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ON SUNDAY MORNING, at what I can only describe as an unholy hour, my phone jangled me awake.
“I say Barda, have you seen the County Courier this morning?”
“Harriet?” I said. “The County Courier? Um, no, I haven’t. What time is it—”
“I think you ought to check up on Ladd.”
“Me? Harriet, what are you—”
But she had already hung up.
I went out to the living room, where Emma was snoring on the couch. I shook her awake.
“Molly, go back to bed,” she mumbled. “What time is it anyway?”
“Harriet Holmes just called. She said I should check on Ladd. She didn’t say why. I don’t want to go over by myself.”
“Make Pat go with you.” Emma turned over and pulled the pillow over her head.
Pat and I found Ladd in bad shape. He answered the door wearing nothing but striped pajama bottoms. He was drinking from a coffee mug, but he reeked of sour booze. He was clutching the Sunday issue of the County Courier.
“You okay, man?” Pat asked.
“Uh, good morning,” I said. How would I explain why we’d come by? “We just thought we’d check in.”
“I guess you saw this.” Ladd handed me the newspaper. The County Courier’s top of the fold headline was Body Found at Base of Cliff. Pat leaned in to read over my shoulder.
A woman’s body had been found at the bottom of seaside cliffs in the Kuewa district. The area was so inaccessible, the body had to be lifted out by helicopter. Her name was being withheld pending notification of her family, and anyone with information about the incident was asked to contact the police non-emergency line or Crime Stoppers.
“No, I hadn’t seen this,” I said.
“You think it’s her?” Pat asked.
Ladd ran the heel of his hand up the side of his face.
“I hope it’s not Jandie. But I haven’t been able to reach her. Still. She doesn’t answer her phone. She hasn’t posted anything since she...for days now.”
Ladd seemed genuinely distressed. If it was an act, it was a convincing one.
Or maybe his agony was real, only it wasn’t over the Jandie’s death. It was because he thought he’d hidden the body and it was only his bad luck it had been discovered.
Ladd didn’t seem inclined to invite us in, and I had no particular desire to go into his sour-smelling house. I asked him to let me know if he needed anything. He (probably equally glad to end our interaction) assured me he would.
“Someone should keep an eye on that guy,” I said once we were back inside my house. Emma was toasting bagels. The scent of seared starch was irresistible.
“Isn’t that what we were just doing?” Pat asked.
“What happened over there?” Emma asked.
We told her about the newspaper story and how Ladd thought the dead woman might be Jandie.
“I think I know where that place is. Where they found her.” Emma came over to the counter and held out a plate with four buttered bagel halves. Pat and I each took one. “Paddlers stay away from there after a heavy rain, cause it’s where all the schmutz comes pouring out into the ocean. Man, I hope the body they found isn’t Jandie. How did Ladd seem? Suspicious?”
“He seemed pretty upset, actually,” Pat said. Emma looked at me.
“He really did,” I said.
“Oh, you don’t believe me, but you believe Molly?” Pat objected.
“Maybe he was upset about the body being found,” Emma said.
“That’s what I thought too,” I said.
“I’m gonna keep an eye on him.” Emma grabbed a napkin, wiped her buttery fingers, and went to the front door.
“Where are you going?” Pat asked.
“To ask Harriet what she thinks. I bet she has some ideas.”
“Oh, yes, let’s get Harriet even more involved in this than she already is,” I said to the closing front door.
“Jealous?” Pat got up and refilled his coffee cup.
“What? Jealous of Harriet Holmes?”
“You have to admit,” he shouted over the noise of the coffee machine, “she’s much better at this than we are.”
I held off answering until Pat sat back down.
“Better at what, exactly?”
“She’s creative. I hate the phrase, think outside the box, but that’s what she does. She’s not limited by—”
“Not limited by what? Tact? Manners? Decency? The rules everyone else has to abide by?”
“Whoa, Molly, did I hit a nerve?”
I sighed.
“Sorry, Pat. I didn’t mean to snap at you. It’s just that Harriet breezes around, doing whatever strikes her fancy at the moment, everybody loves her, and yet somehow she does things that always end up making more work for me.”
“You’re both independent adults, Molly. You’re not responsible for her.”
“Oh really? Tell that to HR. Did you know she told one of our marketing professors she’d been to his country and found it quite charming for a banana republic? Guess who got called into the principal’s office? Not Harriet.”
“I guess that’s why they pay you the big bucks.”
“What, to be a department chair? Ha, I wish. It’s going to be interesting having Harriet living right up the street.” I grabbed the last bagel half, which by now was room-temperature and a little leathery. “Okay, I still have time to get dressed and make it to Mass. By my calculations I’ll get there just as they’re finishing up the Passing of the Peace.”