The Notorious Mrs. Wright

A sleight-of-hand artist was about to perform in the courtyard. A placard on the table said the restaurant offered entertainment Friday and Saturday nights and supplied catering for weddings and parties off-site and on-site in private rooms. Coming in, Whit had ambled through the gift shop off the lobby where coffees, teas, wines and the house cookbook and salad dressing were for sale.

The dining room was packed tonight, as it had been the other times he’d been in. Business seemed to be thriving.

He decided to skip the show and head over to his room to follow up on the couple of new pieces of information he’d just learned. He glanced around before leaving, but Susan Wright seemed to have disappeared.

Tomorrow he’d try to get a better look at her. Maybe then, after two months of following dead-end leads, crisscrossing the country and driving himself insane, he could finally start wrapping up this case and get his life back to normal.

OUTSIDE, THE HOT JULY AIR rushed to envelop Whit and brought a fine sheen of sweat to his skin. He inhaled the scent of the pink tropical flowers growing near the restaurant’s porch. Across the palm-lined boulevard, a barrier island blocked his view of the Atlantic Ocean, but the Intracoastal Waterway and the bay it ran through seemed to have turned to silver in the fading light. He decided to walk back to the motel along the wide concrete seawall.

The town, he’d discovered during the past two nights, didn’t wind down at dark. Although the colorful street “trains” that shuttled visitors to attractions ceased at six o’clock, there were plenty of horse-drawn carriages. People milled about, browsing in shop windows or taking walking tours of haunted houses. Music and laughter poured from the bars and restaurants.

His motel was only two blocks away. Inside his room, he sat on the bed and checked his messages. He returned a call to his Pittsburgh office, knowing that even if his assistant wasn’t in, someone probably would be.

Cliff Hodges, one of his investigators and a good friend, picked up.

“Cliff, I didn’t expect you to answer. What are you still doing there at eight on a Friday night?”

“Working. What are you still doing in Florida?”

“Working.”

“Then I’d say we both need to reevaluate our social lives, old buddy.”

“I have no social life.”

“I’ve noticed that about you.”

“Is Deborah still there? She left a message saying an Allen Morrow was looking for me, but I don’t know who that is.”

“She’s long gone, but I was here when she took the call, and I talked to Morrow briefly. He identified himself as an assistant district attorney from Los Angeles County. Says he’s met you before and kept your business card.”

“I don’t remember him. Did he say what he wants?”

“He needs us to locate a missing witness in a case he’s prosecuting. His in-house staff hasn’t come up with anything. He left his private number and wants a call back as soon as possible.”

“Hand him off to Cordell in the West Coast office, and let him handle it.”

“I tried. I told him you were out of town, but he still wants you to call him. He’s insistent. Apparently he’s prosecuting the murder of a cop, and he’s afraid his star witness might not turn up to testify. He needs a little hand-holding from the boss.”

“Too bad he didn’t call last week when I was out there working on this case.” Whit checked the time. Just after five o’clock in California. “Okay, give me the number. But in the morning, fill in Cordell so he can take over. And ask Deborah to run the usual checks on Morrow to make sure he is who he says he is.”

“Will do. When are you coming back?”

“I don’t know. I’m following up on a few things and they may or may not pan out.”

“Are you still on the same case?”

“Afraid so.”

“Pro bono, right?”

“Right. The client’s a friend of Wes Campbell’s at the Pittsburgh PD. As a favor to Wes, I said I’d dig around and see what I could turn up on the guy’s runaway sister, never dreaming I’d still be doing legwork two months later.”

“Must be a bugger to keep you tied up so long.”

“It’s a cold case.”

“How long has she been gone?”

“Twenty-three years.”

“Jeez, Whit, that’s not cold, that’s frozen.”

“Yeah, the time gap’s not making it any easier to find her, that’s for sure. The case is fascinating, though. I can’t remember when I’ve worked on one that frustrated or excited me as much. I’m having to resort to some old-fashioned investigative techniques to get what I need. The computer’s been pretty helpful, but it hasn’t helped me as much as the face-to-face interviews.”

“What do you have so far?”

“I’ve traced her whereabouts in the early 1980s to Los Angeles and Hollywood, where she was living on the streets for a few years and calling herself by various names, but then her trail suddenly ended again. I’ve found no public record anywhere of her after that under her real name or any alias she’s used. No social security activity, no driver’s license, nothing.”

“Sounds like she’s dead. Could be she ended up an unidentified Jane Doe.”

“That’s what I figured at first, but I’ve come to believe she’s just good at covering her tracks. Maybe as good as anyone I’ve come across.”

“She must be good if you can’t find her.” He chuckled. “So somebody’s finally outfoxed the master, huh? If you ever do find her, maybe you need to give her a job training our investigators in the Witness Location division.”

“Don’t laugh. That’s not a bad idea. She’s already taught me a few things. Every time I think I’m close to figuring out what she’s done to hide, I have to do a one-eighty and backtrack.”

“But you think now you’ve got a good lead on her?”

“More like a hunch. I think I know what she did. My gut tells me I may even have found her, but I don’t have proof, just some scraps of information that are adding up.”

“Your hunches are usually solid.”

“Yeah, and I believe I’m solid this time, but I’m a long way from where I need to be to take it to the client. I think she’s calling herself Susan Roberts Wright, the widow of William Wright. Someone’s been moving from state to state under that identity for the past several years, but I can’t find any marriage certificate or death certificate for the supposedly deceased husband, and the widow’s age and description change as often as her hairstyle.”

“Can the client ID?”

“That’s what I’m hoping. I’ve been checking local records the past few days and trying to work myself into a position to get photos I can show him.”

“Have you set up surveillance?”

“Yeah, but the lady apparently doesn’t have any more of a social life than you and me. I haven’t been able to catch her outside of the restaurant she owns. She hasn’t even used her car in three days.”

“What about her home?”

“She lives above the business and has a separate entrance in the rear. I’ve backed off from watching that. I can’t do it without being pegged as a prowler.”

“So what are you doing?”