'When was this?'
'Oh last year sometime, maybe longer, maybe a year and a half.'
'And you've not seen him since?'
'No.'
'Do you know why he needed the money?'
'Well, alimony, I know; and child support.'
'Doesn't his business do well?'
'He always says it is. But then when he wants to borrow money he will say the money is in some bank in a foreign country and he can't get it out, or all his cash is tied up temporarily in some huge event he's doing and he'll pay us back as soon as the event happens.'
'He ever pay you back?'
'No.'
'You know where he might be now?'
'No, why, is he missing?'
'Yes.'
'Well, my God, how long?'
'Several days, now,' I said. 'His office is closed. He's not in his apartment.'
I decided not to mention that he was a suspect in a murder investigation. Apparently, she had missed the second-section story in the Globe, or the twenty-second Action News brief on Channel 3.They worried mostly about crabgrass out here.
'Do you think he's all right?' she said.
'He may have just gone off for a few days R and R,' I said. 'You have any idea where he might go if he wanted to get away for a while?'
'Not really,' she said. 'I don't know too much about Brad's personal life.'
'No summer home, or ski condo or anything like that?'
'Not that I know of. Brad was always on the verge of bankruptcy,' Nancy said. 'I don't think he could afford anything like that.'
'Know anyone named Buffy?' I said.
'Buffy Haley,' she said. 'Was Brad's second wife. He had two children with her.'
'Know where she is now?'
'Not really. When they divorced she got the house in Winchester, but I don't know if she stayed.'
'Carla Quagliozzi?'
Nancy smiled a little. 'Third wife.'
'Know about her?'
'No. She wasn't around long. I think she was pregnant when they married. I don't know where she is.'
'Ever hear of an organization called Civil Streets?'
'No.'
'Know anyone named Jeanette Ronan?'
'No.'
I tried the rest of the names in the harassment suit.
'No.'
'Did you ever go to any of the events Brad put on?'
'No. Joel hates stuff like that. He gets home at night he wants a drink, dinner, and a ball game.'
'Who wouldn't?' I said. 'So you didn't attend Galapalooza, last January.'
'No. I never even heard of it. Galapalooza?'
'Galapalooza,' I said. 'If you were Brad and you needed for whatever reason to get away, where would you go?'
She gave it some thought. I drank my coffee and admired her knees some more. The coffee wasn't very good. The knees were.
'I have no way to know where,' she said. 'But it would involve a woman. Brad liked… well, now that I start to say it, I'm not so sure… I was going to say he liked women. He certainly needed women. He had great luck attracting them. Have you met him?'
'Yes.'
'Then you see how handsome and charming he is.'
