I'll Be Seeing You by Mary Higgins Clark

other, Edwin Collins would never use it again.
    Carter frowned. Victor Orsini. He just couldn’t like the man. Orsini had always been closer to Ed, but he did a damn good job, and his expertise in the field of medical technology was absolutely necessary today, and particularly valuable now that Ed was gone. He had handled most of that area of the business.
    Carter knew there was no way to avoid giving Orsini Ed’s office when Meghan had finished clearing it out. Victor’s present office was cramped and had only one small window.
    Yes, for the present, he needed the man, like him or not.
    Nevertheless, Phillip’s intuition warned him that there was an elusive factor about Victor Orsini’s makeup that should never be ignored.

    Lt. Story allowed a copy of the plastic-enclosed scrap of paper to be made for Meghan. “How long ago were you assigned that phone number at the radio station?” he asked her.
    â€œIn mid-January.”
    â€œWhen was the last time you saw your father?”
    â€œOn January 14th. He was leaving for California on a business trip.”
    â€œWhat kind of business?”
    Meghan’s tongue felt thick, her fingers were chilled as she held the photocopy with her name looking incongruously bold against the white background. She told him about Collins and Carter Executive Search. It was obvious that Detective Jamal Nader had already told Story that her father was missing.
    â€œDid your father have this number in his possession when he left?”
    â€œHe must have. I never spoke to him or saw him again after the fourteenth. He was due home on the twenty-eighth.”
    â€œAnd he died in the Tappan Zee Bridge accident that night.”
    â€œHe called his associate Victor Orsini as he was starting onto the bridge. The accident happened less than a minute after their phone conversation. Someone reported seeing a dark Cadillac spin into the fuel tanker and go over the side.” It was useless to conceal what this man could learn by one phone call. “I must tell you that the insurance companies have now refused to pay his policies on the basis that at least parts of all the other vehicles have been found, but there’s been no trace of my father’s car. The Thruway divers claim that if the car went into the river at that point, they should have located it.” Meghan’s chin went up. “My mother is filing suit to have the insurance paid.”
    She could see the skepticism in the eyes of all three men. To her own ears—and with this paper in her hand—she sounded like one of those unfortunate witnesses she had seen in court trials, people who stick doggedly to their testimony even in the face of irrefutable proof that they are either mistaken or lying.
    Story cleared his throat. “Miss Collins, the young woman who was murdered Thursday night bears a striking resemblance to you and was carrying a slip of paper with your name and phone number written on it in your father’s handwriting. Have you any explanation?”
    Meghan stiffened her back. “I have no idea why thatyoung woman was carrying that piece of paper. I have no idea how she got it. She did look a lot like me. For all I know my father might have met her and commented on the similarity and said, ‘If you’re ever in New York, I’d like you to meet my daughter.’ People do resemble each other. We all know that. My father was in the kind of business where he met many people; knowing him, that would be the kind of comment he’d make. There is one thing I am sure of, if my father were alive, he would not have deliberately disappeared and left my mother financially paralyzed.”
    She turned to Tom. “I’m assigned to cover the Baxter arraignment. I’d better get moving.”
    â€œYou okay?” Tom asked. There was no hint of pity in his manner.
    â€œI’m absolutely fine,” Meghan said quietly. She did not look at Story or