Read Online The Death of an Ambitious Woman by Barbara Ross - Free Book Online Page B

a reassuring hand on Karen’s forearm, “if we don’t hear something in the next few hours, I’m going to notify the media that your husband is missing. If there’s anyone important you haven’t told about Al’s disappearance—friends, parents, siblings—do it now.”
    “Should I tell my boys?”
    Ruth took time with her answer. “The oldest is in kindergarten, isn’t he? The parents of his classmates will talk. Kids will overhear. It’s best to tell them, Mrs. Pace.”
    “Nice goin’,” Moscone chided McGrath as they got into the car.
    “You were pretty smooth yourself,” Ruth added in Moscone’s direction.
    “What did I do?”
    Ruth growled.
    “Sheesh,” McGrath said. “Easy.” He leaned forward from the back seat. “There’s a little place just down the road here.”
    “McGrath, do you know every joint in New Derby?” Moscone teased.
    “Walk enough beats long enough in this town and you do. Not that either one of you would know.”
    The sentiment was pure McGrath, grumpy sour grapes, but the tone was light, bantering. Ruth was quietly pleased. Something about this investigation was turning McGrath around, engaging him as he hadn’t been in months. Ruth realized how much she had missed this—being out of the office, joking with the guys.
    There was, indeed, a joint up the road, a hole-in-the-wall with a high counter, two tables, and two booths. It was doing a brisk lunchtime, take-out trade. A menu board offered the usual array of subs and pizzas. Ruth and McGrath placed their orders quickly, then sat in the corner booth. Moscone peppered the poor counterman with questions.Where did they buy their ham? Their produce? What grade of olive oil did they use?
    “Jeezus,” McGrath called. “It’s a sub shop. Just order something and get over here.”
    Moscone finally ordered a Greek salad, no olives, no feta, no dressing and joined them. This time, McGrath scanned the room for listening ears. “This guy, Pace,” he paused for emphasis, “is in way over his head—mortgage overdue, business loans overdue, utilities writing threatening letters, Visa, Mobil, Home Depot. He has dunning notices tucked in every corner of that room.”
    “What else?” Ruth leaned forward, too.
    “Not much else. I talked to some of the neighbors early this morning before they left for work. Pace was a pretty popular guy. On the weekends, friends would show up with their cars and they’d pull them apart, put them together, hang out, and drink beer.”
    “Does anyone know what kind of car he might be driving?”
    “Navy blue Saab, eight or nine years old. He told his buddies he was fixing it up to sell. I called it in to Lawry.”
    “And the license plates?”
    “No one has any idea which ones are missing. There’d always been a bunch in that old barn, and Pace added to the collection after he bought the place, but nobody took any note of it.”
    “Anything about his love life?” Moscone wanted to know.
    “His buddies hinted there might be something. He’s got the looks for it. And the job. If he disappears for an hour or so, who’d ever notice? But I wouldn’t say his friends were anything more than suspicious. I’ll say this about the guy, he doesn’t kiss and tell.”
    “Anything else?” Ruth asked McGrath.
    “Yeah. They said he was a real good mechanic.”
    Moscone stayed at the garage to help McGrath, and Ruth started back to headquarters alone. She knew it was time for her to do the thing she had been putting off. She had to call Bob Baines. She usually avoided Baines and did her day-in, day-out business with the real prosecutors who ran the D.A.’s office, but this was different. If she went public with the Pace disappearance and Baines saw her on television talking about a case he knew nothing about, he’d go ballistic and he’d be justified in doing so.
    So, she had to call Baines. Personally. Ruth pulled to the side of the road, reluctantly selected Baines’s number from her cell phone