Alice in Jeopardy: A Novel by Ed McBain Read Free Book Online

picks up the receiver and begins dialing.
    “Hello?”
    “Charlie?”
    “Yes, hi. What happened with the cops?”
    “They asked me a lot of questions, and then let me go.”
    “What kind of questions?”
    “Well, you know, Rosie told them all about the kids being gone…”
    “Yeah, so?”
    “I told them they were mistaken. They said, Okay, it’s your funeral, lady, and let me go.”
    “Were those their exact words?”
    “More or less. Charlie, I hate to cut you short, but I want to keep the line free. In case they call again.”
    “You haven’t heard from them again, huh?”
    “Not yet.”
    “That’s strange, don’t you think?” he asks.
    “Well, they said noon tomorrow.”
    “Even so.”
    “Charlie, I really have to—”
    “I know, okay. Call me if you need me, okay? Do you want me to come over?”
    “No, I don’t think that would be smart. They may be watching the house.”
    “Right, right.”
    “Charlie…”
    “I’m gone. Talk to you later.”
    Alice hangs up.
    “Okay?” she asks Sloate.
    There is an edge to her voice.
    “Fine, ma’am. You did just fine.”
    “I hope you know what you’re doing,” Alice says.
    “We know what we’re doing, ma’am.”
    “I hope so. Because if anything happens to my kids…”
    “Nothing will happen to your kids.”
    She looks him dead in the eye.
    The look says, Nothing had better happen, Detective Sloate.
    “Good night,” she says, and goes off to bed.

Thursday
May 13

3
    At 8:45 A.M. , Rosie Garrity is still watching television, hoping to hear something about the kidnapping.
    There was nothing on last night until she went to bed at eleven, and there’s nothing on this morning, either, not on WSWF, anyway. WSWF is Cape October’s own Channel 36, the “SWF” in the call letters standing for Southwest Florida. Rosie starts surfing the cable channels, one after the other, figuring a kidnapping always gets covered on the cable shows, but there’s nothing there either.
    She’s beginning to wonder if whoever she spoke to at the police yesterday has taken any action on the case—Sloane or Slope or something like that, said he was a detective. Because if he was just sitting on this thing instead of doing something about it, why, he should be reported to a superior officer for disciplinary action, these were two innocent little kids out there. She is just about to dial the police again, when the phone rings, startling her. She picks up at once, thinking this might be Detective Sloane wanting further information.
    Instead, it is Alice Glendenning.
    “Hello, Mrs. Glendenning,” she says. “Have you heard anything further from that black woman?”
    “No, nothing yet,” Alice says. “Rosie, the reason I’m calling…” She suspects that she is going to be bawled out for having called the police. But then Alice says, “I don’t think you should come in today,” and Rosie immediately believes she’s about to be fired.
    “Why not?” she asks defensively.
    “Because my children are gone, and I want to be alone here when that woman calls, if she calls.”
    Alone.
    She has just told Rosie that she is alone.
    Which means the police have not contacted her, as that Detective Sloane said they were going to do, which means the police are most certainly being derelict in their duty.
    Well, we’ll just see about that, Rosie thinks.
    “I understand, Mrs. Glendenning,” she says. “Just call me if there’s anything you need, okay?”
    “I will, Rosie. Thank you.”
    But there is something odd in her voice, something cool and distant. Rosie wonders just what the hell is going on here.
    “Good-bye now,” she says.
    She hangs up, and immediately begins searching the Cape October-Fort Myers-Sanibel directory under GOVERNMENT AGENCIES .
     
    When the phone rings at 9:10 A . M ., Detective Marcia Di Luca says at once, “I’m not ready here yet, Will.”
    Alice can only think they’ve been working here all damn night, and she’s still not ready.