Alex Kava Bundle - Alex Kava [249]
“Yes.” Now Susan wouldn’t meet Maggie’s eyes, but it had nothing to do with the surroundings.
“What did you tell him?”
“Just that quite possibly she may have left with him.”
“I see.” She wondered why Susan Lyndell could so easily betray her friend. And why was it suddenly so easy to believe Rachel had left with some stranger who, only days ago, Susan thought might hurt her friend? “And what did Mr. Endicott say?”
“Oh, maybe you haven’t heard. Rachel’s car was not in the garage. The police initially saw Sid’s Mercedes and didn’t realize that Rachel’s was gone. See, she usually drives Sid to the airport when he goes out of town so he won’t need to leave the car in airport parking. Sid’s always worried about his car. Anyway, I think Rachel must have taken off with this guy. She was certainly infatuated by him.”
“What about the dog?”
“The dog?”
“We found her dog stabbed…injured under the bed.”
Susan shrugged. “I have no idea about that,” she said as if she couldn’t be expected to figure out everything.
Maggie’s cellular phone started ringing from inside her jacket pocket. She hesitated. Susan waved a birdlike hand at her to go ahead and get it as she backed away. “I won’t keep you. Just wanted to fill you in.” Before Maggie could protest, her neighbor was out the door and walking down the driveway in what Maggie thought looked almost like a skip. She definitely didn’t seem like the same nervous, anxious woman she had met a few days ago.
Maggie quickly closed the door and took time to activate the alarm system while the phone continued to ring. Finished, she twisted the contraption out of her pocket.
“Maggie O’Dell.”
“Jesus, finally. You need a better cell phone, Maggie. I think your battery must be low again.”
Immediately, Maggie felt the tension return to her neck and shoulders. Greg’s greetings always sounded like scoldings.
“My phone’s been off. I’ve been out of town. You got my message.” She went directly to the point, not wanting to encourage his attempt to chastise her for being unreachable.
“You should have some sort of messaging service,” he persisted. “Your mother called me a couple of days ago. She didn’t even know you moved. For Christ’s sake, Maggie, you could at least call your mother and give her your new number.”
“I did call her. Is she okay?”
“She sounded great. Said she was in Las Vegas.”
“Las Vegas?” Her mother never left Richmond. And what a choice. Yes, LasVegas was the perfect place for a suicidal alcoholic.
“She said she was with a Reverend Everett. You need to keep better tabs on her, Maggie. She is your mother.”
Maggie leaned against the wall and took a deep breath. Greg had never understood the dynamics between Maggie and her mother. How could he? He came from a family that looked as if it had been special-ordered from a 1950s family catalog.
“Greg, did I leave a carton at the condo?”
“No, there’s nothing here. You do realize that none of this would have happened if you had used United?”
Maggie ignored his I-told-you-so. “Are you sure? Look, I don’t care if you’ve opened it or if you’ve gone through it.”
“Listen to you. You don’t trust or believe anybody anymore. Can’t you see what this goddamn job is doing to you?”
She rubbed her neck and squeezed at the knot. Why did he have to make this so difficult?
“Did you check in the basement?” she asked, knowing there was no way it had ended up there, but giving him one last chance for a way out if he had, indeed, opened the box.
“No, there’s nothing. What was in it? One of your precious guns? Are you not able to sleep at night without all three or four or however many of those things you have?”
“I have two, Greg. It’s not unusual for an agent to have a backup.”
“Right. Well, that’s one too many for me.”
“Would you just call me if the carton shows up?”
“It’s not here.”
“Okay, fine. Goodbye.”
“Call your mom sometime soon,” he said in place of a closing and hung up.
She leaned her head against the wall and shut her eyes. She tried to calm the throbbing in her head and neck and shoulders. The doorbell chimed, and she