concerned boyfriend, except that Wisdom could hear an obsession in the man’s voice that gives him pause. His contacts at NYPD will give it all a good look. No one has yet suggested that they call in the FBI. Hell. There isn’t even any evidence of a kidnapping.
He looks up just in time to see his son swinging a bat as he moves into the on-deck area. There is only an inning to go and he wants to watch the whole game. In the summer he never knows how many Little League games he’ll get to. You never stop being on the job even when you’re off the clock.
The next morning Detective Wisdom sits at his desk, yawns, and reaches for the Starbuck’s iced cappuccino. It’s Thursday, a late-June Thursday, and every Thursday he promises himself a stop at the East Hampton Starbuck’s even though it’s a bit out of the way. He’s already savored the last few crumbs of the bran muffin. He flips open his notebook and rereads his neat printed summary of what he needs to do that day. For the moment he ignores the files that lie on the corner of his desk regarding detailed follow-up of police-related activities; a break-in and robbery at an expensive house in East Hampton, a possible hate crime assault of a local Hispanic landscaper in the Springs, and a fight outside a bar in Montauk in the early morning of the past Saturday. Things will be getting worse. The season has just begun. There will be fights, robberies, even the rare possibility of a murder. There will likely be more overtime, although he would prefer there wasn’t. He’s already missed two of his son’s Little League games.
He closes the pad and sighs. Something gnaws at him. The missing woman from New York. He hasn’t made any progress. Then a small kernel of an idea grows. He picks up the phone and dials the extension of the department’s tech specialist.
After two rings, Ray Baxter picks up.
“Ray. Peter Wisdom. Can you please clarify something for me? If someone used a two or three-year-old Verizon wireless cell phone six weeks ago, can you still tell me where the call was made from? Sorry, but we don’t have the phone. I’d rather ask you first than depend on Verizon. I’ll talk to them when we know more.” Wisdom fills in more of the details and leaves the rest to the resident techie.
Ray calls back the next morning.
“Sorry it took so long, but I wanted to check something with the Feds before getting back. You were right to ask. The technology changes so fast these days that something new could turn up tomorrow. Anyway, the story is this: If the woman’s phone was a few years old, it probably didn’t have one of the new embedded chips. If she did, the new tracking systems would enable Verizon to pinpoint the source of the call to within fifty feet or less. Assuming she didn’t have the chip, and the call was made a few months ago, the best they could do would be to determine that the call was transmitted through a local tower. In this case it was probably in Amagansett.”
“Remind me. Where’s the tower?” asks Wisdom, oblivious to his admission that he didn’t remember exactly where, although he’d knew about the construction several years before.
Ray gives the location. It’s a quasi-industrial area away from the larger summer homes. The rich don’t want a tall radio tower in their backyard.
“What’s the area range that it covers?” asks Wisdom.
“That’s the problem,” said Ray. “It’s a pretty big area. Look at it as a pie shape with a diameter of two to three miles. Around here that especially covers a lot of space with water views. You did say the call came from a house with water views, didn’t you?”
Wisdom sighs and breathes faint curses into the receiver. Ray doesn’t need to repeat the question.
“As long as the Feds aren’t involved there’s not usually a problem and city hasn’t suggested calling them in as yet. Nor should we or County. So far there’s absolutely no hint of a kidnapping. Damn!”
Chief Ferris manages to get all but the last few words out before a drop of yolk from his fried egg breakfast sandwich leaks onto his shirt. He looks down, wets his handkerchief with a daub from his tongue, and blots the spot as he shakes his head.
“Lucky I always keep extra shirts in the office closet, but first let’s see how it dries.”
He’s called Wisdom into his office on a cool August day to fill him in on the “Heidi case” as they called it in the office. He doesn’t often get so involved in a case, but Wisdom is happy for the input. The chief has been around and knows the score. He pulls a folder up from his clean desk and reads from the combined NYPD and town reports.
“After nearly three months of waiting, nothing’s turned up. When she disappeared, she had over thirty thousand dollars in her bank account at Chase, and more to the point there weren’t any recent major cash withdrawals. The last one was the day before she took the bus and that was only for a hundred. All of the last checks she wrote were for normal commercial expenses like rent, Con Edison, Verizon, and the Food Emporium. She has one credit card, a Chase Visa. Not much there except for some department store clothing purchases. Again nothing since she went missing. Certainly no purchase of airline or railroad tickets.
“They haven’t heard anymore from her parents in Europe, which boggles the mind, nor have they opted to call in the Feds. What they have done is follow an idea you had to check out Dr. Stern more closely. Initially they thought it was far-fetched. After all he was the one who first reported her missing. They had a strong emotional relationship and he brought in the cell phone message where she said she was in some nice house out here with a water view.”
“We know all that,” says Wisdom. “Did they find anything?”
“More than a little. First thing is that Stern can’t confirm an alibi for that day. Says he wasn’t on call on the day she disappeared. Says he rented a car and drove upstate to the area where he grew up, had a bite at some diner and came back late afternoon. Didn’t talk to anyone who would remember him, didn’t use a credit card for anything. Nada.”
“So what’s wrong with the picture?”
“The mileage to start with. Several weeks later he rented another car also from the same Avis East Side pick-up location. You’ll remember that’s when he came out here with the FOIA list and spoke to some people from the bus. The mileage on the day he came out here was almost the same as the time when he claimed he went upstate.”
“Meaning he could have been here and not upstate on the day she disappeared. Meaning he could have followed her out to East Hampton and trailed her from the bus stop. But what about the cell phone call he got from her? Wouldn’t his phone have shown that he was out here when he received the call?”
“Claims he forgot the phone that day. Says he was pissed that she didn’t want him to come along and accidentally left it back in his apartment and only got her message when he got home.”
“That sounds lame. He’s a doctor for chrissakes. He needs to be available twenty-four seven.”
“Says he did have his pager but had no messages.”
“Anything else?”
“NYPD also says they made some discreet inquiries about the relationship between the two of them. Seems they were getting it off pretty regularly, but she wasn’t doing it only with him. She was pretty accommodating to anyone on the staff who showed any interest. So much so they had some fights that weren’t so private, but they haven’t hit him yet with any of this.”
“Jesus!” Wisdom shakes his head sideways in a universal sign of disapproval. “So are we still involved at all?”
“Not directly, but there are two more things you should know about. When New York was talking to Stern, he volunteered that he had a feeling that either of two guys from the bus probably knew more than they were letting on. They’d like us to talk to them again. It’s Welbrook and Posner. Before you say anything, I know you already spoke to both of them and they were clean, but we’d be doing the city boys a favor, and I like it when they owe us. And before you see them, do some research on their backgrounds. If by any chance they’re lying to us, I want to know enough so we can catch them in it. I spoke to County and they’re with us on this.”
The report on Wisdom’s meetings with Posner and Welbrook rests in a growing folder he holds in his lap. Posner remains a very long shot possible suspect in Heidi’s disappearance based solely on the chance bus meeting, although Wisdom has no reason to put much faith in this theory. He doesn’t need to find the interview report with Welbrook to remember that particular exchange.
Benjamin Welbrook agreed to meet with Wisdom on short notice. His house is larger than Posner’s and has more panoramic ocean views, but both houses exude a level of wealth found with some prevalence throughout the area. Wisdom’s summary describes Welbrook as a very poised middle-aged individual involved in entertainment law. He dresses in simple, yet elegant clothing; white linen pants and a blue designer shirt with the sleeves rolled to the
