Twisted

bummed for a while. But by the summer, she’d come out of it. She bought this really cool house and had a lot of fun fixing it up.”
    “How about other people in her life, friends, boyfriends?”
    “She’s got some good friends, sure.”
    “Names, phone numbers?”
    Again the girl fell quiet. “I know some of their names. Not exactly where they live. I don’t have any numbers.”
    “Anybody she was seeing romantically?”
    “She broke up with somebody about a month ago.”
    Sellitto asked, “Was this guy a problem, you think? A stalker? Upset about the breakup?”
    The girl replied, “No, I think it was his idea. Anyway, he lived in L.A. or Seattle or some place out west. So it wasn’t, you know, real serious. She just started seeing this new guy. About two weeks ago.” Carly looked from Sachs to the floor. “The thing is, I love Mom and everything. But we’re not real close. My folks were divorced seven, eight years ago, andthat kind of changed a lot of things. . . . Sorry I don’t know more about her.”
    Ah, the wonderful family unit, thought Rhyme cynically. It was what made Park Avenue shrinks millionaires and kept police departments around the world busy answering calls at all hours of the day and night.
    “You’re doing fine,” Sachs encouraged. “Where’s your father?”
    “He lives in the city. Downtown.”
    “Do he and your mother see each other much?”
    “Not anymore. He wanted to get back together but Mom was lukewarm and I think he gave up.”
    “Do you see him much?”
    “I do, yeah. But he travels a lot. His company imports stuff, and he goes overseas to meet his suppliers.”
    “Is he in town now?”
    “Yep. I’m going to see him on Christmas, after Mom’s party.”
    “We should call him. See if he’s heard from her,” Sachs said.
    Rhyme nodded and Carly gave them the man’s number. Rhyme said, “I’ll get in touch with him. . . . Okay, get going, Sachs. Over to Susan’s house. Carly, you go with her. Move fast.”
    “Sure, Rhyme. But what’s the hurry?”
    He glanced out the window, as if the answer were hovering there in plain view.
    Sachs shook her head, perplexed. Rhyme was often piqued that people didn’t tumble to things as quickly as he did. “Because the snow might tell us something about what happened there this morning.”And, as he often liked to do, he added a dramatic coda: “But if it keeps coming down like this, there won’t be any story left to read.”

    A half hour later Amelia Sachs pulled up on a quiet, tree-lined street in Glen Hollow, Long Island, parking the bright red Camaro three doors from Susan Thompson’s house.
    “No, it’s up there,” Carly pointed out.
    “Here’s better,” Sachs said. Rhyme had drummed into her that access routes to and from the site of the crime could be crime scenes in their own right and could yield valuable information. She was ever-mindful about contaminating scenes.
    Carly grimaced when she noticed that the car was still in the garage.
    “I’d hoped . . .”
    Sachs looked at the girl’s face and saw raw concern. The policewoman understood: Mother and daughter had a tough relationship, that was obvious. But you never cut parental ties altogether—can’t be done—and there’s nothing like a missing mother to set off primal alarms.
    “We’ll find her,” Sachs whispered.
    Carly gave a faint smile and pulled her jacket tighter around her. It was stylish and obviously expensive but useless against the cold. Sachs had been a fashion model for a time but when not on the runway or at a shoot she’d dressed like a real person, to hell with what was in vogue.
    Sachs looked over the house, a new, rambling two-story Colonial on a small but well-groomed lot,and called Rhyme. On a real case she’d be patched through to him on her Motorola. Since this wasn’t official business, though, she simply used her hands-free cord and cell phone, which was clipped to her belt a few inches away from her Glock automatic pistol.
    “I’m at the house,” she told him. “What’s that music?”
    After a moment “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” went silent.
    “Sorry. Thom insists on being in the spirit. What do you see, Sachs?”
    She explained where she was and the layout of the place. “The snow’s not too bad here but you’re right: in another hour it’ll cover up any prints.”
    “Stay off the walks and check out if there’s been any surveillance.”
    “Got it.”
    Sachs asked Carly what