling someone came along after I drove away and got her attention and grabbed her. I don’t think she ever got inside her mother’s house.”
    â€œWhy do you think that?”
    â€œThat car that was behind me,” he said. “The reason that I drove off before Susan got to the door. There was a car behind me and