know that she had probably touched everything. “Nothing looked odd or out of place when I got here yesterday, but feel free to look around.” Pointing to the kitchen counter, she said, “Here’s her wall calendar. Looks like she just notes her social events on it — business stuff is probably all on her phone, which I didn’t find.”
Raising his eyebrows skeptically, Kincaid studied the mostly blank calendar. “Not much time for socializing.”
“Running a restaurant must be a lot of work,” said Carlisle thoughtfully.
Clara drank her coffee and looked at them glumly. “Should I show you around?”
“Why don’t you show me around and show Kincaid to Madeline’s computer,” she said, nodding her head toward the small desk by the window.
“If she has a cloud program, I might be able to see what she’s been doing with her phone. Find a calendar, find her friends.”
Clara assented and showed him the laptop, but before she could begin the short tour of her sister’s apartment, Carlisle said, “You know, my partner could move a lot faster if you tell him the name of the guy she had dinner with on Monday.”
She looked at the detective’s face and gave up without a fight. “Ben Radcliffe.”
Kincaid scribbled the name in a leather-bound notebook and thanked her. At Detective Carlisle’s suggestion, they started in the bedroom. It was a pleasant space with a queen-size bed, one big window, a walk-in closet and a bathroom with a tub. Bea followed them into the room and jumped onto the neatly-made bed, curling up against the stack of pillows by the headboard.
Carlisle went straight to the nightstand and opened the drawer, rifling through its contents with impunity. “Condoms, lube, a romance novel, aspirin, lip balm. Was your sister sleeping with someone?”
Clara was aghast. “What are you doing?”
“Looking for clues, Miss Gardner.”
“In her private things?”
“Where else?”
“I don’t know. I thought you would look for signs of a struggle or fingerprints.”
Carlisle sighed. “There’s no indication that Madeline was forcibly removed from her home. We’re going to start by looking for a romantic interest, an angry friend or business partner, a weird neighbor. The usual suspects, because the usual suspects are the most likely ones. Let me give you the lowdown so that you know where we’re at in this investigation. Another patrol officer stopped by here last night and knocked on the door” – when Clara’s mouth opened to protest the detective lifted a finger to stop her – “it’s procedure and it’s a good one, Miss Gardner. No answer, obviously. Neighbors didn’t know anything. The first thing I did this morning was call local hospitals and put a BOLO out for her.”
“As in, ‘Be on the lookout?’”
“That’s right. They’re not just for criminals anymore. I ran her driver’s license, and didn’t get any recent hits. No tickets or accidents reported in the last few days. After we look around here we’re going to speak with Madeline’s business partner before Dovetail opens, then we’re going to speak with the staff at Dovetail. Then we’re going to Gigi’s Bistro to speak with the staff. Then we’re going to find Ben Radcliffe. And then we’re going to come back here and knock on doors after everybody’s home from work and ask some pointed questions. Did they notice a guy hanging around with Madeline, any unusual behavior, et cetera. Any leads we find along the way we will follow up accordingly.
“Giving us permission to search the premises without a warrant is a big help. Big , Miss Gardner. We need as many details about the days before Madeline went missing as we can get in order to find her. You have been a great help and I encourage you to keep looking around the apartment while you’re staying here, and if you find something, or one of her friends or colleagues says something to you that may be helpful, pass it along to us and we’ll follow
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