Local Gone Missing(15)

“So, friends—or family? I understand Charlie has a daughter.”

“No point asking her anything. And no one else has seen him.”

“Okay, the thing is, Charlie looked upset last night”—Elise got them back on track—“and he’d been drinking.”

“Well, he likes an occasional glass in the evening—just to be sociable,” Pauline said.

Ronnie and Elise exchanged a glance. It was a lie she must have told a hundred times—to the outside world and to herself.

“Of course,” Elise said. “Was he upset?”

Pauline shrugged again and got up to plug in the kettle. Elise could see the tension in her back.

“Anyway, the police are checking the hospitals—unless you’ve done it?” Elise said. It would’ve been the first thing she’d have done.

“No, I haven’t.” Pauline gnawed at a nail. “Will they let me know?”

“Of course.”

Pauline didn’t move from the counter as she waited for the water to boil. In the silence, Elise’s eyes slid to a letter sitting half out of its envelope on the table. She could only see the first paragraph but that was enough.

Pauline turned and caught her looking. “I hope you haven’t been reading my private correspondence,” she snapped.

“Sorry,” Elise said but held her eye and it was Pauline who looked away.

“I don’t really know what it’s about,” she muttered. “It came this morning. Money is Charlie’s department, not mine. I’m a bit of a featherhead when it comes to finances.”

“Well, it’s from a debt agency and says they’re going to take legal action to seize your assets,” Elise said, picking up the letter. “The house, I assume.”

“I had no idea things were this bad. No idea.” Pauline looked up at Elise through her lashes but her little-girl-lost act was wasted on the other woman. Elise had met real little lost girls. Pauline didn’t come close.

Elise wanted to say that the postwoman and her neighbors in Ebbing knew things were this bad but there seemed little point.

“Did you and Charlie discuss it?”

“No. As I say, money was his thing. Oh, what’s to become of me now?” And she picked up an emery board to saw at her nails, a fine mist powdering the tabletop.

“I think you probably need to talk to a lawyer. . . . Can I ask if Charlie is on any medication?”

“Umm, well, he sometimes takes pills for his blood pressure.”

“Perhaps you could look to see if he’s taken them with him?” Elise wanted to check if the disappearance had been planned—she suspected the debt might have a great deal to do with it.

But Pauline didn’t move off her chair. And as a “concerned neighbor,” Elise felt she couldn’t push the point.

“Perhaps you could look later, then.”

Ronnie joined them as she dried her hands and cut to the chase. “Why do you think he went off, Pauline? Was it the financial problems? Had you had a row? Have you been having other trouble?”

Ronnie might have been small but hers was clearly the kick-the-door-down kind of approach and Elise tried to warn her off with a look but Pauline laughed, a loud, harsh bark, and swept her cup around her world.

“You mean apart from living in this? He promised me we’d be in the big house last year but nothing’s been done for months and months. And he’s spent the money for my pool cabana. Bloody Charlie! Sorry, but marriage is never a picnic, is it?”

“Tell me about it.” Ronnie smiled. “What is it with men? I think mine’s starting to smell of wee. What’s that about?”

“It’ll be his prostate, dear. Charlie’s got the same trouble. It’s meant an end to sex.”

“Well, that could be a blessing,” Ronnie said.

“Not where I’m concerned. I’m a woman with needs.”

“Had you argued about it?” Elise said quietly.

Pauline flicked her eyes away. “My needs or the house?”

“Either . . .”

“No,” Pauline muttered, and made to stand. Show over.

“When did you buy the place?” Elise walked over to a window to look up at the building. There was a story here and she felt more alive than she had for weeks—she was nowhere near ready to be shown the door. “I heard it used to be a hotel. It’s very impressive.”

She’d seen it before of course, rising above the trees like the opening shots of a costume drama. But now she could see part of it had been closed off with security fencing and there was metal shuttering on some of the lower windows. The lettering on the many trade signboards was fading but it looked like there was work for the local builders for years to come.

“Five years ago.” Pauline came to stand beside Elise. She was animated, almost girlish, for the first time. “No, it must be six. Anyway, it was love at first sight. Look at it!”

Elise tried but she couldn’t see beyond the decay. The house looked as if it could have been harboring an ax murderer.

“Do you want to see inside?” Pauline said, grabbing a key from its hook by the door, her missing husband apparently forgotten.

The damp was like two-day-old bruises on the walls, and when Elise touched one of the mottled green patches, plaster crumbled onto the floor.