New Year's Eve Murder by Lee Harris Page A

I’ll do is talk to Ada and see if she has any idea what there is in a fifty-mile radius that would draw Susan on the last day of the year. And try to talk to Susan’s dad.”
    â€œWasn’t there another phone number on that list?”
    I thought for a minute. “There was a third number, wasn’t there?”
    â€œA schoolteacher?”
    â€œThat’s right. Mrs. Halliday.” The memory returned. “You really think a teacher would know anything useful?”
    â€œIt’s a lead. It’s a phone call. I’d sure as hell make it if it were my case.”
    I looked at my watch. It was Saturday morning and I didn’t want to bother anyone too early, but it seemed a decent time by now. I called the number Ada had given me.
    A pleasant, older voice answered.
    â€œMrs. Halliday, my name is Christine Bennett. I’m a friend of Susan Stark’s mother.”
    â€œOh dear, is anything wrong?”
    â€œNo one’s seen Susan since the thirtieth. She borrowed a car from a friend and said she’d be driving about fifty miles and back. Ada said you were a confidante of hers. Do you have any idea where she might have gone?”
    â€œWell—”
    I waited, suddenly filled with hope. She hadn’t turned me down flatly with an I-haven’t-the-faintest-idea kind of answer.
    â€œI might actually be able to help you, but I’m not sure I should.”
    â€œI don’t understand.”
    â€œSusan spoke to me in great confidence. It’s always been that way. I would never want to betray that confidence.”
    â€œMrs. Halliday, she told no one that she was going anywhere except the person she borrowed the car from, and she said the car would be back in its garage by New Year’s Eve. It’s not back yet and neither is Susan. Her family is very worried.”
    â€œGive me your name again and your number. I’ll call Mrs. Stark and call you back.”
    It was a long wait, and I wondered whether she had changed her mind or failed to reach Ada or got stuck on a long phone call. I had my kitchen cleaned up by the time she called back.
    â€œI’ll talk to you, Miss Bennett. Chris, is it? But I can’t do it over the phone and I can’t promise to disclose everything that Susan has told me. I have an idea where you might look for her. How soon can you be here?”
    This was it and I heard my heart thumping. “I have to feed my baby about ten o’clock,” I said. “I should be ready to leave at eleven. Would twelve or twelve-fifteen be inconvenient?”
    â€œIt’ll be fine. I’ll open a can of tuna fish and we can lunch together.”
    â€œTuna fish sounds great,” I said. It was my staple for many years. “I’ll see you then.”
    I had carefully not mentioned whether I was coming with or without my little Eddie, partly because I wasn’t sure.
    â€œGet her?” Jack asked, walking into the kitchen.
    â€œGot her and she knows something. But I have to go down and see her in person.”
    â€œGreat. Give me a little quality time alone with my son.”
    â€œYou won’t mind?” I asked, with all the hesitation I felt.
    â€œI’ll love it. Where are those emergency bottles we bought and never used?”
    â€œRight here.” I opened the cabinet.
    â€œTerrific. Don’t hurry back. I’ve got lots of things to talk to him about.”
    â€œYou sure you can handle it?”
    He gave me a hug and kiss. “You sure
you
can?”
    The truth was, I wasn’t.

6
    So that was how I came to leave my house, my husband, and my baby behind, possibly to struggle through a first feeding without me. I promised myself I would not call to check up on them or rush home to make the two P.M. nursing. I was a woman of the world, I had a job to do, and I would do it. I drove down the street without looking back.
    Mrs. Halliday lived in a different part of Brooklyn, in a