it’s been hours since she disappeared!” Ashley protested.
“I had to call off the search ’til morning,” he said firmly.
“Someone must have seen her leave the house.”
“Apparently she went for a walk right after breakfast. A fisherman’s wife who brings fresh produce up to the Langdon kitchen came upon some of her things at the edge of a steep drop-off and saw one of her shoes at the bottom of the cliff. I was immediately notified and began the search.” He backed the car away from the pier and headed along a road leading away from the water.
“I’ve questioned the hired staff: a housekeeper, a male Asian cook who doesn’t speak much English and an all-round housemaid. The rest of the help is hired on a needs basis.”
“Yes, Lorrie told me a little bit about it.”
“Apparently your sister sometimes took meals with the family, and sometimes she didn’t. On occasion, she’d walk down to the Wharf Café for breakfast or lunch, and sometimes had dinner at the Chowder House. After a few days, the household paid little attention to her coming and going. We’re fortunate to have discovered her disappearance as soon as we did.”
Not soon enough. She bit her lip to keep back the sharp retort.
“I assume you’ll want to stay with the Langdons.”
Ashley nodded. “If they’ll agree to it.” They would know whether or not Officer Taylor was as capable and well-trained as he presented himself to be. She didn’t know how to justify her feelings, but she felt more should have been done in the hours her sister had been missing.
“Do you know the Langdons well?” she asked in an even tone as if she’d accepted his explanations.
“I guess it depends on what you mean by know. Of course, everyone on the island knows them, but mostly by name and reputation. When I was a teenager, I attended some annual celebrations they sponsored on the lawns of their property, but since my return over a year ago, I haven’t had the occasion to be in their company. Until now, with the investigation.”
“They stay on the island year round?”
“No. In the summer there’s a parade of wealthy visitors who rent the summer cottages on the southwestern high cliffs, but after Labor Day they are mostly deserted. Usually the Langdons have left by this time, but for some reason, the elder Clayton Langdon is staying longer than usual.”
“My sister told me that his son, Jonathan, is really in charge. Lorrie said he wasn’t very friendly. All business.”
“I can believe that. Jonathan is fifty and he’s been taking over the reins of the family’s finances for several years now. His father, Clayton, is a widower in his late seventies. The only woman relative in the house is Ellen Brenden, Jonathan Langdon’s late wife’s sister, and she’s about Jonathan’s age.”
“There isn’t any Mrs. Jonathan Langdon?”
“No. Jonathan’s late wife, Samantha, was killed in an automobile accident some twenty-five years ago. She left a baby girl only a few months old. Raised without a mother, Pamela Langdon grew up spoiled and she died from a drug overdose two years ago, shortly before I came back to the island. She was only twenty-three. Pamela’s death was hard on her father and her grandfather.”
“I can imagine.” Ashley suppressed a shiver. What a tragic family. What kind of ill fate had drawn her sister into it?
As they headed for the Langdon house, the car windows grew foggy, and a narrow dirt road plunged into the darkness of thick trees and huge granite boulders. The pitch of the car told Ashley they were climbing at a steep angle.
The headlights swept across jagged rocks, and spumes of white foam rose in the air. She could tell they were skirting the edge of a steep shoreline. Her nails bit into the palms of her hands as the sound of pounding surf grew louder and louder. A sudden deluge of raindrops splattered in a mesmerizing pattern on the windshield as strong winds whipped them against the car.
“How far is it?” she asked in a strained voice.
“Within walking distance of the wharf,” he assured her. “But not on a night like this. The Langdon house sits on the highest point at the southwestern tip of the island. There’s a great view when the weather’s clear, but its location makes it vulnerable to wind, rain and fierce winters.”
Ashley sat rigidly in the seat, staring straight ahead. Lorrie…Lorrie.
“Tell me, what exactly was your sister doing for the Langdons?” he asked, which surprised her. Surely he’d been informed of her assignment at the house. She had the feeling he was just trying to keep her mind occupied.
Briefly, she explained the Langdon family’s decision to auction some of the vintage clothing that had been collected since the turn of the century.
“A lot of money involved?” he prodded in a slightly skeptical tone.
“A handmade gown by a noted designer can bring as much as a hundred thousand dollars.”
He let out a slow whistle.
“Private collectors, dealers and museums are always on the lookout for the kind of vintage clothing that the Langdons have decided to put on the market. Prices have shot up eighty percent in the last five years. There’s a charm about antique clothing and jewelry. Lorrie was excited that she was the one chosen to catalog everything.” Ashley’s voice broke as she remembered how happy her sister had been when the assignment had been confirmed.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “We’ll get to the bottom of it, I promise.”
They both fell silent.
A few minutes later, he swung the car in a half circle and parked at the side of a sprawling, three-story structure that seemed to be balanced precariously on high ground facing the rocky Atlantic shoreline below. All the windows were dark except for a couple on the main floor. The roar of the crashing surf was like a greedy monster lashing at the land with a crazed fury.
“This is known as the Langdon compound,” he explained as he hurriedly guided her along a walk to the front of a white mansion. “There are several outbuildings and a private dock below the mansion.”
She straightened her shoulders and brushed damp bangs back from her forehead as they mounted wide steps to a pair of carved doors. She had never felt more unkempt and had never cared less!
“Be careful,” he said as he rang the doorbell.
She stiffened. “What do you mean?”
“Just what I said. Watch yourself. There’s a pattern of violence in the Langdon family.” His tone was hard as the granite rocks strewn along the beach. “Tragedy seems to follow anyone who unwittingly gets snared in their web.”
Chapter Two
The front door was opened by a tall, angular woman with gray hair pulled back in a tight knot. She wore a shapeless dark dress that accented her beanpole figure. As she admitted them into the entrance hall, her sharp glance went to their wet shoes; she looked as if she might order them to take the sodden footwear
