Murder in the Hearse Degree Read Online Free

there’s no way she’d just take off like that without saying anything. It just doesn’t make sense. So anyway, on Sunday Mike finally did agree we should notify the police and they sent someone out to take a report. It was after the police left that I went into Sophie’s room and started looking around. I hadn’t felt right about it up to then. That’s when it happened.”
    “It?”
    “That’s when he hit me. Mike came in and saw what I was doing and . . . well, he just went ballistic. He snapped. He started screaming at me that I had no right snooping around in Sophie’s room and all sorts of garbage. I told you, he’s been under a lot of pressure. He just blew. One minute we were standing there screaming at each other and the next thing I knew, I was down on Sophie’s bed with blood coming out of my nose.”
    Libby put her fingers lightly against her cheek. “I thought he had broken my nose. It was horrible. Then Mike took off. He just turned around and stormed out of the house.” Her eyes went flinty. “And goddamn it, Hitch, so did I. Maybe he knocked some sense into me. You’re absolutely right. There is no excuse for that sort of thing. And I’m not about to make one for him. I called up Shelly, told her what had happened, and she said we could use the place as long as we needed. She wanted me to call the police but I said no. I just wanted to get the hell out of there. I threw some of the kids’ stuff into the car and here I am. I have no idea what I’m going to do next.”
    “Has Mike contacted you?”
    “You’d better believe it. I let him know where I was. I didn’t want him filing a missing persons on me . He’s called. He wants me to come back, of course. He apologized for hitting me, but every conversation has still ended in a yelling match. It’s really no good, Hitch.”
    “And still no word from your nanny?”
    “None. I feel responsible for her. I could shoot myself for letting the whole weekend go by without contacting the police. What the hell was I thinking?”
    Tears suddenly sprang to her eyes. She looked up at the ceiling. “I’ll be damned. I am not going to cry.”
    I got up from the couch and handed her a handkerchief. No self-respecting undertaker leaves the house without one. She took it and buried it in her lap.
    “Look, Libby, maybe I can help with this. I can’t promise you anything, but I know someone who has got some experience in tracking down missing persons. He’s a private investigator. Maybe I can talk to him.”
    She shook her head. “That’s very kind, Hitch. But there’s no reason for you to get involved in this. I’m just being silly.”
    “It couldn’t hurt just to ask.”
    Libby poked at her eyes with my handkerchief then wrapped her arms around herself and began to cry in earnest. She didn’t say yes, she didn’t say no.
    I usually take that as a yes.

 
CHAPTER
3
     
    I won’t go so far as to say that the Fell’s Point section of Baltimore is an area that time forgot, though I do think it’s fair to say that time hasn’t made nearly as much of an impression here as it has on other sections of town. Our buildings are on the small side and have been around long enough to settle at slight angles, giving the impression that they’re leaning against each other in order to keep from falling. It’s a posture that you can see somewhat mimicked—especially on weekends—by the hordes who descend on Fell’s Point’s poorly cobbled streets to negotiate the numerous dockside bars that proliferate in the neighborhood. Fell’s Point used to be a sailors’ haven and many of these bars have changed little from that time. The counters are scarred, the floors are uneven, the air is smoky and stale. They filmed a popular police show in this area for a number of years. The show got a lot of bang for its buck when it came to local color. Whenever there was a crowd scene to be filmed, the production crew let groups of locals bunch together in the