Dashing Through the Snow (12 page)

“Good afternoon, young lady,” the woman said
as she walked over with her hand stretched out. “I’m Mary Alice
Landry.”

Lily stood. “Hello. I’m Lily Carstairs.”

“Yes, I know. Please,” Mrs. Landry indicated
the sofa. “Sit back down.”

Lily did and watched as the woman sat across
from her. “Mrs. Benson told me a bit about your case. Would you
like to tell me more?”

Mrs. Landry lifted a brow in what looked like
surprise, but said, “Just how much did she tell you?”

“She only said that your husband is missing
and that you want to hire a private detective.”

“Yes, well, there’s quite a bit more to the
story than that, and if you’ve got a few minutes, I’ll tell you the
rest.”

“Of course. Do you mind if I record this
conversation while I take notes?”

“I expect you to.”

“Good.” Lily reached into her purse and
pulled out a small notebook and an even smaller recorder. She
pressed a button on the recorder and set it on the table. “I’m
ready.”

“My husband and I moved here from Chicago
about ten years ago. We were sick of the rat race and we like
Sheffield-Chatham. We’d each visited here as children on summer
vacations and both of us had fond memories. Charles, that’s my
husband, especially likes the small town feel. The Town Square is
one of his favorite places because of all of the fun he had there
as a child. He’s the vice president of operations for Landry
Hospitality Midwest Division. Since we’ve been here, he averages
about twenty hours a week working for LH. The rest of the time he
spends with me or at the Businessman’s Social Club down on Klein.
Do you know it?”

Lily nodded as she kept writing. The
Businessman’s Social Club was an anachronism. She’d never been
inside because she was, of course, a woman. Her father had joined
when she was a child, but he said it was only for the networking.
He was an accountant and said membership in the club was required
for any sole proprietor who wanted to succeed in Sheffield-Chatham.
But that had been more than twenty years ago. Things had long since
changed, and Lily attributed the popularity of the club to the fact
that men, just like women, liked to get away from everything
sometimes, including their spouses. “My dad’s a member. He goes for
the poker games and tournaments.”

“Charles likes the idea of being able to sit
around and drink port and smoke cigars without anyone complaining.
He also enjoys the male camaraderie and an occasional game of
Euchre or Pinochle. He goes to that club every Wednesday and Friday
without fail. And every Wednesday and Friday, without fail, he
calls me to let me know he’s left the club and is on his way home.
Well, this past Friday the phone didn’t ring. I have neither seen
nor heard from my husband since last Friday at ten in the morning
when he walked out of here for that club.”

Lily looked up from her writing. “I’m sor --”
she began, but stopped when she saw the expression on Mrs. Landry’s
face. She looked on the verge of tears. “Uh…do you think --”

“I’m just so upset about it; I don’t know
what to do.” Mrs. Landry pulled a handkerchief from her sleeve and
covered her face with it.

Lily looked away, wanting to give her
privacy. But when Mrs. Landry’ sniffles became louder, Lily at
first looked around uncomfortably and unable to ignore the other
woman’s pain any longer, reached out and rubbed her shoulder. “Can
I get someone for you?”

“No, no, dear. It’s all right.” Mrs. Landry
wiped her face and looked over at Lily. “I’m fine, but sometimes my
emotions get the best of me.”

“I understand,” Lily said. “Would you like to
continue, or would you rather take a break? To be honest, I’d
rather you continue because the sooner you do, the sooner I can get
started.”

“So I take it you want the case?”

“Oh, yes. I already have a couple of ideas on
getting started. Would you like to hear them?”

“Please,” Mrs. Landry said with a nod.

“Well, of course I’ll go to the club and see
what I can find out there, but first I’d trace his route to and
from the club in case he’d been in an accident. Did the police do
that?”

Mrs. Landry scowled. “The police have been
most unhelpful. They say that there isn’t much they can do since
he’s an adult with all of his faculties.”

“But it’s been more than forty-eight hours,
right? I mean, do you know if he actually made it to the club on
Friday?”

Mrs. Landry was nodding before Lily finished.
“Yes, when I didn’t hear from him Friday evening, I called. They
told me he’d left at his usual time.”

