With Cecilia out the door, Karen made a beeline to her purse, which was on the chair in the front hallway. She dug out her cell phone and clicked on the messages display. There was one. She recognized Amelia’s cell phone number. She knew it by heart, now. Karen pressed the playback code. “Hi, Karen. You’re not answering at home, either. You must be with a client. Um, looks like you called me a bunch of times. Sorry, but I’ve been out of town, and I switched off my phone. I just had to get away from everything and everyone. Shane and my Uncle George left a ton of messages too. I didn’t mean to worry you guys. Anyway, I’m back. Call me, and I’ll answer this time, I promise! Bye.”
Baffled, Karen played the message again. It didn’t make sense. Amelia was acting as if yesterday with Koehler had never even happened.
She hit the last caller return, and Amelia answered after two rings. “Karen, is that you?”
“Hi, Amelia. I just got your message.”
“And I just got all of yours. Sorry if I gave you a scare. I should have told you-”
“You were out of town?” Karen asked, cutting her off.
“Yes. I rented a car and drove up and down the coast. Now that my credit card’s working again, I-”
“And you just got back
“Yes, about an hour ago. I blew off a morning class. Why? What’s going on, Karen?”
“Did you happen to have a blackout over the weekend? Any lost time?”
“Why do you ask that?” Amelia replied, a sudden edge in her voice.
“Well, I…” Karen trailed off at the sound of someone on the front stoop. Rufus started barking in the kitchen. Then the doorbell rang. “Amelia, just a minute,” she said, moving to the door. She glanced through the peephole to see a petite, very pretty black woman and a stocky, Caucasian man in his late forties with a bad comb-over. From their somber expressions, office clothes, and the odd pairing, Karen figured they were police detectives.
She backed away from the door. “Listen, Amelia,” she whispered into the phone. Rufus’s barking competed with her. “I have to call you back.”
“Karen, for God’s sake, you can’t just ask me if I’ve had a blackout, then say you’ll call me back. What’s going on? Did something happen over the weekend that I should know about?”
“I can’t talk right now,” Karen whispered urgently. “There are people at my front door. I’ll call you back as soon as I can.” She clicked off the line. “Rufus, calm down!” she yelled. Then she opened the door, and put on her best cordial smile for the two of them. “Can I help you?” She still clutched the cell phone in her hand.
The woman flashed her police badge. “Karen Carlisle?”
She nodded. “Yes?”
“Good afternoon, I’m Jacqueline Peyton and this is Warren Rooney.” Behind her, the man gave a little nod. Neither one of them cracked a smile. “We’re with the Seattle Police,” she continued. “We’re hoping you might help us locate a missing person. I understand Detective Russ Koehler was here yesterday afternoon.”
Karen stared at them and blinked. “He’s
“Was he here yesterday afternoon?” the woman pressed.
Karen nodded more times than necessary. “Um, yes, he showed up around this time yesterday-two o’clock. He was here for about ten minutes.”
“Mrs. Koehler said you telephoned her last night.”
“Yes, I thought I’d be hearing back from him, and never did.” Karen opened the door wider. “I’m sorry. Would you like to come in?”
The two detectives stepped inside the foyer. Karen closed the door after them. The cell phone went off in her hand, and she glanced at the caller ID: Amelia again.
She switched off the phone and stashed it in her purse. “I always thought a certain amount of time had to go by-like forty-eight or seventy-two hours-before the police considered anyone officially missing.”
The man shook his head. “In Washington State, there’s no waiting period. He’s been missing since yesterday afternoon. And at three o’clock this morning, we picked up a DUI driving Koehler’s car, a brand-new Audi. He claims he found it-abandoned, unlocked with the keys inside-on Aurora Boulevard.”
“What was the nature of Detective Koehler’s visit here?” the woman asked.
Karen hesitated. She remembered Koehler walking off with Amelia yesterday. “My car’s parked just down the block,” he’d told her. “We can go for a drive.”
“Ms. Carlisle?” the policewoman said.
Karen folded her arms in front of her. “Um, I’m a therapist, and Detective Koehler was asking about one of my clients, Amelia Faraday. I believe he was conducting some sort of follow-up investigation into the deaths of her parents and aunt in Wenatchee last week.” She figured this wasn’t any news to them. George had already told her that other cops on the force knew about Koehler’s interest in the case. But they didn’t know Koehler had driven off yesterday afternoon with Amelia.
She needed to talk to Amelia before the police did.
“I’m afraid I wasn’t much help,” Karen added. “I told Detective Koehler it would be unethical to repeat anything a patient shared with me during a session. Not that there’s anything to conceal. I’ve read the newspaper reports, and I don’t think Amelia held back on anything when she spoke to the police.”
The policewoman cocked her head to one side. Her eyes narrowed at her. “When Detective Koehler left here yesterday, did he indicate where he was going?”
Karen shrugged. “I have no idea where he was headed.” All the while, she thought,
“But he said he’d call you,” the man interjected. “What about?”
Karen shrugged again. “I’m not sure, actually. He didn’t specify the reason.”
“And when you didn’t hear from him, you tried calling him.”
She nodded. “That’s right.”
“You told Mrs. Koehler you’d been trying his cell before phoning his home.” The cop finally cracked a tiny smile. “Sounds like you felt his calling back was pretty darn important.”
Karen swallowed hard. “I just didn’t like the idea of having unfinished police business hanging over my head at the end of the day,” she answered carefully.
Neither one of the detectives seemed to be buying her story. The woman cleared her throat. “Ms. Carlisle- Karen, you don’t have to answer this. But it would be a big help to us. Do you have a-a
“With Detective Koehler?” She let out a little laugh. “God, no, I only just met him the day before yesterday. What, did his wife think that I-”
“Do you suppose Koehler went to see Amelia Faraday after leaving here?” the man asked, cutting her off.
“Um, I really can’t say,” Karen replied, shrugging.
“Do you have a contact address and phone number for Ms. Faraday?” he asked.
“Yes, I have that on file. I’ll write it down for you.” She retreated into her office, took a deep breath, then looked up Amelia’s campus address and phone number. She scribbled down the information, then returned to the foyer and gave the piece of paper to the policewoman. “That’s her room number in Terry Hall, along with the phone there.”
The woman took it. “You don’t happen to have her cell phone number, do you?”
Karen hesitated. “Um, I…”
“Never mind,” she said. “This is good enough. Thank you for your time, Ms. Carlisle.”
As soon as Karen ushered them out the door, she ducked back inside, and dug her cell phone out of her purse again. Amelia answered on the first ring. Karen asked her if she was in her room at the dorm.
“Yeah,” Amelia replied. “Why did you ask me if I had a blackout? What’s going on?”
“Listen,” Karen said. “Do me a favor. Finish up whatever you’re doing there and get out. Some people might be on their way to see you, and it’s best you don’t talk to them until I meet with you. Don’t answer the phone either. I’ll meet you in twenty minutes at the U Library, the Graduate Reading Room. Don’t tell anyone else where you’re going, okay?”
“Well, okay, I guess. But I wish I knew what the hell was going on.”
“I’ll explain everything when I see you. Take care.”
Karen clicked off the line. Then she headed to the closet and grabbed her coat.
