I failed to see the connection, but I wanted to believe Dana’s judgment of her friend and partner.
I’d thought about going up to Mrs. Hall at the service, to see if I could find out more about the search of her home and what led her to believe Dana had prompted it. But what would I have said? I’m with the woman you just threw out. I hoped there’d at least be an opportunity for Dana to talk to her.
I looked across Elaine’s red-and-white bistro tablecloth at Dana Chambers. Except for her stature, she didn’t resemble her father, and I wondered if her mother had the same classically pretty features, with a small nose and perfect teeth. She seemed outwardly to be doing well, but I sensed a deeper discontent.
Elaine had thrown herself into meal preparation, but it was clear that she was upset about Phil’s absence. She’d put her cell phone on the kitchen counter while she was cooking, then carried it to the dining room table. I decided to let her bring it up first if she wanted anything from me.
Another thing about Italian meals, besides the fattening effect, is that they make everyone sleepy. We all turned in early, including Dana, who accepted the invitation to sleep over on the twin bed in Elaine’s office.
No Internet access tonight, I thought.
Matt and I had managed a quick debriefing before falling asleep, but there wasn’t much to report on either side. Matt thought it would be a good idea to go to Phil’s house in the morning, and I agreed. My only offering was a bit of detail from Tom Stewart about the stolen medical supplies, and a hunch that he knew more. But a hunch was just that—conjecture, speculation, gut feeling. Nothing I’d built my career in science on.
I expected to be the first downstairs to make espresso, early on Wednesday morning, but I could tell by the aroma that Elaine had beat me to it, except she’d made regular coffee.
“Now my espresso machine is broken,” she said. “What else?”
I understood the stress that would lead her to equate a faulty kitchen appliance, easily replaced, with a missing fiance.
She picked up her landline phone—checking for a dial tone, I assumed.
“Still can’t get Phil?” I asked.
She shook her head, close to tears. She reached into her pocket for a tissue and dabbed at her eyes. She was dressed casually, which for Elaine meant neatly pressed khakis and a knit crewneck shell. She’d set out four matching mugs with modern geometric designs in muted colors.
“No answer at work, or home, or cell. I talked to his secretary, but she couldn’t, or wouldn’t, put me through to Phil’s boss. I have half a mind to go over there.”
“Didn’t you say he sometimes has to fly out of the country on short notice? Couldn’t this be one of those times?”
“He’d have called by now. It’s been almost two whole days. And he promised me he’d be around the next two weeks. I keep thinking about that briefcase I saw in his office.”
“You said it was empty, right?”
“Yes, but I didn’t look for secret compartments or anything.”
I rolled my eyes and screwed up my mouth. Had I done this to my friend? Seeing my clownish look, Elaine came up with one of the first smiles I’d seen in a while.
Elaine sat on a counter stool and rotated slowly, ninety degrees, back and forth. “What if he just got cold feet, Gloria?”
The thought stunned me. That my confident, intelligent friend worried about being jilted also surprised me. Though she went in and out of relationships frequently, none of Elaine’s breakups had been dramatic; certainly no last-minute dropouts, on either side.
And Phil didn’t seem the cold-feet type. I phrased it differently for Elaine, however. “I think if Phil had problems he’d have told you straight out.”
“You think?”
I reached out to Elaine. Our hug was interrupted by the swinging door between the kitchen and dining room. Matt, probably needing that first sip of caffeine that seemed to lift the bags under his eyes.
“Worried about Phil?” he asked.
I gave him a nod that asked, Can you help?
He pulled Elaine away from me and put his arm around her. “Listen, do you want me to see what I can do?” he asked.
The response was what I wanted, but at the same time, it unnerved me. It made Phil’s absence more serious, not just a temporary lapse from a busy guy who lost track of time, or whose cell phone battery was low. He might be in serious trouble or danger.
I knew that Matt already had an appointment with Inspector Dennis Russell to lay out the flimsy information we had that might be new and useful to the Berkeley PD. My biggest expectation had been that Matt might be able to coax the police into considering Tanisha Hall a murder victim, instead of primarily a drug user or thief who’d been killed.