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“What do you mean she’s missing?”
Stroud’s dry, cracked lip quirks up. He thinks I’m being evasive—and therefore I’ve just made this a game to him.
“Sylvia Stone is missing,” he repeats. “When was the last time you saw her?”
“Three days ago. In Deep Shadows, when you saw us.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“Well, Mr. Cohen, she’s been missing since then. Since that night.”
“For three days?”
“Yes, sir.”
Sir.
“How do you know this?” I ask.
“An acquaintance stopped by her house this morning after Miss Stone failed to answer several of her calls.”
“Who?”
“Her hairdresser, Ginger Dubois. Says she went by her house to drop something off—a deep conditioning kit or something.”
“And?”
“And Sylvia wasn’t there. A few UPS boxes were piled at her doorstep, one with the delivery date of October 17th, the day after I saw you and her—technically, the morning of. Ginger got worried, and called us for a welfare check.” He examines the scabby scratches on my cheek.
“I didn’t hurt her if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“I know, she told me you fell, remember? She said that’s where you got those ugly claw marks down your face that look just like the mark of a woman’s fingernails.” He grins, baiting me. “Can you walk me through that day, Mr. Cohen? How about you start here: why the hell were you guys at an abandoned house in the middle of the night?”
“House hunting.”
He snorts. “You always were a smartass. Fine. For who? You?”
“Yep.”
“Ah that’s right,” he snorts. “Your house and truck, and your business, it got all repossessed right after you went to prison for murdering her mom.”
“I didn’t murder Marjorie Stone.”
“Give it up, Cohen. No one believed you then, no one believes you now, and you served your sentence, just give it up.”
“It would be easier to give it up if you’d leave me alone.”
“We can do this here or at the station, your choice.”
Anger spreads like fire up my neck. I feel sweat beading on my back. I hate that he can do this to me.
“Now,” Stroud continues, “tell me what you two were really doing.”
“House hunting, I said.”
“Fine. And after?”