Lily wrote that down. “What are the police
saying, then?”

“Not much, I’m afraid. They discussed a
possible kidnapping, but as there hasn’t been a ransom note of any
kind, they’ve ruled that out. And there’s been no accident; they’ve
checked that.”

“What else can you tell me, Mrs. Landry? Does
he have any enemies that you know of, maybe in his business
life?”

The other woman bit her lip in consternation.
“Truthfully, my Charles isn’t a very good businessman. I’m afraid
he’s just a trust fund baby whose family keeps him in the
corporation to give him something to do. He’s more of a figurehead
than anything else. His staff runs things there. And Charlie has no
enemies, neither of us does.”

“Have you been in touch with anyone on his
staff? Have they heard from him? What about his family?”

“Yes, I talked to Everett Thom, that’s
Charles’ second-in-command. He’s not heard from him. I’m afraid
they really don’t need to hear from him to run things smoothly. As
for his family, there’s only Charles and his oldest brother, Simeon
and a few cousins here and there. Simeon, now there’s a man who
takes charge. He runs the entire company – worldwide.”

“Do he and Charles get along?”

“Oh, yes. Simeon is worried sick about him,
too. In fact, Simeon is the one largely responsible for our
lifestyle. We’d never be able to live like this if things were left
up to Charles. As I said, he’s completely inept as a businessman.
But he’s a wonderful, thoughtful caring man and he’s my husband. I
want him back.”

“What do you think happened to him, Mrs.
Landry?”

“That’s the problem,” she said and spread her
hands helplessly in front of her, “I simply don’t know.”

Lily nodded in acceptance. “What about
friends at the club? Will you give me the names of people I can
talk to there?”

“Again, I just don’t know. I mean, he’d
occasionally mention a name as an aside. You know, as in ‘Harry won
every game today,’ or ‘Paul took a beating today at the card
table.’ Those aren’t the names; I’m just pulling them out of the
air. I don’t remember any of the names he mentioned because he so
seldom did.”

Lily was shocked. “He’s been going to the
club for ten years, correct?” When Mrs. Landry nodded, she
continued, “Yet, you can’t tell me the names of any of his friends
there?”

Tears filled the other woman’s eyes. “I’m
sorry I can’t be more helpful, but his club was another world to
me. It wasn’t like the club he belonged to back home in Chicago,
The Elite. I know the men at that club because I’m friends with
their wives. With the Businessman’s Social Club, it’s
his
world and we’re both fine with that. I don’t need to know about it,
or meet any of the people he meets with there. After all, he only
sees those people twice a week. The rest of the time he is with
me.”

Lily felt more sympathy tug at her heart. Not
only was her husband missing, but said husband had kept her in the
dark about another life. Lily wondered if he’d been cheating on
her. “This is difficult to ask, Mrs. Landry, but I feel I have to
in order to be as thorough as possible. Do you think your husband
was having an affair?”

“It’s all right. Yes, Charles has cheated on
me before, but that was years ago, before we even moved here. It
was a typical mid-life crisis issue. I found out about the affair;
left him for a while and when he begged me to come back, I did, but
only after we’d had counseling.”

“And there was no one here? You’re sure of
it?”

“Yes. I learned to trust my Charlie
again.”

“And what was the name of the woman in
Chicago?”

“But, my dear, I told you that that affair
was over ages ago. Why on earth do you need
her
name?”

For the simple reason that you don’t want
me to give it to me.
“As I said, Mrs. Landry, it’s important
that I be thorough.”

Clearly reluctant, Mrs. Landry said, “All
right; if you insist. You’ll have it before you leave. Are there
anymore questions?”

Detecting the freeze, Lily resisted the urge
to shiver. “Yes. Who are some of his friends in Chicago? Is he
still in touch with people there?”

“Yes, of course. I can provide you with a
list at the end of this meeting. But Charles’ friends are my
friends, and I’ve already talked to them. No one has heard from
Charles.”

Lily kept her head down because she just
knew
she looked skeptical. If his friends are your friends,
then why don’t you know any of his friends at the club? “Would you
mind telling me their names now?”

“No, I wouldn’t mind, but it would just be
easier to give you the list because it’s got names and contact
information on it. Have you anymore questions, dear?”

