The Night Before(58)

Gabe laid it out.

“What if he answers and she’s not there? What if he lies and says he has no idea who she is? What if he says they had a drink and she left right after?”

He spoke evenly as they stood in the hallway, but Rosie couldn’t calm herself.

“I don’t know, Gabe! I just need get on the other side of that door!” Rosie felt her cheeks flush. Her head was light but somehow hard to keep steady. “I have to get inside that apartment! I have to know what’s happened to my sister!”

The elevator door opened then. Rosie and Gabe turned their heads when they heard the chime. Officers Pearson and Conway emerged, finding them in the hallway.

Rosie ran to meet them. She took Pearson by the arm and pulled her along.

“He’s there!” she said. “The man my sister was with—he lives in that apartment!”

“Okay, Mrs. Ferro.” Pearson was condescending, even just saying her name. Rosie still had her by the arm, but it was like pulling dead weight.

“It’s him! His name is Edward Rittle. He lies about it—calls himself all different names. He’s married and has children! He uses this apartment to be with women from that website!”

Rosie could hear herself. She knew she sounded crazy. She knew she looked crazy. She could see herself in the expressions of all of them—Pearson, Conway, and even Gabe.

And she could see Gabe waiting for her to tell them the rest of it—about the threatening notes, or how Laura had been sleeping with her therapist in New York. Also married. Also with children. And now—dead.

But she stopped herself when they reached the front of the door. She looked at Gabe to make sure he wasn’t going to say a word about any of that. It would do nothing but distract them, make them worry less about her sister than this horrible man who lied and cheated and misused women any way he could.

If he hurt Laura, and if she hurt him back—God help her—but Rosie felt he deserved it.

Pearson looked at Conway for a signal.

Conway gave it. “Look—we don’t have a warrant for his apartment. We don’t even have probable cause for a warrant. We can knock, ask a few polite questions, but that’s it.”

Rosie felt her eyes widen. The air stung when it hit them. Her mouth was bone-dry. Her head throbbing. And inside her chest was the weight of a scream desperate to come out.

She took two steps to the door and pounded her fist.

“Laura!” she yelled. “Laura!”

Conway was now beside her. “That’s enough,” he said. He moved in front of her, blocking her from the door.

“Mr. Rittle,” he said as he knocked firmly. “It’s the police. We just have a few questions.”

Silence descended across the hallway. Conway pressed his ear to the door, standing just beside it. He motioned for Pearson to get Rosie, which she did. And Rosie realized they were keeping clear in case someone fired a weapon from inside.

Conway knocked again.

Still, no answer. Not a sound.

“Knock it down!” Rosie said, looking back and forth between the officers and Gabe. “What is wrong with all of you? Laura could be inside!”

Conway backed away from the door. “We don’t have a warrant. We aren’t knocking down any doors.”

Rosie looked at Gabe now, desperate for help. They never should have called the police. If they were alone, Gabe would find a way inside that door. She knew he would.

Pearson got a text. “Hold on a second,” she said to them as she read it. “Okay—the apartment is leased to a company. Someone is reaching out to them to find out who lives here.”

“A company? What kind of company?” Rosie asked.

“It’s an LLC. Probably a real estate holding company.”

They were all trying to calm Rosie down. But she didn’t want to be calm. She wanted to get into that apartment.

Gabe explained it to her. “People do that all the time, Rosie. For tax reasons, to limit liability. It costs nothing to start an LLC.”

“He did it to hide. I know it! He’s hiding it from his wife. Can’t we search the names associated with the LLC?”

“We’re doing that as well,” Pearson said.

Rosie looked back to the door of apartment 2L. They were trying to distract her with all of these things they were doing, but really they weren’t doing anything but stalling.

“What about the manager?” Rosie asked. “Maybe he’ll let us in! Wouldn’t he have a key?”

“Mrs. Ferro, that’s the same as breaking the door down. We don’t have probable cause to do that. Once we get the name of the party living here, and if we can verify that your sister went on a date with him Thursday night, then we can apply for a warrant.”

“And how long will that take? Days? A week? My sister has been missing since Thursday!”

Pearson glanced at Conway, who nodded.

“What?” Rosie asked. They were holding something back.

“We got the phone records. They came in this morning. We called your house and told your husband.…”

“I’ve been out all morning—he didn’t say anything. Why didn’t you call me on my cell phone?” Rosie couldn’t believe that Joe would keep that from her. But, then again, she hadn’t been taking his calls.