was that Jews were supposed to be buried quicker than Christians traditionally were interred. I didn't know why.
Both the officers looked startled, as if their original baseline for questioning had been completely misinterpreted.
'I would think,' Tolliver said, 'that the fact that it really was Tabitha would kind of overwhelm the religious consideration, but maybe not.' He shrugged. 'That's more important to some people than others. Are the Morgensterns really religious? Because I've got to say, they've never mentioned anything about Judaism to us. Have they, Harper? Said anything to you?'
'No. All they said to me was, 'Please find my child.' They never said, 'Please find my Jewish child.' '
Tolliver sat by me on the love seat, and we presented a united front to Young and Lacey.
'Our lawyer is right next door,' I remarked. 'Do you think we should call Art in here, Tolliver?'
'Do you feel you need protection?' Detective Lacey asked quickly. 'Have you received any unusual messages or phone calls? Do you feel threatened?'
I raised my eyebrows, looked at my brother. 'You scared, Tolliver?'
'I don't think I am,' he said, as if he were surprised by the discovery. 'Seriously,' he said to Detective Young, as if we'd just been playing up till then, 'Has there been any kind of anti-Semitic demonstration against the Morgensterns? I guess I kind of thought society was past that. I love the South, don't get me wrong; but it does lag behind the times in social developments. I'm sure I could be mistaken.' We waited for her to answer, but she just looked at us, an all-too-familiar expression of deep skepticism on her narrow face. Lacey looked more disgusted than anything else.
'Detectives,' I said, getting tired of the dance, 'let me point some things out.' We were on the love seat the Morgensterns had used yesterday, and the two detectives were in the wing chairs we'd occupied. Though Brittany Young was at least ten years younger than Lacey, and a woman, at the moment her expression was identical to his. I took a deep breath. 'The Morgensterns hired me after their daughter had been missing for several weeks. Though I'd read the newspaper stories about Tabitha, I'd never met Diane or Joel or any other member of the family. I had no idea they'd call me to work for them. I couldn't have had anything to do with her disappearance, it stands to reason.'
I thought the atmosphere eased a little.
Detective Lacey took the lead. 'Who, specifically, called you? Felicia Hart? Or Joel Morgenstern's brother, David? Or maybe Joel's father? None of them will claim responsibility.'
The direct question stopped me short.
'Tolliver?' I never talked to clients directly until we got to the site. Tolliver thought it added to my mystique. I thought it made me very anxious.
'That was a while ago,' Tolliver said. He went into his room, came back with a three-hole binder filled with computer printout pages. He'd been messing around with his computer more in the evenings, I'd noticed, and he'd designed some forms for our little business, Connelly Lang Recoveries. He'd been going back and entering all our past 'cases' into the new format. This notebook was labeled 'Case Files 2004' and the first page in each file (a green page) was headed 'First Contact.'
He scanned the page, refreshing his memory. 'Okay. Mr. Morgenstern senior called us, at the request of his wife, Hannah Morgenstern. Mr. Morgenstern…' Tolliver read the page for a couple of minutes, then looked up to tell the cops that the older Mr. Morgenstern had told Tolliver about his missing granddaughter, and had asked Tolliver if he thought his sister could help.
'I explained what Harper does, and he got kind of angry and hung up,' Tolliver said. 'Then, the next day, the sister-in-law called.'
'You're saying Felicia Hart called you?'
Tolliver checked the name on the page, quite unnecessarily. 'Yes, that's who called me.' He looked blank— deliberately blank. 'She said no one else would face the truth, but she was sure that her niece was dead, and she wanted Harper to find Tabitha's body so the family could find some closure.'
'And what did you think of that?'
'I thought she was probably right.'
'In your experience, are families often willing to admit that they think their missing loved one is dead?' This was addressed to me. Detective Young seemed to be simply curious.
'This may surprise you, but yes. By the time they call me in, quite a few of them are. They have to have reached some kind of realistic place to even think about hiring me; because that's what I do, I find dead people. No point asking me to come if you think your loved one's alive. Call in the tracking dogs or the private detectives, not me.' I lifted my shoulders. 'That's common sense.'
I can't say the detectives looked horrified. It would take a lot more than that to horrify a homicide detective, I would think. But they did look just that little bit harder around the eyes.
'Of course,' Tolliver chimed in, 'when people's loved ones are missing, most often the family isn't exactly navigating on common sense.'
'Of course,' I echoed, seeing that Tolliver was trying to dilute the bad taste I'd put in their mouths.
'Don't you care?' Detective Young blurted. She leaned forward, her hands clasped, her elbows on her knees, her face intent.
That was a difficult question. 'I feel a lot of different ways about finding a body,' I said, trying to be truthful. 'I'm always glad to find one I've been looking for, because I've done my job if I locate it.'
'And then you get paid,' said Detective Lacey, an edge to his voice.
'I like getting paid,' I said. 'I'm not ashamed of that. I deliver a service for the money. And I give the dead some relief.' The two detectives looked blank. 'They want to be found, you know.'
It seemed so evident to me. But judging by their expressions, it didn't seem so obvious to Lacey and
