Read Online Dead Midnight by Marcia Muller - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Marcia Muller
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know. I’m to hold her mail and packages till she sends instructions.”
“What about the rent payments?”
“I gave her cash for first and last, and she has postdated checks for the rest of the year. After that, I don’t know.”
“Awfully sudden, wasn’t it?”
Now the woman’s eyes grew wary. “Who are you, and why’re you looking for her?”
I repeated my name, told her my occupation. “Jody’s connected with a case I’m working on, and she may be in danger. I need to find her.”
Paige Tallman nodded, concerned but unsurprised. “I was afraid of something like that. There were some messages on the answering machine today—including a couple from you—that sounded like she was in trouble. And she acted really freaky this morning, rushing around and tossing stuff in suitcases. She wouldn’t answer the phone or the doorbell, either.”
“When did she leave?”
“Around noon. She couldn’t wait to get out of here. She left a lot of her stuff; I’m supposed to box it up and hold on to it.”
“She drive? Fly?”
“She doesn’t have a car. I heard her call a cab—probably to go to the airport.”
That meant I might be able to trace her. My travel agent had taught me a number of ways to get information from the airlines.
I asked, “Are you sure she didn’t give any indication of where she was going?”
“No. She said that way nobody could force me to tell them.”
But that didn’t mean that they wouldn’t try. Paige Tall-man could be in for a very bad time. “Look, Ms. Tallman, this is not a good situation. Maybe you shouldn’t move in just yet.”
“I’m already in; I got my stuff out of storage this afternoon. After living on my sister’s hide-a-bed for five months after I broke up with my boyfriend, this place is like heaven, dirt and all. Besides, I can take care of myself.”
Tallman thrust her chin out defiantly, daring me to contradict her, and I realized how young she was—no more than twenty-one or -two. Young and full of bravado, as I’d been two decades before, and likely to get herself into fully as much trouble as I sometimes had.
“At least change the locks,” I suggested.
“Can’t afford to.”
She didn’t know who or what she might be up against but, then, neither did I. Maybe the threat wasn’t serious; maybe Jody Houston was simply paranoid. Still, I couldn’t leave Paige Tallman alone and at risk.
I handed her my card. “I’ll make you a deal. When you hear from Jody, try to find out where she is and let me know. In exchange, I’ll send a friend over who specializes in residential security. She’ll install an alarm, free of charge.”
Tallman looked at the card. “Thanks, Ms. McCone! What a day. This is the second time the right person’s come along at the right time.”
“And my friend will make sure the wrong person won’t be able to come along tomorrow.”
After I left Paige Tallman I climbed the interior stairway to the floor above and let myself into Roger’s flat. It was very cold there, as if each chilly night since his death had added its weight until the warmth of day could no longer penetrate it. The flat smelled of fresh paint and furniture polish, but beneath those clean odors was filth and decay. Fanciful thinking on my part, I supposed, because I knew what the closet and cupboard doors concealed.
The other morning I’d noticed the phone up here was still connected; my cell had discharged by now, and I wanted to call Sue Hollister, my friend in residential security, right away. Sue was home and agreeable to coming over first thing tomorrow; I asked her to bill my office and gave her the Nagasawa case-file number for reference.
Then I turned on a small lamp in the living room and sat down on the sofa to listen to the silence.
When I was looking for my birth parents the previous autumn, Hy had taught me a useful technique: listening to the spaces between people’s words, the pauses between statements. Listening, in
“What about the rent payments?”
“I gave her cash for first and last, and she has postdated checks for the rest of the year. After that, I don’t know.”
“Awfully sudden, wasn’t it?”
Now the woman’s eyes grew wary. “Who are you, and why’re you looking for her?”
I repeated my name, told her my occupation. “Jody’s connected with a case I’m working on, and she may be in danger. I need to find her.”
Paige Tallman nodded, concerned but unsurprised. “I was afraid of something like that. There were some messages on the answering machine today—including a couple from you—that sounded like she was in trouble. And she acted really freaky this morning, rushing around and tossing stuff in suitcases. She wouldn’t answer the phone or the doorbell, either.”
“When did she leave?”
“Around noon. She couldn’t wait to get out of here. She left a lot of her stuff; I’m supposed to box it up and hold on to it.”
“She drive? Fly?”
“She doesn’t have a car. I heard her call a cab—probably to go to the airport.”
That meant I might be able to trace her. My travel agent had taught me a number of ways to get information from the airlines.
I asked, “Are you sure she didn’t give any indication of where she was going?”
“No. She said that way nobody could force me to tell them.”
But that didn’t mean that they wouldn’t try. Paige Tall-man could be in for a very bad time. “Look, Ms. Tallman, this is not a good situation. Maybe you shouldn’t move in just yet.”
“I’m already in; I got my stuff out of storage this afternoon. After living on my sister’s hide-a-bed for five months after I broke up with my boyfriend, this place is like heaven, dirt and all. Besides, I can take care of myself.”
Tallman thrust her chin out defiantly, daring me to contradict her, and I realized how young she was—no more than twenty-one or -two. Young and full of bravado, as I’d been two decades before, and likely to get herself into fully as much trouble as I sometimes had.
“At least change the locks,” I suggested.
“Can’t afford to.”
She didn’t know who or what she might be up against but, then, neither did I. Maybe the threat wasn’t serious; maybe Jody Houston was simply paranoid. Still, I couldn’t leave Paige Tallman alone and at risk.
I handed her my card. “I’ll make you a deal. When you hear from Jody, try to find out where she is and let me know. In exchange, I’ll send a friend over who specializes in residential security. She’ll install an alarm, free of charge.”
Tallman looked at the card. “Thanks, Ms. McCone! What a day. This is the second time the right person’s come along at the right time.”
“And my friend will make sure the wrong person won’t be able to come along tomorrow.”
After I left Paige Tallman I climbed the interior stairway to the floor above and let myself into Roger’s flat. It was very cold there, as if each chilly night since his death had added its weight until the warmth of day could no longer penetrate it. The flat smelled of fresh paint and furniture polish, but beneath those clean odors was filth and decay. Fanciful thinking on my part, I supposed, because I knew what the closet and cupboard doors concealed.
The other morning I’d noticed the phone up here was still connected; my cell had discharged by now, and I wanted to call Sue Hollister, my friend in residential security, right away. Sue was home and agreeable to coming over first thing tomorrow; I asked her to bill my office and gave her the Nagasawa case-file number for reference.
Then I turned on a small lamp in the living room and sat down on the sofa to listen to the silence.
When I was looking for my birth parents the previous autumn, Hy had taught me a useful technique: listening to the spaces between people’s words, the pauses between statements. Listening, in
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