Cold Case, Hot Accomplice

Her dark, well-shaped eyebrows lifted as if she was surprised by his question. “I fell asleep for about two hours sometime during the early morning.” She spoke the words as if disgusted with herself, as though maybe if she hadn’t slept, Liz Marcoli would be where she belonged this morning.

“You need to sleep and you need to eat during this ordeal. No matter how hard it is, you need to try to keep to your normal routine as much as possible. You won’t be any help to me or anyone else if you don’t take care of yourself.”

She eyed him as if expecting a trick and then leaned forward, bringing with her the scent he always noticed around her—a whisper of spring flowers topped with a dash of exotic spices. “Speaking of being helpful, I think maybe we gave you the impression yesterday that our mother is dead.”

“She’s not?”

Roxy shook her head. “She’s very much alive, and probably the only person on the face of the earth who might call and have Aunt Liz running off someplace to her rescue.”

This time it was Steve who looked at her in surprise. “I just assumed by what you told me about your aunt raising you all that your mother was dead.” He pulled out a notepad. “What’s her name?”

“Ramona Marcoli, although who knows at this time what her last name might be.”

“Marcoli? I thought your aunt had been married.”

“She was, but when her husband died she took back her maiden name.” Softness swept into her eyes. It was there only a moment and then gone. “Her husband’s name was Joe Arnoni, and he was the love of her life. When he died she couldn’t stand to hear his name. It hurt too badly, so she went back to being Liz Marcoli.”

“Do you know where your mother lives?”

“The last time I saw or spoke to my mother was when I was nine and she dropped off Sheri, who was a newborn, for Aunt Liz to take care of. Stop by, drop off the unwanted garbage and then get on with your life—that was apparently Ramona’s motto.” She didn’t try to hide her bitterness.

“Do you have any idea where she was living the last time you saw her?” Steve asked.

“At that time I think she was living someplace in Harrisburg, but it’s anyone’s guess where she might be now.”

“And you think that if your mother needed her, your aunt Liz would drop everything and go to wherever your mother might be?” Steve asked, a touch of relief flooding through him as this new scenario came to light.

“Yes, but if that had happened, Aunt Liz would have somehow managed to call one of us by now to let us know she was okay.” Once again Roxy’s eyes simmered with fresh panic. “She would have taken her purse and driven her car. I think we definitely need to get together a search party as quickly as possible.”

So far she’d been relatively calm and reasonable, but Steve knew his next words would probably change all that. “Roxy, there isn’t going to be a search party.”

She stared at him as if he’d suddenly spoken an ancient language she didn’t understand. “What are you talking about? Of course we need to get together a search party. We need to find Aunt Liz.”

“It doesn’t work that way, Roxy.” He drew in a breath as he saw the narrowing of her eyes, and she sat back in the chair as if gathering her strength to throttle him.

He continued at his own peril. “At this point we can’t even confirm that a crime has taken place. The first thing we need to do is locate your mother and see if perhaps your aunt is with her.”

“And how do you suggest we do that?” she asked.

“I’ll get Frank on it. He’s the magic man when it comes to finding people through the internet. Do you know if she has any kind of a criminal record?”

“I have no idea, but it wouldn’t surprise me.”

“If she has a record, then we’ll find her fairly easily. In the meantime, today I plan to speak in person with all of your aunt’s friends to see if maybe they know some information about her personal life that might explain this absence. Finally, I’d like to take another look around inside your aunt’s house. You said she had a cell phone that was probably in her purse. What about a computer?”

“She doesn’t own one.”

“I need to get her cell phone and see if maybe there’s something on it that will help us.”

Roxy’s eyes blazed with the anger and helplessness he’d expected. “I don’t know how you’ll find my mother, but I’ll take you back to Aunt Liz’s house and you can see what we might have missed yesterday that might help figure this all out.”

He nodded and started to speak, but she didn’t give him a chance. “And if you’re planning on interviewing Aunt Liz’s friends, then I’m going with you.”

“I already have two partners,” Steve said.

She leaned forward, getting right in his face. “And now you have a third,” she said in a voice that brooked no argument.

Chapter 4

Despite Roxy’s desire for immediate action, it was almost nine by the time they finally left the police station. Frank had arrived and agreed to work on hunting up an address for Ramona, and he also planned to upload Liz’s information into the missing-persons database.

The thought of Aunt Liz officially being part of a national missing-persons pool made everything more frightening and real than it already had been.

She opened the door to the passenger side of Steve’s car to return to her aunt’s house, and tossed the fast-food wrappers that were on the seat to the floor. “I should have figured you for a messy man,” she said, at the same time trying to swallow against a newfound terror.

“Actually, you caught me on a good day. Usually there’s at least five times more trash in the car than there is now. That’s the evidence of my dinner last night.” He slid behind the steering wheel and cranked the engine while she tried to find a place for her feet amid the wrappers.

“You know that kind of food will eventually kill you,” she said.

He cast her a quick smile. “Ah, Foxy Roxy, I didn’t know you cared.”

“I don’t. And stop calling me that.”

“It’s just a little pet name,” he said.

She glared at him. “Do you have pet names for all your girlfriends? Let me guess...there’s Lucky Lucy and Boobsie Betty.”

“And don’t forget Willing Wendy,” he supplied, and as he smiled at her again she realized exactly what he’d done. He’d taken her terror and transformed it into an aggravation toward him, an emotion that felt safer and far more familiar than the stifling fear.

She rolled down her window and for a moment they rode in silence. “Thank you,” she finally said.

“You’re welcome,” he replied, apparently not needing an explanation for her gratitude. “I know it’s tough, Roxy,” he added softly.

She didn’t reply. There was no way he could know all the feelings that she was experiencing at the moment. Aunt Liz had been missing for an entire day and night.

Even Marlene and Sheri wouldn’t be feeling the full ache of emptiness, the utter horror that continuously tried to crawl up her throat. Sure, they’d be worried and afraid, but they weren’t as emotionally tied to Aunt Liz as Roxy was. They didn’t have the memories of what life had been like before Aunt Liz.

Horrific memories.

A childhood that no kid should have to suffer.

Roxy had spent her entire life making sure that Sheri and Marlene had only happiness in their lives. She had made caretaking for her sisters her number one priority, and she’d always known that while she was her sisters’ emotional support, Aunt Liz was hers.

There was no way surfer dude knew the ache of absence, the fear of the unknown that had Roxy’s emotions simmering with anxiety and terror. Probably the worst thing he’d ever suffered was a painful hangnail.

Still, as she gazed out the window she couldn’t help but smell him, the scent of minty soap and shaving cream and a whisper of sandalwood cologne.

She shot him a surreptitious glance and then looked back out the window. There was no question that she found him more than a little bit attractive, as did most of the single and married women in town, although she’d never heard any gossip about him with any married woman.