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A flicker of some emotion passed over Reistad’s face too fast for Tony to identify it. “She was upbeat and immensely likable. Pretty, as I’m sure you’re aware. People tended to think she was considerably younger than her age. Chris was popular here, both with staff and clients. I’ll admit to being shocked when she disappeared. I know the assumption was that she’d run off with a man, but I was stunned that she hadn’t given notice. We had to really scramble to cover her work.”
“I’m told she was part-time.”
“Some of the year. Not when she walked out.” He shook his head, as if annoyed with himself. “Except she didn’t. Finding out she was murdered…well, that’s another shock.”
“Very much so for her family.”
“Yes, it would be, wouldn’t it? I’m told she was…in the wall? How is that possible?”
Were details like that common knowledge now? Tony supposed it would be irresistible. “It’s an older house,” he explained, “built differently than newer ones. And she was a very small woman.”
“I see.”
If he was disturbed, Tony couldn’t tell.
Reistad walked him out, stopping to ask a woman in one of the offices to look up Andrea Vanbeek’s forwarding address. She jotted it down and handed the slip of paper to Tony.
He left, mulling over his impressions of the guy. Unless Keith, too, had called Emily to mine for information, was there any way he could know that Beth might be able to identify her mother’s killer, if a single memory clicked into place?
As Christine’s boss, he’d probably met her kids in passing but wasn’t likely to have had much of a relationship with them. Wouldn’t even Emily have wondered if he’d called her now out of the blue?
Yeah, but this wasn’t that big a town. He could have run into Oberholtzer, the banker, or Longley, the attorney. It would be natural for them to share what they knew, especially if he pumped the well a little, so to speak.
A few phone calls, Tony thought, and he could find out.
* * *
EMILY SOBBED INCONSOLABLY. Beth couldn’t understand a word her sister was saying.
She broke in, “Honey, you thought you were talking to friends. I know you didn’t want anything bad to happen.”
The wails rose in intensity.
“Please,” she begged. “Quit crying. This can’t be good for you.”
Her father had slipped away when he realized who she was calling. That being typical of him, she hardly noticed. And, really, listening to this conversation wouldn’t be any fun, even secondhand.
It took twenty minutes before her little sister’s sobs changed to hiccups and repeated, “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”
Emily announced her intention of coming to stay with Beth and take care of her, since this was all her fault.
Beth winced at the idea. “That’s nice of you,” she said gently, “but I already have a friend staying nights. It’s working out well. I’m actually at Dad’s today.”
When Beth asked, Emily woefully listed everyone she could remember telling about the drawing and the fact that her sister thought she might have seen another drawing by the same artist. Some of the names were harmless—Emily’s friends, Debra Abernathy, and Jennifer Sager, half of a couple who’d been friends of their parents.
“I had to upgrade my phone, and she saw me talking to one of the reps. She still manages the Verizon store, you know.”
“I haven’t seen her in years,” Beth admitted.
“Because your phone is practically an antique,” her sister retorted, confirming that she’d bounced back from her emotional storm.
Beth made a face, since her sister wouldn’t see her anyway. “It not only works just fine, it’s only four years old, which hardly qualifies as antique.” Living within her means wasn’t one of Emily’s strengths. It simply wouldn’t occur to her that she shouldn’t have the latest and greatest phone, which all of her friends were certain to buy, too.
A couple minutes later, Beth was able to claim Dad needed her, so she could get off the phone. The white lie came so easily, she realized she wasn’t as honest a person as she liked to think she was. That was probably no surprise; managing her dysfunctional family meant doing a lot of soothing. Matt was the only one who could take a direct comment. He might blow up, but later he’d apologize and at least understand why she’d said what she had.
