Kinsey and Me by Sue Grafton Read Free Book Online

homemade-style cookies out of a cardboard box
     and shooed them away. In fifteen minutes the sugar would probably turn them into lunatics.
     I gave my watch a quick glance, hoping to be gone by then.
    “You want a lawn chair?”
    “No, this is fine,” I said and settled on the grass. There wasn’t a lawn chair in
     sight, but the offer was nice anyway.
    He perched on the edge of the sandbox and ran a distracted hand across his head. “God,
     I’m sorry everything is such a mess, but Lucy hasn’t been here for two days. She didn’t
     come home from work on Friday and I’ve been a wreck ever since.”
    “I take it you notified the police.”
    “Sure. Friday night. She never showed up at the babysitter’s house to pick the kids
     up. I finally got a call here at seven asking where she was. I figured she’d just
     stopped off at the grocery store or something, so I went ahead and picked ’em up and
     brought ’em home. By ten o’clock when I hadn’t heard from her, I knew something was
     wrong. I called her boss at home and he said as far as he knew she’d left work at
     five as usual, so that’s when I called the police.”
    “You filed a missing persons report?”
    “I can do that today. With an adult, you have to wait seventy-two hours, and even
     then, there’s not much they can do.”
    “What else did they suggest?”
    “The usual stuff, I guess. I mean, I called everyone we know. I talked to her mom
     in Bakersfield and this friend of hers at work. Nobody has any idea where she is.
     I’m scared something’s happened to her.”
    “You’ve checked with hospitals in the area, I take it.”
    “Sure. That’s the first thing I did.”
    “Did she give you any indication that anything was wrong?”
    “Not a word.”
    “Was she depressed or behaving oddly?”
    “Well, she was kind of restless the past couple of months. She always seemed to get
     excited around this time of year. She said it reminded her of her old elementary school
     days.” He shrugged. “I hated mine.”
    “But she’s never disappeared like this before.”
    “Oh, heck no. I just mentioned her mood because you asked. I don’t think it amounted
     to anything.”
    “Does she have any problems with alcohol or drugs?”
    “Lucy isn’t really like that,” he said. “She’s petite and kind of quiet. A homebody,
     I guess you’d say.”
    “What about your relationship? Do the two of you get along okay?”
    “As far as I’m concerned, we do. I mean, once in a while we get into it, but never
     anything serious.”
    “What are your disagreements about?”
    He smiled ruefully. “Money, mostly. With three kids, we never seem to have enough.
     I mean, I’m crazy about big families, but it’s tough financially. I always wanted
     four or five, but she says three is plenty, especially with the oldest not in school
     yet. We fight about that some—having more kids.”
    “You both work?”
    “We have to. Just to make ends meet. She has a job in an escrow company downtown,
     and I work for the phone company.”
    “Doing what?”
    “Installer,” he said.
    “Has there been any hint of someone else in her life?”
    He sighed, plucking at the grass between his feet. “In a way, I wish I could say yes.
     I’d like to think maybe she just got fed up or something and checked into a motel
     for the weekend. Something like that.”
    “But you don’t think she did.”
    “Un-uhn, and I’m going crazy with anxiety. Somebody’s got to find out where she is.”
    “Mr. Ackerman—”
    “You can call me Rob,” he said.
    Clients always say that. I mean, unless their names are something else.
    “Rob,” I said, “the police are truly your best bet in a situation like this. I’m just
     one person. They’ve got a vast machinery they can put to work and it won’t cost you
     a cent.”
    “You charge a lot, huh?”
    “Thirty bucks an hour plus expenses.”
    He thought about that for a moment, then gave me a searching look.