“I suppose even if I didn’t give you her address, you could get it from another source,” Hilly told them. “So I might as well make it easy on you.”

“That would be lovely,” Oliver said.

“You’ve been very open,” Marge said. “We appreciate that.”

“That’s my family style…to be open. It has pluses and minuses. Often, I put my foot in my mouth. But the flip side is I’ll never get a stress ulcer.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

OVER THE PHONE, Marge said to Decker, “She’s not answering her cell and she’s not answering the door.”

“Where does she live?”

“She has a condo about two miles from the hospital.”

“She’s entitled not to be home at five in the evening. Maybe she went out for an early dinner and turned off her phone.” He paused. “It’s warm outside. Do you smell anything weird?”

“Just the faint hint of cat piss outside the door.”

“Can you see inside at all?”

“Window shades are drawn. No pry marks on the front door and windows.”

“Leave your card,” Decker said. “If you don’t hear from her in a couple of hours, you can go back.”

“Oliver and I are going back to Garage. We’ll grab some dinner there.”

“You’re going to question Crystal Larabee again?”

“That and hunt around for the mystery man that Adrianna was talking to. Maybe someone will remember him.”

“It’s a little early for the bar crowd,” Decker remarked.

“That’s the point,” Marge said. “The earlier we arrive, the more likely we’ll find gray matter hasn’t been obliterated by alcohol.”

BY THE TIME the two of them had put away all the chairs and cleaned up, Hannah’s Volvo was the lone car in a poorly lit parking lot that sat across the street from the school. She jingled her keys.

“I have to lock up the gate.” She tried to find the correct key by feel. “Man, I’m tired.”

“You’re the president,” Gabe told her. “Can’t you assign an underling to put away the chairs?”

“Yeah, I probably should have done that at the beginning of the year.”

They waited at the traffic light. When it turned green, they trudged across the street.

“What time is it?” Gabe asked her.

“Seven-thirty. I should call home. My parents are going to start to worry. I’ll do it from the car. I just want to get out of here.”

She walked over to the wrought-iron gate and gave it a push, struggling to slide it across the track. “Can you help me get this on track?”

“Shouldn’t we do it after we pull out the car?”

“I just want to get it on track first.”

Gabe tucked his briefcase under his arm and said, “You get the car. I’ll do…”