All the lights upstairs were off. Her grandma’s bed was made, the quilt tucked neatly under the pillows, a faint hint of Chantilly still lingering in the air. In the bathroom Gram’s Estée Lauder lotions were arranged on the counter, and a fluffy blue towel hung from the towel bar. A white robe hung from a hook on the back of the door.
When she came back downstairs, Connor seemed to be waiting for her assessment, hands tucked in his front pockets.
“Nothing seems to be missing,” Maddy said. “It’s as if she just disappeared into thin air.”
She grabbed onto the box newel at the bottom of the stairs, worry clawing at her. If Gram hadn’t gone on a trip, and the house hadn’t been broken into, what else was there? Could she have been kidnapped? She had the means and was an easy target, but that seemed farfetched. And there’d been no ransom call.
“There was no sign of forced entry,” Connor said. “But she kept a key under the plant on the porch.”
Maddy imagined someone slipping into her grandma’s house in the middle of the night and taking her from her bed. But no, her bed was made. It appeared she’d gone missing right after breakfast. Surely someone hadn’t taken her in broad daylight.
She closed her eyes against the image and told herself there would be signs of a struggle. Her grandma was slight, but she was no pushover. She wouldn’t go easily.
Her eyes drifted blindly around the living room as her mind spun with other possibilities. “Is it possible—have you noticed any forgetfulness? Any signs of dementia? Could she have just wandered off?”
“None at all. She might be eighty-three, but she’s still sharp as a tack.”
She gave Connor a sideways look while he checked the windows. What did she really know about this man? He could be lying about all of this. But to what end?
She needed to file a missing persons report, the sooner the better. She’d let the police get to the bottom of this.
At the crunch of tires on the shell driveway she moved past Connor to the front door. “That must be Emma.”
But as Maddy stepped out onto the porch, her eyes honed in on the silver Mercedes—on the Massachusetts license plate—and on the woman behind the wheel. It was not Emma.
Her heart beat up into her throat as dread prickled her skin. She turned a dark look on Connor. “You calledNora?”
He blinked, confusion on his face a moment before his lips thinned and his eyes flashed. “You didn’t return my call, so I called both of your sisters.”
Their gazes clashed. Surely he’d known that was a mistake. He, who knew her grandma’s daily newspaper habits and the location of her hide-a-key, had to know of the tension between her granddaughters.
At the sudden hush of the engine Maddy turned and watched helplessly as her oldest sister unfolded from the luxury car, looking every bit the high society woman she was.
And then she thought of Emma, due to arrive any moment. This wasn’t good. This wasn’t good at all.
Chapter 3
“Nora.” Maddy stepped closer to her oldest sister and received a stiff hug. Nora was about Maddy’s height and just as slender as she’d always been. “I didn’t know you were coming.”
Nora withdrew. “I didn’t know you were coming either.”
Her sunglasses were perched on the top of her head, holding back her shoulder-length auburn hair. She was carefully made up, her sea-blue eyes stealing the show. But at forty-three her age was beginning to show in the lines at the corners of her eyes and the slight droop of her perfectly arched eyebrows.
“I’m Connor Sullivan.” He extended his hand. “I’m the one who left the voicemail.”
Nora shook his hand. “Of course. Thank you for contacting me. Gram hasn’t turned up yet?”
“No,” Maddy said, the full weight of that thought hitting her fresh, making her throat close up.
“There are no indications that she left for a trip,” Connor said. “There’s a suitcase in her closet, but she may have another one. Used dishes were left on the table, and as I said in my message, there were three newspapers on the porch.”
“I think we should file a missing persons report.” Maddy’s eyes connected with Nora’s, and a moment of gravity passed between them. She wondered if her elder sister shared the same naggings of guilt and regret.
Maddy was exhausted by the time Sheriff Warren left the house. He’d had dozens of questions, many of which they had no answers for. Important ones, like what was Louise wearing when she disappeared and what were her daily habits? He looked around the house and inspected the points of entry.
Nora let Maddy take the lead, probably since Maddy had remained in closer contact with their grandmother. But Maddy was reeling with the additional stress of the past two days and a lack of quality sleep.
“Surely they’ll find her,” Nora said as she closed the door behind Connor and the sheriff. She and Maddy had been worried about the waiting period, but as it turned out that was only a TV thing. The sheriff had filed the report immediately.
