Read Online By The Howling by Olivia Stowe - Free Book Online

anything of interest as they approached the river’s edge, but then she saw enough to pique her interest and get her adrenaline going in high gear.
    Crouching over the body as the medical examiner pulled the sheet from the dead woman’s face, Charlotte looked up at the sheriff and said, “This isn’t who everyone back on the street thinks it is. This isn’t Susan Purcell?”
    “Interesting,” the sheriff said. “Do you have any idea who it is?”
    “No,” Charlotte answered. “It’s no one who lives here, I’m pretty sure. But I have seen this woman before. She was sitting out in a car on the street yesterday. It occurred to me at the time that she was engaging in surveillance. But beyond that I have no idea. That was the only other time I saw her, and when I returned from the meeting I was going to—when I thought I’d talk to her—she was gone.”
    “Can you describe the car?”
    “Yes, certainly. I can even give you a partial on the license plate.”
    “Ah, old habits,” the sheriff said. But he didn’t say it to criticize. He said it almost in awe, having the greatest deal of respect for the reputation of this woman.
    Charlotte barely heard him, though. She was thinking back to her statement that this wasn’t the woman everyone out on the street expected it to be. She knew it was quite possible that she had misspoken. She knew that it was highly likely that at least one person standing out there on River Street knew exactly who this young woman was.

Chapter Seven
     
    “I’m sorry, Charlotte. If you’ve come to see Joyce, I’m afraid you are out of luck. I’ve just now gotten her to sleep. The sedative Rachel provided took quite some time to set in. Finding out that the murdered woman wasn’t Susan was a shock in itself. There’s still Susan. She’s still missing. So, thanks for dropping by, but—”
    “I’m sure you can help me as well as Joyce could, Todd,” Charlotte said coolly, “and I believe you are aware that I’m not operating in a neighborly capacity any more—that I’ve been officially attached to this case now.”
    “Yes, we weren’t aware that we had such a famous detective among us.” Todd said it somewhat sourly, which was an attitude that had Todd written all over it, so Charlotte didn’t mince words in responding.
    “Nor did you or Joyce bother to tell me that Susan was Joyce’s daughter despite all of us living on the same street. And that would bring me here as much as official duty. Susan’s disappearance drops some neighborhood responsibility in my lap. I’ve been left with the Wells’ dog, which Susan is supposed to be taking care of, parked on my lawn—or, rather on my screened porch, because I have the sense of community responsibility to not leave it running free—as Joyce’s daughter did. Now, since I am here on police business, perhaps you will invite me inside so we aren’t discussing all of this in public. I can see curtains pulled aside in windows all up and down the street.”
    “I suppose. Yes, do come on in,” Todd said reluctantly, cowed by Charlotte’s majestic presence and bearing if by nothing else. He stood aside, and Charlotte sailed into the parlor and made sure that she lowered her bulk into the most substantial chair therein.
    “I have a couple of questions you could help me with, actually,” Charlotte opened with. “First, since Joyce is Susan’s mother, it would save me time and effort to receive permission to enter the Wells’ house to see if anything there would help us find her. There’s no reason to think her disappearance and the body found on the lot across the street are linked—but without evidence to the contrary there’s no reason not to link them, either. I could contact the Wellses for permission, but I would have to track them down in Turkey.”
    Todd hesitated, and Charlotte wondered why. It occurred to her for the first time, which she would return to in her thoughts, that there might be some reason why