Read Online On the Street Where you Live by Mary Higgins Clark - Free Book Online

level, both of them had lost their ability to cause her sorrow.
    She made the bed, pulling the sheets tight, tucking them in. The cream-colored coverlet complemented the sparkling green-and-rose print of the bed skirt and the window treatments. She would eventually trade the chaise lounge for a pair of comfortable chairs at the bay window. But for now, it matched the decor and would do.
    The firm ring of the doorbell meant one of two things, either the telephone service was there or the media. She glanced out the window and was relieved to see the panel truck with the familiar Verizon logo on it.
    By five of eleven the technicians from the phonecompany were gone. She went into the study and turned on the television to catch the news.
    â€œ. . . century-old finger bone with a ring . . .”
    When the program ended, Emily turned off the TV and sat quietly. As the screen went black she continued to stare at it, her mind a kaleidoscope of childhood memories.
    Gran telling the stories about Madeline over and over again. I always wanted to hear about her, Emily thought. Even when I was little I found her fascinating.
    Gran’s eyes would get a faraway look as she talked about her. “Madeline was my grandmother’s older sister. . . . My grandmother always looked so sad when she talked about her. Madeline was her big sister, and she worshiped her. She would tell me how beautiful she was. Half the young men in Spring Lake were in love with her.
    â€œThey all made it their business to walk past the house, hoping to see her sitting on the porch. That last day she was so excited. Her beau, Douglas Carter, had spoken to her father and received permission to propose to her. She expected him to bring her an engagement ring. It was late afternoon. She was wearing a white linen dress. Madeline showed my grandmother how she had changed her sixteenth birthday ring from her left to her right hand so that she wouldn’t have to take it off when Douglas came . . .”
    Two years after Madeline disappeared, Douglas Carter had killed himself, Emily remembered.
    She got up. How much more could her grandmotherrecall of the events she had been told about as a child?
    Her eyesight was failing, but she was still in remarkably good health. And, like many very elderly people, her long-term memory had strengthened with age.
    She and a couple of her old friends had moved at the same time to an assisted-living facility in Albany. Emily dialed the number and heard the phone picked up on the first ring.
    â€œTell me about the house,” her grandmother ordered after a quick greeting.
    There was no easy way to tell her what had happened. “A young woman who disappeared has been found there? Oh, Emily, how could that happen?”
    â€œI don’t know, but I want to find out. Gran, remember you told me that Madeline had had a ring on the day she disappeared?”
    â€œShe was expecting that Douglas Carter would bring her an engagement ring.”
    â€œDidn’t you say something about her wearing a ring that had been her sixteenth-birthday present?”
    â€œLet me see. Oh, yes, I did, Em. It was a sapphire ring set with tiny diamonds. From the description of it, I had one like it made for your mother when she was sixteen. Didn’t she give it to you?”
    Of course, Emily thought. Someone swiped it at a youth hostel that summer I went hiking in Europe with Barbara.
    â€œGran, by any chance do you still have that recorder I gave you?”
    â€œYes, I do.”
    The several summers she had been in Europe during her college days they had made tapes and sent them to each other.
    â€œI want you to do something. Start talking into it. Tell me everything that you can remember having heard about Madeline. Try to remember names of people she may have known. I want to know anything that comes back to you about her or her friends. Would you do that?”
    â€œI can try. I just