And he definitely shouldn’t handle it like a man who had always thought Ellie deserved a better husband than Ron Raven.
“I’m sorry, Ellie, but there’s no easy way to say this, so I’ll give it to you straight. The police in Miami called me because they think that Ron has met with an accident. There’s signs of a struggle in his hotel room.” The sheriff breathed deeply. “Fact is, the police believe there’s a chance that he’s dead.”
“No! That’s impossible! Not Dad!” Megan’s protest was harsh with shock, but Ellie said nothing. She stood rock still, except for her forefinger, which tapped in a quick, erratic rhythm against her throat. Harry had expected her to sob uncontrollably and he’d been terrified he’d have to comfort her, which almost guaranteed he’d end up saying all the wrong things. Like, I hope he is dead. You’re better off without the bastard. Or, you could have married me and saved both of us from choosing the wrong person. Her unnaturally restrained reaction struck him as even worse than his imaginings.
Megan wasn’t anywhere near as controlled as her mother. Tears running down her cheeks, she put her arm protectively around Ellie’s shoulders and hugged her close, ignoring her mother’s unyielding stiffness. She rocked her gently back and forth and Ellie didn’t resist, although she didn’t respond, either. But the fact that Megan was comforting her mother at least made it easier for Harry to resist the urge to walk over and hug Ellie at the same time as he yelled insults at Ron. Goddammit, Ellie was a good woman, one of the best, and she didn’t deserve what was coming down the pike.
Unlike her mother, Megan soon recovered her wits enough to ask the obvious question. “What do you mean, the police in Miami think my father is dead? Don’t they know? How can you be confused about whether a person is alive or dead, for God’s sake?”
“The police haven’t found Ron’s body—” Harry corrected himself out of deference to the fragile hope that Ron might still be alive. “I mean, they haven’t found Ron yet, so they can’t be a hundred percent sure what’s happened to him. He’s definitely missing from his hotel. The cops are pretty sure he must be either seriously injured or dead, but they’ve checked all the hospitals in southeastern Florida and he’s not a patient anywhere—”
Ellie spoke for the first time. “Ron was staying at the Doral Beach Hotel. He called me from there on Sunday night.”
Harry’s heart skipped a beat. “What time was that, Ellie?”
“I don’t recall exactly. I was reading when the phone rang and I didn’t pay much attention. Maybe nine o’clock my time? Ron mentioned he was about to go to bed.”
“That would make sense. Nine here is already eleven o’clock in Miami.” Harry reached automatically for his pen, then decided this wasn’t the moment to be scratching down notes.
“Ron was fine when we spoke,” Ellie said. “I’m sure he’s still fine.” Her tone of voice dared Harry to contradict her.
Harry cleared his throat, which seemed to have developed a permanent frog. “Apart from you, Ellie, the Miami police haven’t been able to find anyone who spoke to Ron after eight-thirty eastern time on Sunday night.”
“Why is that such a big deal?” Megan’s petite frame vibrated with the force of her frustration. “If there wasn’t an accident—if there’s no body—why do the police believe Dad might be dead? I thought adults could go missing for weeks without law enforcement taking any interest. Dad’s been out of touch for less than thirty-six hours. Why are the cops making a mystery out of something so trivial?”
There was no way to avoid describing the gruesome crime scene, so Harry did his best to lead them there gently. “Your father checked into the Doral Beach Hotel around seven on Sunday night. I guess he called down to room service and ordered breakfast for six-thirty the next morning—”
“That would be for yesterday morning,” Megan clarified. “Monday, right?”
“Right.” Harry nodded. “Ron also made arrangements with the hotel parking valet to bring up his rental car at seven-fifteen on Monday morning. He told the valet he needed to be at the airport by eight because he was taking the ten-thirty flight to Mexico City and security clearance for international flights eats up so much time these days—”
“Did Dad tell you he was going to Mexico City?” Megan asked her mother, cutting across Harry’s painstaking explanation. “You didn’t mention to me that he was leaving the country.”
Ellie blinked. “What? Oh, yes. Ron told me he had important meetings arranged in Mexico City. He expected them to last four or five days. I have the name of his Mexican hotel written down somewhere….” Her gaze wandered around the room, as if she expected the note about Ron’s hotel to materialize out of the ether.
“Did Dad say when he would be coming home from Mexico?” Megan asked.
Ellie focused her attention on her daughter with visible effort. “No, he didn’t specify an exact time. He said he had to stop off in Chicago to report on his meetings and check in with his business partners, but he hoped to get back here by the end of next week and he’d confirm later. I never expected to hear from him yesterday when he was traveling.”
Megan’s forehead wrinkled in puzzlement. “Why would Dad go to Mexico on business? He always claims there are so many opportunities within the States that there’s no need for him to go overseas.”
“This was something new,” Ellie said. “He’s looking into an investment opportunity for an old friend from college. Something like that. I don’t know the details.”
“We never know the details,” Megan muttered. “Dad’s great on sticking to the big picture and leaving everyone to guess about the rest.”
I’ll just bet the bastard left them to guess, Harry thought angrily. As for Ron’s excuse that he’d be stopping off in Chicago to brief his business partners—what a load of bullshit. Talk about the wisdom of hindsight! If only people around here had known earlier what the son of a bitch was really up to.
Ellie ignored her daughter’s comment. She turned her gaze toward Harry, but her eyes were blind, as if she looked inward to some unshared memory. “I expect Ron will be calling any minute now. He probably changed his plans at the last minute. You know how he does that.” Ellie subsided into silence again, her finger still tapping against her throat.
Megan bit her lip, visibly choking back the urge to crush her mother’s hope that the two of them could expect to hear from Ron at any minute. “Did my father actually catch the flight to Mexico?” she asked. “Is that why there’s so much confusion? Maybe Dad has gone missing in Mexico and there’s a communications problem with the police there?”
The poor kid looked so damn hopeful. Harry shifted from one foot to the other, easing the stress. None of them had thought to sit down, as if shock had deprived them of the ability to make ordinary movements. “No, that’s not it, I’m afraid. The police down in Florida are sure Ron never left the country. Screening is intense on international flights these days and the cops are one hundred percent confident your dad hasn’t flown out of the country.”
“Then maybe he was delayed in Miami,” Megan suggested. “Or he might have been called to an urgent meeting somewhere in the States—”
“That seems real unlikely. Let me explain why the cops in Miami are worried.” Harry gulped in much-needed air. “Here’s what happened. The room-service waiter arrived with
