B Is for Burglar

drawers randomly. Some still contained wool sweaters in plastic cleaner's bags. A few were empty except for a sachet or two left behind like tiny scented pillows. Lingerie. A few pieces of costume jewelry.
    The master bath was spacious and orderly, the medicine cabinet stripped of all but a few over-the-counter remedies. I moved back to the door and stood there for a moment, surveying the bedroom. There was nothing to suggest foul play or haste, burglary, vandalism, illness, suicide, drunkenness, drug abuse, confusion, or recent occupancy. Even the faint powdering of household dust on the glossy surfaces seemed undisturbed.
    I left, locking the door behind me. I took the elevator down to Tillie's and asked her if she had any photographs of Elaine.
    "Not that I know," she said, "but I can describe her if you like. She's just about my size, which would make her five foot five, a hundred and thirty pounds. She has streaked blond hair which she wears pulled back. Blue eyes." Tillie stopped.
    "Oh wait, maybe I do have a picture. I just remembered one. Hold on."
    She disappeared in the direction of the den and after a few moments returned with a Polaroid snapshot that she handed to me. The picture had an orange cast to it and seemed sticky to the touch. Two women stood in the courtyard, a full-length shot, taken from perhaps twenty feet back. One I guessed immediately was Elaine, smiling happily, trim and elegant in a pair of well-cut slacks. The other woman was thick through the middle, with blue plastic eyeglass frames and a hairdo that looked as if it could be removed intact. She appeared to be in her forties, squinting into the sun self-consciously.
    "This was taken last fall," Tillie said. "That's Elaine on the left."
    "Who's the other woman?"
    "Marty Grice, a neighbor of ours. Now that was an awful thing. She was killed... oh gosh, I guess six months back. It doesn't seem that long ago."
    "What happened to her?"
    "Well, they think she interrupted a burglar breaking into the house. I guess he killed her on the spot and then tried to burn the place down to cover it up. It was horrible. You might have read about it in the paper."
    I shook my head. There are long periods when I don't read the paper at all, but I remembered the house next door with its charred roof and windows broken out. "That's too bad," I said. "Do you mind if I keep this?"
    "Go right ahead."
    I glanced at it again. The image was faintly disturbing, capturing a moment not that long ago when both women grinned with such ease, unaware that anything unpleasant lay ahead. Now, one was dead and the other missing. I didn't like that combination at all.
    "Were Elaine and this woman good friends?" I asked.
    "Not really. They played bridge together now and then, but they didn't socialize aside from that. Elaine is a bit standoffish where most people are concerned. Actually, Marty used to get a little snippy about Elaine's attitude. Not that she ever said anything much about it to me, but I can remember her being a bit snide once in a while. Elaine does treat herself well – there's no doubt about that – and she tends to be insensitive to the idea that people really can't afford to live as well as she does. That fur coat of hers is a case in point. She knew Leonard and Marty were in financial straits, but she'd wear the coat over there to play bridge. To Marty, that was just like waving a red flag in front of a bull."
    "That's the same coat she was wearing when you saw her last?"
    "Yes, indeed. A twelve-thousand-dollar lynx fur coat with a matching hat."
    "Wow," I said.
    "Oh, it's beautiful. I'd give my eyeteeth to have a coat like that."
    "Can you remember anything else about her departure that night?"
    "I can't say that I do. She was carrying some sort of luggage – I guess a carry-on – and the cab driver brought down the rest."
    "Do you remember what cab company?"
    "I really didn't pay much attention at the time, but she usually called City Cab or Green Stripe, sometimes Tip Top, though she didn't like them much. I wish I could be more help. I mean, if she left here on her way to Florida and never got there, where did she end up?"
    "That's what I want to know," I said.
    I gave Tillie what I hoped was a reassuring smile, but I was feeling uneasy.
    I went back to the office and did a quick calculation of the expenses I'd run up so far; maybe seventy-five bucks for the time spent with Tillie and the time going through Elaine's apartment, plus the time in