“No, ma’am. No more questions, no, but I’ll
also need the account numbers for any credit cards he has, the
make, color and year of his car and the license plate number if you
have it. And I know you’ve probably tried it at least a hundred
times, but I’ll need his cell phone number, too. And lastly, a
current picture would help tremendously.”

Mrs. Landry’s eyes had widened during the
recital. “You weren’t joking when you said you were thorough, were
you? I can get you all of that if you’ll just give me a few
minutes. I have a list of the credit card numbers, which I culled
from old bills. I have a picture of him standing in front of the
car. It’s practically brand new as we only got it over the
Thanksgiving holiday. We took lots of pictures that day.”

“Great,” Lily said. I think that’s it for
now, but if I think of anything else, I’ll definitely call
you.”

“Wonderful. Now, shall we discuss your
fee?”

Lily had spent part of that morning coming up
with a new fee structure. Retainers would be good if she were to
get on a company’s payroll, but when she did what she’d come to
think of as one-off jobs, she thought it best to charge a daily
fee. She’d decided her services were worth at least seventy-five
dollars an hour. That brought her to five hundred and sixty dollars
a day, which she rounded up to six hundred. “Six hundred a day,
plus expenses, which I’ll tally and give to you at the end of each
day, or week if you’d prefer. But let’s hope we don’t get to that
stage. I’ll need the first two days up front, please,” she finished
with a smile. Lily reached into her bag. “I’ve also brought a
contract for you to sign,” she told Mrs. Landry as she pulled it
out.

“That’s fine.”

Fifteen minutes later, Mrs. Landry was
walking Lily to the door. She’d given Lily the list of names, the
direction she thought her husband usually took to and from his
club, and a check for twelve hundred dollars, which Lily planned to
take to her new client’s bank immediately after leaving.

Lily had made it all the way to the porch
when Mrs. Landry dropped her final whammy on her.

“I’ll tell you like I told that other
detective. If you find my Charlie before Christmas day, there’s a
ten thousand dollar bonus in it for you.”

Lily whipped around. For a moment, she didn’t
know which new shock to address first: the fact that she had
competition on her case or the extra money. Finally, practicality
won out. “Ten thousand dollars!” she cried as visions of a pair of
leather drawstring knee-high flat boots she’d had her eye on danced
in her head.

Chapter Eleven

Lily parked her car in front of the
Businessman’s Social Club. She checked the time and blew out a
breath. “It’s only two o’clock, and I feel like I’ve already put in
a full day,” she murmured as she looked at herself in her mirror.
She fluffed her hair out a bit and then decided to refresh her
lipstick as well. She’d gone to the Landrys’ bank and had been
pleased to find that Mrs. Landry could indeed cover the check she’d
given her. Lilly planned to do a background check on their finances
later. She hadn’t yet found the time.

After her trip to the bank, she’d called her
mother and asked if it was okay to pop in on them for lunch. Her
mother had made beef and vegetable stew, and when Lily had gotten
there, everything, including hot rolls and a green salad was
already on the table. Her mother had been happy to have her set
another place for herself.

Following lunch, she’d partially retraced her
steps to the Landrys’ to get back to the route Mr. Landry
habitually took when going to the club. There was a stretch of the
highway that paralleled a wooded area, so she’d gotten out of her
car to check and see if there was a car in the foliage. She’d also
checked for burned rubber marks, but had found nothing in both
cases. She’d stopped at a Laundromat, an Italian restaurant and an
adult bookstore, which were all on the route. Again, she’d come up
with nothing. No one had seen Mr. Landry. It was as if he’d
disappeared.

She knew she’d have to somehow track credit
card usage and check the airport, train and bus stations. Though
the closest airport was an hour and a half away, she thought it
would also be smart to check the two in Chicago as well. The train
and bus stations would be simpler because they were both small and
in town, and she likely knew at least one or two people that worked
at each place.

She also planned to pay a visit to her cousin
John at the police station, just to make sure Mrs. Landry hadn’t
missed anything in the telling. Just as she was set to leave her
car, Lily’s cell phone rang. She checked the Caller ID. “Hi, Mom.
Did you find anything out about the Landrys for me?”