Read Online Rachel Alexander 09 - Without a Word by Carol Lea Benjamin - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Carol Lea Benjamin
Ads: Link
been a late night. She wasn’t expecting him for dinner.”
I nodded. “And she wouldn’t have called you anyway, isn’t that so? I mean, the doctor must have had a pager.”
“Of course.”
“And no one called the office to see why he’d missed the meeting?”
“Of course not. It’s not as if he was the speaker .”
“Just one more question, Ms. Peach.”
Her eyebrows went up.
Then I shook my head. “Another time,” I said. “You’ve got work to do.”
This time I left without looking back, crossing the street toward the park. The phone call I had to make could be made there as well as anywhere else, and while I had just been cruel to Ms. Peach, very cruel, I’d done so for a reason. But there was no reason I could think of to be cruel to Dashiell by having him this close to the run and not giving him some time for R & R. As I entered the park at the corner and turned onto the path, his ears went up. I could hear the barking, too, a pleasure after the suffocating beigeness of Dr. Bechman’s office.
CHAPTER 6
I called Leon from the dog run.
“I was just at Dr. Bechman’s office,” I said.
“Oh.”
“I was told Madison’s fingerprints were on the needle.“
“It doesn’t mean anything,” he said. “That’s why I didn’t mention it.”
“Leon...“
“If it meant something conclusive, she’d be charged, wouldn’t she? And what does this have to do with finding Sally?”
“Maybe nothing,” I told him. “Maybe something. I have to toss a wide net, then eliminate what I don’t need, what doesn’t help. It’s not as if she left a trail of bread crumbs. I don’t know where I’m going to find what I need to get me started in the right direction. Okay?”
“Okay.”
I sighed. So did Leon.
“I need the name of the high school where you were teaching when you met Sally.”
“Abraham Lincoln. On Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn.“
“And do you remember the names of any of her friends?“
“She was never a big talker.”
“No best girlfriend?”
“She never said.”
“And you never met any of her friends?”
“No, I never did.”
“No one in history class she came in with, sat next to, left with?”
“Not that I noticed.”
“What about her other teachers?”
I waited while Leon thought. “I can’t recall.”
“One more question for now, Leon. Do you recall the name of the receptionist who worked for Dr. Bechman before Ms. Peach, Celia something?”
There was a silence on the line. I figured Leon was trying to dredge up the name. But then I heard a chair scrape, something fall, a muttered curse. I waited some more. Dashiell had found a willing playmate and they were racing from one end of the run to the other. An elderly man was sitting across from me, a small brown mixed-breed dog on his lap. The dog’s face came to a point, his ears seemed too large, erect and rounded at the top, like mouse ears, and he seemed alert but placid. For some reason, that’s what I pictured when I thought of Roy. I thought I’d ask Leon about Roy when he got back on the line, another piece of trivia I thought I needed to know, wondering if any of it would help me find Sally.
“Abele,” he said. “Celia Abele.”
I never mentioned the little dog across from me. Or Roy. What did he have to do with anything at this late date? Why even assume that Sally would have kept a dog she’d never wanted in the first place? She might have just given him away. I remembered a dog I’d been given once when I was a child. I’d said he was cute and asked to pet him. The lady holding the leash asked if I wanted him. I’d nodded, hardly able to believe my good luck, but when my mother saw him, she was furious. She asked where the lady lived and I said I didn’t know. She asked me where I was when the lady had given me the dog, but we’d just been on the sidewalk, two blocks from where I lived, and after she handed me the leash, she’d gone around the comer and disappeared. I begged and
I nodded. “And she wouldn’t have called you anyway, isn’t that so? I mean, the doctor must have had a pager.”
“Of course.”
“And no one called the office to see why he’d missed the meeting?”
“Of course not. It’s not as if he was the speaker .”
“Just one more question, Ms. Peach.”
Her eyebrows went up.
Then I shook my head. “Another time,” I said. “You’ve got work to do.”
This time I left without looking back, crossing the street toward the park. The phone call I had to make could be made there as well as anywhere else, and while I had just been cruel to Ms. Peach, very cruel, I’d done so for a reason. But there was no reason I could think of to be cruel to Dashiell by having him this close to the run and not giving him some time for R & R. As I entered the park at the corner and turned onto the path, his ears went up. I could hear the barking, too, a pleasure after the suffocating beigeness of Dr. Bechman’s office.
CHAPTER 6
I called Leon from the dog run.
“I was just at Dr. Bechman’s office,” I said.
“Oh.”
“I was told Madison’s fingerprints were on the needle.“
“It doesn’t mean anything,” he said. “That’s why I didn’t mention it.”
“Leon...“
“If it meant something conclusive, she’d be charged, wouldn’t she? And what does this have to do with finding Sally?”
“Maybe nothing,” I told him. “Maybe something. I have to toss a wide net, then eliminate what I don’t need, what doesn’t help. It’s not as if she left a trail of bread crumbs. I don’t know where I’m going to find what I need to get me started in the right direction. Okay?”
“Okay.”
I sighed. So did Leon.
“I need the name of the high school where you were teaching when you met Sally.”
“Abraham Lincoln. On Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn.“
“And do you remember the names of any of her friends?“
“She was never a big talker.”
“No best girlfriend?”
“She never said.”
“And you never met any of her friends?”
“No, I never did.”
“No one in history class she came in with, sat next to, left with?”
“Not that I noticed.”
“What about her other teachers?”
I waited while Leon thought. “I can’t recall.”
“One more question for now, Leon. Do you recall the name of the receptionist who worked for Dr. Bechman before Ms. Peach, Celia something?”
There was a silence on the line. I figured Leon was trying to dredge up the name. But then I heard a chair scrape, something fall, a muttered curse. I waited some more. Dashiell had found a willing playmate and they were racing from one end of the run to the other. An elderly man was sitting across from me, a small brown mixed-breed dog on his lap. The dog’s face came to a point, his ears seemed too large, erect and rounded at the top, like mouse ears, and he seemed alert but placid. For some reason, that’s what I pictured when I thought of Roy. I thought I’d ask Leon about Roy when he got back on the line, another piece of trivia I thought I needed to know, wondering if any of it would help me find Sally.
“Abele,” he said. “Celia Abele.”
I never mentioned the little dog across from me. Or Roy. What did he have to do with anything at this late date? Why even assume that Sally would have kept a dog she’d never wanted in the first place? She might have just given him away. I remembered a dog I’d been given once when I was a child. I’d said he was cute and asked to pet him. The lady holding the leash asked if I wanted him. I’d nodded, hardly able to believe my good luck, but when my mother saw him, she was furious. She asked where the lady lived and I said I didn’t know. She asked me where I was when the lady had given me the dog, but we’d just been on the sidewalk, two blocks from where I lived, and after she handed me the leash, she’d gone around the comer and disappeared. I begged and
Similar Books
