Chapter 41
CHAPTER
NOTHING IN THE ROOM HAS been touched?” said the policeman as he looked around Maggie’s room. His tone was firm but also contained an element of delicate understanding in a situation where a family member might be missing.
Nash said, “I picked up her purse and phone and checked her laptop. Other than that, no, nothing has been touched.”
The security guard at the gate had seen nothing of Maggie since he’d come on duty. He had checked with his colleague from the previous shift, who said the same thing. That was when Nash had called the police. Judith had retreated to her bedroom to lie down because of a sudden migraine.
The officer opened up his notebook. “Okay, the last time anyone saw her was around midnight last night?”
“Yes,” said Nash. “My wife talked to her. I was traveling, in New York. I got back this morning and went straight to the office.”
“Technically, since she’s of age, we really can’t take a missing person report until the person’s been gone twenty-four hours.”
“She didn’t take her phone or her laptop. You look like you might have older children. Would they leave their electronics behind?”
“I don’t know. Was she into all that?”
“If the ship was sinking she’d leave everything else behind except her phone.”
“Do you have a picture of her?”
Nash took one from his wallet and passed it to him.
The cop looked at it and said, “Any boyfriends?”
“No one steady.”
“You’ve checked with her friends?”
“Yes, no one has seen her since earlier yesterday.”
“Young people do run away, all the time.”
“Look, Officer, I know you don’t know Maggie, but this is not like her. She would not have just vanished without a word. She’s never given us trouble.”
The cop looked around. “Most runaways have different economic situations than this one, but rich kids run away, too.”
“Not Maggie. And her car is still in the garage. And leaving home without money and credit cards and ID?”
“Okay, any signs of forced entry into your home?”
Nash had not thought of that and said so.
The cop said, “Let me look around, sir.”
He walked off and Nash immediately went to his bedroom to check on Judith. He was stunned to find her lying nearly naked on the bed with a wet compress over her eyes, her clothes strewn across the floor.
Nash was about to rouse her when she let out a soft snore. He looked at the bottle of Ambien on the nightstand and a half-empty bottle of water, covered her with a sheet, and quietly retreated.
He was sitting on the stairs when the cop came back into the foyer.
“Come with me, sir.”
He led Nash to a room where there was a large washer and dryer, and pullout bins for laundry.
An ironing board was housed behind a panel on the wall, and an iron sat on a shelf next to it.
There was also a long counter for folding clothes and a mud sink.
On the shelves were bottles of detergent and bleach.
The cop pointed at the lock and doorjamb on the rear door here. “Forced.”
The blood drained from Nash’s face. “Oh my God.”
“You didn’t notice this?”
“No, I always come in through the garage. This is obviously the laundry room.”
“Do you have an alarm system?”
“Yes, but I’m not sure if my wife turned it on last night.”
“Cameras?”
“Just on the front door.”
“Can you see if your wife had the alarm on last night?”
“She… took a sleeping aid.”
“She took a sleeping aid?” said the cop incredulously.
Nash said, “I’ll ask her as soon as she’s.… No, wait, I can check the alarm record. I have it on my phone app.”
He checked. “The alarm was not turned on last night.”
“Okay. With this development I’m going to have a forensics team out along with the detectives. And we’re putting an alert out on her.”
“You… you think she’s been kidnapped?”
“Well, sir, a forced entry and a person potentially missing? What would you conclude?” He looked Nash over and said, “Please don’t touch anything, and don’t go into your daughter’s room.
In fact…” He went up the stairs. When he came back down he said, “The detectives will need to speak with you and your wife. So do whatever you can to wake her up. The first twenty-four hours are critical in matters like this.”
“Of course. Thank you.”
The officer walked off. Nash hurried upstairs and saw that he had sealed off Maggie’s door with yellow crime scene tape. He stood there for a few moments, his mind unable to deal with what was going on. His life had been anything but normal recently, but this… this was just too much.
He hurried to his bedroom and sat next to his sleeping wife. Nash pushed a strand of hair out of her face and then gripped her shoulder.
He said gently, “Judith? Judith, you need to wake up, honey. Can you hear me?”
She made no sound or movement. He rose with an idea that he would make some coffee for her. He made a detour into the bathroom to wash his face. When he passed by the shower he saw something on the tile-and-pebble floor.
It was vomit. Revulsed, he used the handheld shower head to hose it down the drain and then used some cleaner to get rid of the smell.
Curious, he looked into Judith’s closet.
It was always a mess, but piled in one corner were the clothes she had apparently worn the previous night: a very short, clingy skirt, a low-cut blouse, a thong, push-up bra, and stilettos.
She said she didn’t go out last night, but this says differently. Where was she when I was out of town?
He bent down, picked up the blouse, and took a whiff. Alcohol—wine, most likely. And the aroma of her perfume. And… something else.
He dropped the blouse and headed downstairs to make coffee.