Alex Kava Bundle - Alex Kava [492]
“I thought you were taking some time off. Where’s Cunningham sending you this time?”
“I’m going to Connecticut.”
Silence. Such a long silence that Maggie thought she may have lost the connection.
“Gwen?”
“You found something out about Joan?”
“No, not yet.” Maggie searched for Gate 11. Of course, it was the one with the line already boarding. “I thought I’d go check on her myself. Who knows, maybe I’ll find her at the Ramada Plaza Hotel’s pool, drinking piña coladas.”
“Maggie, I didn’t expect you to do that. I just thought you might be able to make a few phone calls. I didn’t mean for you to go to Connecticut, especially on your vacation.”
“Why not? You’re always telling me I need to get away.” Where had she put her boarding pass? Usually she slid it into her jacket pocket.
“Yes, get away and go on a real vacation. When was the last time you took a real vacation, Maggie?”
“I don’t know. I was in Kansas City last year.” She started to search her computer case’s many pockets. Somewhere she knew she had a boarding pass. Maybe Tully’s disorganization was rubbing off on her.
“Kansas City? That was two years ago and it was for a law enforcement conference. That’s not a vacation. Do you even know what a vacation is?”
“Of course, I know what it is. It’s that thing where you sit around on a beach somewhere, getting drunk on piña coladas with those little pink umbrellas and ending up with a miserable sunburn and sand in places where I really don’t like to have sand. That’s just not something that interests me.”
“And looking for a missing person on your vacation does interest you? You know, if you’re going to Connecticut, maybe you could finally look up a certain man in the vicinity?”
“Here it is,” Maggie said, relieved to find that the boarding ticket must have slipped behind her laptop when she was mastering the Velcro straps. She ignored Gwen’s comment about “a certain man,” knowing full well she meant a certain assistant D.A. in Boston. “Gwen, if there’s anything you haven’t told me about Joan Begley, now would be a good time.”
Her friend was silent again.
“Gwen?”
“I’ve faxed you everything I could.”
She noticed Gwen’s careful choice of words.
“Look, Gwen, before you hear about it on the news, there’s something you should know. Yesterday morning a woman’s body was found outside of Wallingford in a rock quarry.”
“Oh, my God! It’s Joan, isn’t it?”
She hated hearing the panic in her friend’s voice. This was a woman Maggie always looked to for strength.
“No, I don’t know that. I wouldn’t have even told you, but it’s made the national news already. They haven’t identified her yet. I’m trying to get in touch with the sheriff who’s heading the investigation. He’s supposed to be calling me back, but I’m sure I’m on the bottom of a very long list.” Maggie tucked the phone into her neck again as she prepared her ID and ticket for the attendant. “Look, my flight’s boarding, Gwen. I’ll give you a call as soon as I know something, okay?”
“Maggie, thanks for doing this. I hope it’s not Joan, but I have to tell you, I just don’t have a good feeling about this.”
“Try not to worry until it’s time to worry. I’ll talk to you later.”
She shoved the phone into her pocket just as the attendant reached for her ticket.
On board, Maggie unzipped pockets, searching—why was she suddenly so disorganized?—for the paperback she had bought in the airport bookstore: Lisa Scottoline’s latest legal thriller. Past titles had succeeded in keeping her mind off being 38,000 feet above control. With the paperback came the envelope she had shoved into the side pocket at the last minute while deciding to leave the file folders behind.
She slid her case into the overhead compartment and squeezed into the window seat. A small gray-haired woman fussed and fidgeted into the seat next to her, and Maggie opened the paperback to read but, instead, stared at the envelope.
Maggie knew Gwen had meant Nick Morrelli when she asked if she