AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Noah’s voice came from somewhere else in the apartment. “Josie?”
She left the bathroom and walked down a short hallway to the living room. A stack of books rested on the coffee table next to a half-filled bottle of water. “Eve Bowers was here this morning.”
Noah stood just inside the front door. “I know. I just talked to a neighbor who saw her get into her car and drive off at six fifteen.”
“Alone?”
He nodded. “I had the super of the building pull security footage. She definitely left alone.”
Josie studied the pile of books. There were six in all. They were a mix of pop psychology and relationship advice, including the Collinses’ book. She bent over and pulled it from the bottom of the pile, flipping through the pages. Several of them were dog-eared. Many passages were underlined.
Noah walked over. “Do you think she was practicing the principles of her boss’s book on the person she was supposedly dating? Assuming that producer was right about her?”
“I don’t know,” Josie replied. “She told us she was single. Maybe she was highlighting these passages for when she met someone. Maybe she was dating someone and had recently broken up with them.”
A white paper fluttered from the pages of the book and onto the floor. Josie put the book back on the table and picked up the paper, turning it over in her hands. Not a paper, an unopened envelope. “What is it?” asked Noah.
Josie showed him the front of the envelope. It was addressed to Claudia Collins from a local nonprofit. The postage mark was from mid-December. Josie had received an identical envelope a month ago during their big holiday push for fundraising.
Noah said, “Junk mail?”
“I wouldn’t call it junk mail,” she replied. “But I doubt it’s crucial or personal.”
“What’s on the back?”
She flipped it over. In a small, cramped hand, someone had written a name. Josie read it aloud. “Archie Gamble.”
“The boyfriend, maybe?” Noah suggested.
“I don’t know. This is addressed to Claudia. I’m not sure if this handwriting belongs to her or to Eve.”
They looked around, searching for anything in plain view that might have Eve’s handwriting on it, but there was nothing. Noah said, “Take a photo. We’ll check it out later. Right now, we need to keep moving.”
Josie snapped a picture with her phone and then put the book back as she had found it. Noah motioned for her to follow him outside. Eve’s apartment building had exterior entrances along the first floor with parking spots directly in front of each unit. She put the spare key back where they’d found it. They hadn’t taken the time to get a warrant, but the landlord had given them permission to enter the property for a welfare check.
Josie looked up and down the street. “Which way did she go?”
Noah pointed in the direction of the bagel place that Margot had told them Eve frequented. “Let’s head to the bagel place next,” she said.
Josie drove while Noah checked his phone for updates. They had left Gretchen and a couple of uniformed officers at the WYEP studio to take statements from everyone who worked on the Collinses’ show. They’d roused Mettner from his much-deserved rest to have him try to find out whether or not Eve’s Nissan had a navigation system that could be used to track her whereabouts. With every minute that passed, Josie’s dread grew bigger. The coffee she had had that morning burned a hole in her stomach.
Noah said, “Dispatch pinged her phone. Last known location was the city park.”
Josie glanced at him. “The city park is between here and the bagel place, assuming she took Squillace Road over to Greiner Avenue. Let’s just go there.”
“That would be the quickest way with the least traffic,” Noah said. “Although that early in the morning in January, on a Saturday? I don’t know that there would be that much traffic.”
“Did they get a specific location within the park?”
“Near the main entrance.”
“What are the odds she’s just hanging out there by the main entrance?” Josie muttered. “Call in some units in case we need to search the park.”
Noah made the call. It took ten minutes to get to the city park. Josie scanned the vehicles lined up on the sidewalk along the street near the park’s main entrance, but she didn’t see a Nissan. There were already units on hand. Josie instructed them to circle the entire park and drive up to Beau and Claudia Collinses’ home again, just to make sure Eve hadn’t decided to go there for some strange reason. She and Noah drove on and checked the parking lots inside the city park. They found nothing.
Back at the main entrance, Josie parked her SUV. She and Noah got out and started walking toward the handful of patrol officers standing just inside the park, awaiting further instructions.
Noah said, “You want to send these guys out to look for Eve Bowers’s car?”
