The Lost Years

74

At nine thirty on Friday morning Alvirah was sitting at the dinette table in her apartment, enjoying the cheese Danish that Willy, an early riser, had picked up for her in the coffee shop. “I know you only eat them once in a while, honey,” he had said, “but you’ve been working hard and it will give you energy.”

The phone rang. It was Betty Pierce. “I hope I’m not disturbing you,” she said in a worried voice. “Mrs. Meehan, I mean Alvirah, is Mariah with you, or have you heard from her?”

“Not since about five o’clock last night,” Alvirah said. “Isn’t she there? I know she went into New York early yesterday. Have you tried her cell phone?”

“No, she’s not. And she isn’t answering that phone or the phone in her office.”

“She could be on her way into the city again,” Alvirah suggested. “I know that yesterday her cell phone was off almost all day.”

“It’s more than that,” Betty said hurriedly. “Mariah is so neat. She never leaves clothes tossed around her room. Her nightgown is on the floor. The water glass on the night table was spilled and she didn’t bother to wipe it up. The closet door was open. There are a couple of jackets hanging off the hangers, as if she just grabbed something and ran. The pearls her father gave her are on the vanity table. She always keeps them in the safe. I thought some emergency might have come up with her mother at the hospital and so I called over there. But Kathleen had a quiet night and is asleep. And they said they haven’t seen or heard from Mariah today.”

Alvirah’s mind was working with feverish haste. “What about her car?” she asked.

“Her car is gone.”

“Does it look as if there was any kind of struggle?”

“I can’t say it does. It looks more like she left in a terrible hurry.”

“What about the Scotts? Did you talk to them?”

“No. I know Mrs. Scott likes to sleep late.”

“All right. I’ll call Mr. Scott. I have his cell phone. If you hear from Mariah, call me at once, and I’ll do the same for you.”

“I will. But, Alvirah, I’m desperate with worry. Rory and Lillian seem to have both disappeared. Do you think there’s any chance that—”

“Don’t even begin to think like that, Betty. I’ll talk to you later.” Alvirah tried not to let the anxiety that was making her hand tremble show in her voice. As soon as she hung up, she dialed Lloyd’s number. As she feared, he had not spoken to Mariah since yesterday afternoon.

“I’ve been in the office for an hour,” Lloyd said. “Mariah’s car wasn’t in the driveway when I passed by her house. Of course, she might have put it in the garage.”

“It’s not in the garage,” Alvirah said. “Lloyd, my hunches are good. You’ve got to call those detectives and get them to put a trace on Mariah’s cell phone and rush Wally Gruber over to make that sketch. If he comes up with a face we can identify, we’ll know where to look for Mariah.”

If it’s not too late, she thought.

As she put the phone down, Alvirah tried to banish that awful possibility from her mind.