Read Online Summer Garden Murder by Ann Ripley - Free Book Online

discomforted to notice that Mike Cunningham had emerged from his house in the far corner of Dogwood Court and was striding across the cul-de-sac.
    Mary Mougey embraced first Louise, then Bill, then Martha and Janie. Their neighbor, a fundraiser for the Children and Families Foundation, had established a link with each member of the family, especially with Martha, whom she often advised on school and career decisions. “My favorite people are home again,” said Mary in her mellifluous voice. “We missed you.” The small blond woman, stylish in her pantsuit, looked warily at the approaching Cunningham. “Quickly, let us share the news with you so that you won’t be too shocked when Mike gets here with his blunderbuss ways. Peter Hoffman has gone missing. Had you heard?” Her concerned gaze turned on to Louise.
    â€œNo,” said Louise. “How long has he been missing?”
    â€œSince last Sunday. Poor Phyllis, I have to feel sorry for her. She’s been calling me hysterically because the police can find no trace of him.” Mary gently urged her husband forward with a slim hand. “But Richard can give you details.”
    Bill glanced politely at Richard, his colleague at the State Department, and so did Louise and the girls. Louise knew he hardly would have an answer his wife didn’t, but Mary was anxious for her depressed husband to get involved in the conversation. He shrugged his narrow shoulders and cocked his long head in a dramatic fashion, stepping right up to the role as neighborhood raconteur. “Peter popped in on that Radebaugh party two Saturdays ago, as you recall. Then, apparently, he lived a normal life for a week. He was missing last Sunday night. Phyllis reported it Monday morning. Cops have been grilling everybody in the neighborhood. Pretty damned hard, too.”
    Janie, looking unaccountably like a young blond goddess in her sweaty, sandy beach dishabille, stepped over. Richard smiled and took her hands in his for a moment. “My dear Janie,” he said.
    â€œMr. Mougey,” said Janie, “why would people around here be expected to know where he disappeared?”
    Richard shook his head. “I don’t know for sure. Because it’s his home base, I guess. If it were someone else, they might have just thought he took a powder and moved to Europe. But this is a little different. He has this murder in his background.”
    Bill expelled a breath, obviously disgusted. “I’m sure the police are checking out his other connections as well. I can only hope he isn’t up to some new trick. Good, he’s gone. Now we won’t have to get a restraining order. Maybe we can forget about him.”
    â€œOh, I doubt that,” said a loud voice. Mike Cunningham had arrived, looking as if he were straight out of GQ in his classic white sport shirt and tan chinos. Too bad the exterior is so pretty and the interior so defective , thought Louise. He came up and stood close to her, but cast admiring glances at Martha and Janie. Louise realized that, in the few months he’d lived in Dogwood Court, he had never had the chance to meet them, with Janie busy with her life and Martha away most of the time in Chicago.
    â€œWhy don’t you introduce me to your daughters, Louise?”
    Reluctantly, she did so. The man’s eyes lit on Janie, and then, probably realizing she was a little young for him, transferred his gaze to Martha. He said, “I don’t think we need worry just yet. It’s my theory that Peter will show up just when we’ve all despaired.”
    Richard Mougey shook his head. “I’m not so sure about that. The man has a complicated and cloudy business past from what I hear. But then you ought to know all about that, Mike. Aren’t you still Hoffman’s financial advisor?”
    Cunningham flushed under his even tan, and his brown eyes focused on the ground, as if to avoid eye contact with