“They’re searching for information about what happened to a friend of mine, somebody who was visiting me. I’m sorry to bother you, but I’ve noticed that from your upstairs window there’s a clear view of the block where my house is.”
“You have, have you?”
“Yes.”
She looked irritated and moved back, as though she might close the door.
“Please, I think she’s been kidnapped, and I wondered-“
“Kidnapped?” She looked skeptical, not shocked, as he had expected.
“Yes. It would have been after one o’clock or so. She parked her white Volvo in front of my house, and-“
“Oh, that one. I think you’ve got it wrong. I saw her leave.”
“Was she with a man?”
Mrs. Kelly forgot her precautions and let the door swing open wide. Ray Hall saw a sadness come into the old eyes. She said, “Oh, I’m sorry, dear. She was with a man, but he didn’t make her go. She was just going with him. They came down the driveway and walked over to the curb in front of the house next to yours and got into his car.”
“Neither of them was acting strangely?”
She looked at him in deep sympathy. “I’m sorry. He had his arm around her all the way. When they got to his car, he opened the door, leaned in and helped her find the seat belt and clicked her in. He leaned in very close to her for what seemed like a long time. I can’t be sure what that was about. When he came around to the driver’s seat, she had sunglasses on. And he drove off.”
“You didn’t see anything in his hand?”
“No.”
“He had his arm around her. Could you see both his hands?”
“Well, no.”
“And the sunglasses. Did you see her take them out of her purse?”
She thought for a moment. “It’s funny, but I don’t remember her purse. I think she must have had one.” She seemed puzzled, almost unsure of herself. “I’m sorry.”
“No. You’re doing great. You’re resisting having your mind add things that should have been there, but weren’t. Now, the one thing that would really help a lot is anything you can remember about his car.”
“It wasn’t a car, it was an SUV.”
“What color?”
“It’s indescribable, really. One of those new colors that sometimes looks kind of beige, and sometimes kind of gray.”
“So you’d call it sort of a beige-gray. Could you tell what make or model it was?”
“Just an SUV. They all look pretty much the same to me. I’m sorry. I never did follow that kind of thing. It was too far away to read the words on it, and I had no reason to try.”
“Was there anything else you saw around that time?”
“Well, yes. Your next-door neighbor, the man with the bald head. He came home just about that time. He drove up and stopped next to that SUV, I think because it was parked right in front of his house. He seemed to be taking a good long look at it, as though he wondered if it belonged to a burglar or something. Then he pulled into his driveway. He went inside for a while, came out, and drove away.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Kelly. You’ve been an enormous help. I’ve got to go follow up on this. Thanks again.” He turned and ran toward his house.
The man who lived in the house beside his was Ron Salvatore. He worked as a shop teacher in the high school. A couple of years ago, he and Ray had exchanged house keys and cell-phone numbers in case there was an emergency. Ray dashed into his house, flung open the door, then searched through the drawers of the sideboard by the dining-room wall until he found the number. He dialed, and in a moment he heard Ron’s voice. “Hello?”
“Ron?”
“Yes.”
“This is Ray Hall. I’ve got an emergency. Early this afternoon, you drove home. You saw an SUV parked in front of your house. Sort of beige-gray. You stopped to look at it. Can you possibly tell me anything about it?”
“Did my house get broken into or something? Or yours?”
“No. Did this happen?”
“Well, yeah. You want to know about the car?”
“Yes.”
“It was a Lexus GX 470. It was brand new. I was looking at it because I’m in the market for an SUV, and I’ve just about decided on the model, but I was trying to decide about the color. That color is called `silver sand.’ I’ve got a brochure from the dealer.”
“Great! Ron, do you mind if the police call you on this line? Can I give them your cell number?”
“I guess so.”
“Thanks. I’ll explain later.”
Minutes later, Ray Hall was with Ed Gruenthal, the detective who had been in charge of Phil Kramer’s murder case, and Emily’s breakin. “I’ve got something. The car he used this time was a new Lexus GX 470 SUV, and the color is called silver sand.”
“Who saw it?”
“The woman’s name is Ruth Kelly. She lives one street over, but she sits in an upper rear window in the afternoons. The light is good at that time of day, and the window overlooks her garden. It also gives a great view of my street and the front of my house.” He handed Gruenthal a sheet from his pocket notebook. “Here’s her name and address. She couldn’t tell what it was, but she noticed that my next-door neighbor stopped by right around then, and he saw it up close. I called him, and he knew all about it. That other name on the paper, Ron Salvatore, is my neighbor, and that number is his cell phone. He knows you’ll want to talk to him.”
Gruenthal glanced at the paper with little apparent interest. “I’ll get somebody to see if this leads anywhere.”
Ray Hall held his anger in and took a moment to disguise it. He reminded himself that this kind of anger was really something else. In this case, it was worry and fear for Emily. “I think the SUV may be a rental. He seems to be driving something different every time he turns up. If he was just going to drive by and shoot her, it might be stolen, but he’d never drive her around in a stolen car.”
“You might be right.”
Ray said carefully, “Mrs. Kelly didn’t just see the car. She saw the guy putting Emily into it and driving it away. Ron Salvatore looked at the car practically with a microscope because he’s shopping for one like it. It’s not like there are eighty-five ways to go on this. Emily has been kidnapped, and there is exactly one lead to follow. One. Please. I’ll do as much as I can to help, but I don’t have any authority.”
“Look, Ray. You got me cornered less than a minute ago. I haven’t had a chance to get anybody to do anything, but I plan to. So don’t climb on me just yet. Give me a chance to mess things up first.”
“Sorry. I’ll start trying to find rental agencies with Lexus SUVs.”
“Good.” Gruenthal handed Hall his card. “Use the cell-phone number if you get anything. If you get a hint of anything.”
“I will.”
Hall stepped toward his house to start looking through telephone books. The two cops who had been going from house to house approached. He said, “Did you find something?”
“Not yet,” said the older one. “Do you have any pictures of her we might be able to use?”
Hall thought for a moment. “Yeah. I got one somebody took about two years ago, but she hasn’t changed.” He hurried inside, went to the big sideboard, and pulled open a drawer. He was a bit surprised to see it lying on top of the keys and coins and pens that he kept there. Sometimes things migrated to the surface, but more often they seemed to sink in the general disorder.
The picture was a shot that Billy Przwalski’s girlfriend had taken at the party when Sam had retired. Emily was wearing the red dress, and looking at Ray Hall. She had halfturned when she had sensed the girl nearby, seen the camera, and almost smiled. He handed it to the police officer. “I’d like-” he stopped himself. He didn’t need to have the picture back. “It’s exactly the way she looks now. There may be other pictures, but they won’t be any
