The Missing Heiress

Chapter 11

I told Wolfe that Lily had gotten Sofia to overcome her reluctance and would deliver her to us. He nodded his approval and then returned to his book. Heaven forbid that the man should have to expend energy by exercising his vocal cords.

Other than the upcoming 9:00 p.m. meeting, the only other activity that day relating to the case was when Saul, Fred, and Orrie dropped by together to pick up photographs of Maureen. Similar to the suggestion I had made to Orrie earlier, Saul had drawn up a plan in which each of the three of them would be assigned to canvass a specific location, such as Penn Station. Sure, this plan was a long shot at best, but we did not have a lot else going for us.

Lily, with Sofia in tow, rang the doorbell at eight fifty-five, and as usual I acted as greeter. “Hello, sir,” Sofia said to me, wearing a somber expression and looking like she would rather be anywhere but at an old brownstone on West Thirty-Fifth Street.

I put their coats on the hall hanger and led them into the office, where at my direction Lily took the red leather chair and Sofia sat primly on the front edge of one of the yellow ones that faced the unoccupied desk. Within seconds, Wolfe walked in, detoured around said desk, and sat. If Sofia was surprised by his bulk, she did not show it. But Lily surely had prepared her for the experience of meeting him.

Once seated, Wolfe dipped his head in his guests’ direction, then asked if Sofia and Lily would like something to drink. They both declined.

“Thank you very much for sparing the time to come here tonight, madam,” Wolfe said. “I will try not to take too long.” Sofia nodded but said nothing.

“How long have you been in Miss Carr’s employ?”

“Almost three years.”

“You must know her quite well then. Would you say she is a good person to work for?”

“Yes... a very nice lady, very nice.”

“Does she travel a good deal?”

“Maybe... two times a year, maybe three sometimes.”

“When Miss Carr does leave home, where does she go, Mrs. Jurek? Does she have favorite locations where she takes vacations?”

Sofia frowned, as if thinking. “She often likes to go to places where it is warm. When she comes home, she is... brown.”

“Ah, tanned, I see,” Wolfe said. “How long is she gone on these trips?”

Another frown. “Two weeks, sometimes longer.”

“And does she always tell you when she will be going away?”

“Oh yes, always.”

“But not this time, Mrs. Jurek?”

“No... not this time,” she replied in a subdued voice and shook her head.

“Do you have any idea at all where she might have gone on this occasion?”

“No, I have told them” — she looked at Lily and then at me — “that she did not say anything to me about going away. I am very worried about Miss Carr.”

“A natural reaction,” Wolfe said. “Did she take a lot of clothing with her?”

“She has so many clothes. Miss Rowan and I went through her closets, but we could not tell how much was missing.” She looked at Lily, who nodded and smiled.

“Had Miss Carr ever been married?”

“Yes... before I began working for her.”

“Have you ever met her former husband?”

Sofia shook her head. It was clear that this questioning was difficult for her, but Wolfe pushed on.

“In the days before Miss Carr disappeared, did you notice any changes in her mood?”

“Mood... I do not know that word.”

“Her behavior. Did she seem different in any way? You have been around Miss Carr a good deal over the last three years, so you must be familiar with how she acts, how she behaves.”

Sofia was silent for close to a half minute. When she spoke, it was once again in a voice that could barely be heard. “The last time I saw her, she seemed the same, although maybe a little quieter.”

“Would you say that she was sad?”

“I don’t... think so. Just quiet, like she was thinking.”

“Who would you say Miss Carr’s best friends are?”

“Miss Rowan is one,” she said, turning to Lily. “And Miss Evans and Mrs. Hart.”

“That would be Donna Evans and Cordelia Hart,” Lily put in. “They are part of a group Maureen and I are in, and I have talked to both of them about Maureen’s disappearance. They are every bit as puzzled as I am.”

“I believe you were present during some of the social events at Miss Carr’s residence.”

“Yes, sir. I helped to serve the food and the drinks,” Sofia answered.

“Are you collecting Miss Carr’s mail for her?” Wolfe asked.

“Yes, I am.”

“Have you opened any of it?”

Sofia jerked upright as if she had been slapped. “No! I would never do that!”

“Tell me about the mail.”

She gave a sort of shrug, or really more a hunching, of her narrow shoulders. “I haven’t looked at any of it,” she said in a defensive tone.

“Some of that mail may be important to Miss Carr, or important in finding her,” Wolfe said. “I suggest you give all of it to Miss Rowan. You trust her, don’t you?”

“Yes, but...”

“But what?”

Sofia clenched small fists and shivered. I felt the young woman was getting stretched to the limit of her endurance. “All right... Miss Rowan can take all of the mail,” she said.

“We are not going to open that mail, Mrs. Jurek, just study it. Do you have any other thoughts about what might have caused Miss Carr to leave home so abruptly?” Wolfe asked.

Realizing she was nearing the end of what she felt was an ordeal, Sofia exhaled and seemed to relax slightly. “No, sir, I do not have any other thoughts about... about what has happened to Miss Carr. I am sorry that I cannot be of help.”

Wolfe rose without a word and walked out of the office as Sofia watched him with puzzlement. “Another of your boss’s abrupt exits,” Lily remarked. “He’s famous for them, of course.”

“If famous is the right word,” I replied. “Mrs. Jurek, I echo Mr. Wolfe’s thanks for your coming here. You were most patient.”

“Sofia, if you go to the hall and get your coat, I’ll be along shortly,” Lily said. “I need to talk to Mr. Goodwin.” The young woman couldn’t get out of the office fast enough, and as she exited, Lily turned to me.

“Seems to me that he was a little rough on her,” she observed, “or maybe curt is a better word.”

“Tact has never been one of Wolfe’s strong suits,” I conceded, “as you well know.”

“And on top of that, he did not get much out of Sofia, as far as I could tell.”

“Agreed. I don’t think there was a lot of gold to be mined there. Will you get Maureen’s mail for us?”

“I will, although I’m not sure how any of it will help us find her.”

“Neither am I, but it can’t hurt to take a look at it — unopened, of course.”

“You will have it tomorrow,” Lily said. “And we should bring Eric Mason up to speed on this development, or lack of a development. After all, he is a client, and the paying one, at that.”

“We will reach out to Mason,” I told her as I walked her to the hall, where Sofia was nervously waiting to get sprung.