“Mr. Hallings.” I repeated his name with as much bravado as I could muster considering that I was sitting in the man’s backyard. I looked up to see if any lights had come on in the house, with the crazy idea he’d seen me peeking in through his windows and decided to give me a ring.
“Yes?” he said, clearly impatient and wondering why someone called him then left a long moment of dead air after he said his name into the phone. Should I hang up? Or was it more important to find out why he’d called? I decided to play it by ear.
“I believe you’ve been trying to reach me? My name is Eddie Shoes.”
“Eddie Shoes? You’re a woman?”
“Is there something I can do for you?” I asked. It wasn’t the first time I’d heard that response.
“Maybe,” Hallings said. “It’s about my wife.”
I waited to see if he’d elaborate. Had Kendra told him about me? Maybe she filed for divorce and I’d come up as a witness against him and his pre-nup. Or worse, he wanted to talk to me about the impending child.
“I’m wondering if you know where she is.”
That set me back a moment. No scenario I had been spinning out had him asking about her whereabouts.
Unless he had killed her and was establishing an alibi, a faithful husband trying to look concerned.
“What’s he saying?” Chava asked, leaning in toward me.
I covered the mouthpiece on the cell and waved her away. The last thing I wanted was for Hallings to hear her and recognize the voice of Trixie Apple. She held her hands up to show she’d understood and backed out of my line of sight.
“I’m not sure why you’re asking,” I said.
“I saw your number on Kendra’s call list,” he said, as though that explained everything.
“I think you need to give me a little more information.”
After a long pause, I heard a sigh and Hallings took a deep breath. “I’m sorry to bring you into this, but I’m concerned about my wife’s well-being, so I’m going to be less … decorous than I might otherwise be.”
Decorous? The guy ran a car dealership. Where did he come up with ‘decorous’? I had to stop negatively stereotyping people.
“Okay,” I said, hoping he’d continue without any more substantial input from me.
“I know about the party.”
Party? This conversation had made a turn into left field, and I was having trouble following. I leaned back in the chair and looked over to see what Chava was doing. At just that moment, I saw her open the apparently unlocked back door and walk into the Hallings’s house.
At least I hoped it had been unlocked.
Maybe Chava’s penchant for prestidigitation extended to lock picks. One person in the family with a set was enough, and I thought I’d cornered that particular market.
Holding my breath, I waited to hear the screech of an alarm bring the police and neighborhood watch down on us with equal weight and vengeance, but nothing happened.
Luckily for me, that extra pause on my end forced Hallings to fill in another blank. Many of my best interrogation tactics were based on luck.
“When I asked Kendra about your number, about who you were, she explained to me she’d hired you as a planner for our anniversary party.”
“Party planner, right,” I said, trying to picture me planning a party for myself, let alone anyone else.
“I heard Eddie Shoes, so I thought, well you know.”
“I know …?”
“I assumed you were a gay man.”
A gay man would have a sexier name than Eddie Shoes, I thought to myself. Maybe Eddie Stiletto or something fun. Ooohhh, Eddie Stiletto, maybe I should reconsider my name.
“So I know that’s why the two of you have been in touch,” Hallings continued, pulling me out of my momentary reverie.
I wondered why he hadn’t noticed the greeting on my voicemail. The one that said “Eddie Shoes, Private Investigator.” That’s when I remembered the greeting on my cellphone only repeated my number and asked people to leave a message. Either Hallings didn’t see my office number, or Kendra only called my cell from her cell and called my office from a different phone. Or perhaps he didn’t think one or two calls to my office mattered enough to check that number out.
“Why is it you think I would know where Kendra is?”
“She disappeared yesterday and I don’t know who else to call.”
I wasn’t going to tell the man I’d spoken with Kendra a few hours ago. Though this might explain why she called from a different phone number. Perhaps she knew her husband was tracking her on her cell.
“The police won’t let me file a report for another twenty-four hours,” Hallings continued, “because there’s no sign of foul play.”
“But you think there was?”
“I don’t know. This isn’t like her. She doesn’t just wander off overnight and not tell me about it. I always know her whereabouts.”
I thought for a moment about the picture of Hallings starting to evolve in just a short time. He went through his wife’s phone records. He claimed to always know where she was, despite the fact she’d visited me more than once without his knowledge. I didn’t think this guy was nearly as up on his wife’s habits as he thought he was.
“Any chance she’s with a friend? A girlfriend?” I added so the man didn’t go down the road that led to Kendra having something on the side too. People who cheat are often the most suspicious, believing everyone around them is doing the same thing.
And there was the strange man in the silver Lexus.
“Kendra doesn’t have a lot of friends. I’m all she needs.”
Except the mysterious man currently answering her cellphone. I wanted to ask Hallings if Kendra had needed him on the evenings he spent with Deirdre Fox, but didn’t want to explain how I knew about that.
“I’m still not sure why you’re calling me, Mr. Hallings. Most missing adults return home within forty-eight hours. I’m sure Kendra is fine.”
“Because your number is the last one she called before she disappeared. The only one she called yesterday. I assumed she called to tell you to cancel the party.”
“I see,” I said, for lack of a better response.
“Now just isn’t a good time for us to have a party,” he continued, perhaps thinking I was upset about my loss of income. “We’ll get back in touch in the future.” I wondered if he was canceling the fake anniversary party because of an impending divorce.
“How do you know the last number she called yesterday, unless you have her phone?”
“Her phone is on my account. I can check outgoing calls online.”
Learned something new every day. I’d have to keep that in mind if I ever broke down and got a phone on my account for Chava. Clearly Mr. Hallings knew nothing about the other phone Kendra was using. If she’d called from their home number, he would have looked that up too. Had she called my office from someone else’s cell? Maybe after her husband cut off her credit cards, she’d hooked up with the guy in the Lexus and used his phone to call. Things felt like they were happening too fast for me to keep up. Between Chance and my mother appearing in town, I was having trouble focusing on Kendra.
Thinking of my mother, I turned around again to see if I could track her progress through the house and saw a light go on upstairs. I really did need to get her out of there, even if I knew for a fact Hallings was in his office several miles away.
“I’m not sure what to tell you, Mr. Hallings,” I said. “Have you called local hospitals? Or checked in about car accidents involving Jane Does?”
“Jane Does? You mean she could be dead and I wouldn’t even know it?”
I winced at my tactical error—I certainly didn’t sound like a party planner—but the sight of my mother waving at me from the window of an upstairs room distracted me. She’d pulled the curtain back, and at first I thought she was just waving hello, but then I realized her gestures were frantic. She wanted me to join her for a little B & E.
“If I hear from Kendra, I’ll be sure to let you know, Mr. Hallings,” I said, now desperate to get off the phone.
“Please do. I’m very concerned. I’ll be passing your name and number on to the police. So when they’re finally willing to take me seriously they have somewhere to start.”
I didn’t like the sound of that, but what could I do? I certainly wasn’t prepared to explain my real relationship with his wife.
“That’s fine,” I said. “Why don’t you call me if you hear from her. Now I’m worried.”
“Will do,” he said, hanging up the phone.
Sliding the phone into my pocket, I gestured at Chava I was coming inside. I didn’t want to join my mother in breaking the law, but I wondered what she’d found that had her so excited.
Maybe it would be worth bending the rules just a little bit.