By the time we reached the main course, though, I was eager to change the topic. I searched around for a ploy.

Eighteen

“Do you mind if I call home?” I asked, pulling out my cell phone and glancing apologetically around the table. I moved a few feet away and dialed Karen’s number. Not that I really expected her to answer it, but I’d dialed it so often in the last couple of days that it was the first number that came to mind. I let it ring for a while, turning my back to the table so the Driscolls couldn’t see that I wasn’t talking to anyone, and then returned to my seat.

“Sorry,” I said. “My brother Rob is baby-sitting, and I’m a little worried. He’s not very experienced.”

“Oh, you have children?” Mrs. Driscoll asked. And then a puzzled and slightly alarmed look crossed her face—no doubt as she recalled the scant two months since our wedding.

“Not yet,” Michael said. “We’re taking care of a friend’s child. In fact, you probably know her—Karen Walker. Meg, isn’t Karen in Ambrose’s department?”

“Young Timothy?” Mrs. Driscoll exclaimed, a relieved smile spreading over her face. “My goodness—he’s quite a handful, isn’t he?”

“You have no idea,” I said.

Dr. Driscoll looked troubled.

“Do you know where she’s gone?” he asked.

“No idea,” I said. “She dropped Timmy off with me Monday morning and I haven’t heard from her since. Not that I can convince Chief Burke of that.”

“Isn’t it shocking?” Mrs. Driscoll said, shaking her head. “Ambrose has had the police in his office all day.”

“You’d think they suspected me of something,” Dr. Driscoll said.

“Well, Chief Burke’s not with the college,” Michael said.

“Precisely!” Mrs. Driscoll said, beaming as if Michael had said something particularly significant. Dr. Driscoll nodded solemnly and folded his hands on the table.

“I really don’t think Chief Burke quite grasps the situation,” he said, in a voice that had probably lulled generations of his fellow college staffers into gentle naps during financial meetings. “Karen is not the sort of young person to get involved in some kind of sordid embezzlement scheme. In fact—are you familiar with the unfortunate events we experienced two years ago?”

“Not really,” I said.

“Not to go beyond this table,” he said, holding up one forefinger in warning. “But as I tried to explain to the police—”

“And were absolutely ignored,” Mrs. Driscoll put in.

“Two years ago, Karen came to me with very disturbing news,” Dr. Driscoll said. “She and her husband had separated—a very sad business.”

“Speak for yourself,” Mrs. Driscoll said. “Nothing sad about it. If you ask me, getting rid of that rascal was the smartest thing she ever did.”

“Yes, of course. I meant the marriage. I think she knew it was a mistake almost from the first. At any rate, she told me that she was packing up some things he’d left behind after she asked him to leave—”

“Kicked him out on his ear, you mean,” Mrs. Driscoll said. “If she’d asked him to leave, he could have packed up his own things.”