Let's Play Dead (27 page)

“Jason, here . . .” Arabella began and then stopped herself. “Oh, right, you two haven’t met. Nolan, this is Jason Miller, Caitlin’s fiancé. They live together, in case she hasn’t mentioned that. Jason said you and Caitlin talked on the phone last night. She left for work this morning, or at least that’s where she told Jason she was headed, but nobody’s seen or heard from her since. Do you know anything about that?”

“We talked, yes. We were going to try to meet up after she got off work today. She said she’s been busy with this exhibit, but she really wanted to see me. That’s all.”

“You hadn’t seen her before this?”

“I did, a time or two. Bella, what’s all the fuss about? She’s an adult.”

“And she’s under a lot of stress. There’s the exhibit, and you might recall that there was a fatal accident here two weeks ago. She really doesn’t need you in the mix, not right now.”

Nolan shook his head. “She said she wanted to see me again. She didn’t mention a thing about troubles at work. And as for the death, I’d only just arrived when that happened. Yes, before you ask, I saw Caitlin the same day as I landed. She’d been pushing for us to get together for a long time.”

“Which she never told me,” Arabella said bitterly. “What did you talk about?”

“This and that. We had quite a lot to catch up on, you know.”

“Tell me, how long has this been going on?”

“A few years now. She was in college at the time. Like I said, she found me, not the other way around.”

“Did she ask you for money?”

“She did not! Bella, that was always your fight, and I know I did wrong by you. But that wasn’t what she wanted from me. She was curious, is all. Why shouldn’t she be? From what she’s told me, you tried to erase me from the face of the earth, to pretend I never existed. Was that fair to the child?”

“I was angry, Nolan,” Arabella said. “You’d walked out on me, and even before that, you weren’t around much.”

Nolan’s face was flushed now. “And I’ve bloody well apologized for that! What more do you want? You want me to pay for twenty years of back child support? Because I don’t have it, you know. I can’t make up for all those years, but I’d like to be able to talk to my daughter now without you blowing up in my face. She’s her own woman now.”

I was getting tired of watching this battle; it was time to step in and get things back on track. “Hey, you two, you can settle old scores later. What we need to do now is find Caitlin. I saw her yesterday, Nolan talked to her last night, Jason saw her this morning, and we all agree she seemed fine. Sometime after eight this morning she vanished, which is out of character for her. The police can’t or won’t do anything because it’s been only a few hours. So either we can do nothing and wait for her to show up, or we can put our heads together and try to figure out where she is.” I turned to Jason. “Did you talk about anything this morning before she left?”

Jason shrugged. “I was only half-awake. I got a cup of coffee, and I said something about how I kept having Willy the Weasel flashbacks, you know? The last thing I saw before the lights went out? And how Hadley had spent so much time messing around with the head that it was a wonder that we managed to get it installed at all. And then Caitlin said she had to go and went out the door. That was it.”

“Does she usually keep her cell phone charged and on?” I asked.

He nodded. “Absolutely. It’s part of her routine. She comes home and plugs it in as soon as she walks in the door. In the morning she grabs it on her way out. Always.”

“Arabella, nobody saw her come in today? Could she be somewhere in the building?”

“I already looked everywhere I thought she might be.”

“Do you have security cameras?”

Arabella laughed without humor. “No, of course not. No money, and no real need. What’s to steal?”

I was running out of ideas. “Does she have any medical problems? Fainting spells? Blackouts? A drinking problem? Anybody?” I looked around our small group. “Jason? Does she take any medications?”

“Vitamins. Allergy pills. And she sometimes has a glass or two of wine in the evening when she gets home, but I’ve never seen her get drunk.” He was looking at Arabella rather than me as he spoke.

“Excuse me,” Eric broke in. I think we had all forgotten he was there again. “Was she on any medication when she was at school? Because I seem to remember something . . .”

Arabella shut her eyes for a moment. “She’s going to hate me for this,” she said, almost to herself. Then she looked around at all of us. “Caitlin has Asperger’s syndrome, a mild form. She doesn’t like to talk about it—but you know, right, Jason?”

He nodded, looking miserable. “Yes.”

“What’s that?” Nolan asked.

“It’s a fairly mild form of autism,” Arabella said, “and it affects mainly a person’s social interactions. It’s like they simply don’t understand what other people are thinking and feeling. So they have trouble making friends. Sometimes they focus on something to the point of obsession. They can be very invested in routines. I probably should have seen it, but I was so busy, and I suppose I didn’t want to see it. I could fool myself that she was shy or awkward. I should have wondered why she never had any friends, didn’t want to bring anyone home or go to sleepovers. I probably didn’t do her any favors by sending her the message that it was just the two of us against the world. Once we had a diagnosis, her problems made a lot more sense.”

“She seems to function very well, Arabella,” I said. “Those years at school must have done her some good. It looks as though you made a good decision, even if it was hard on you both.”

“Thank you, Nell. It
was
hard. She needed more help than any of the local schools could offer. That’s when I decided to send her to Bishop’s Gate. I did a lot of research, and Bishop’s Gate has been very successful in helping children like Caitlin function well in society. Of course, she hated me at the time, and we had some incredible fights. I’m sure Eric can fill you in on her behavior there— apparently she was a real hellion for the first six months or so. Thank goodness the school could cope with her. I know I couldn’t have.” Arabella took a breath and then went on. “We didn’t get a real diagnosis until right before she went to Bishop’s Gate. I just thought she was hard to handle, and I blamed myself. Caitlin was always a difficult child. Even as a baby, she was colicky, and she cried a lot.”

“I remember that,” Nolan volunteered. “That was one of the reasons I couldn’t stand to hang around the house—she was always whining or screaming, early on.”

“She outgrew that, you know,” Arabella said, a touch of anger in her voice. “But she was always a handful. She challenged me, all the time. It’s like the terrible twos went on for years. Her standard response to everything was
no!
first, then
why?
She resisted everything I said. I was always the bad guy, the disciplinarian. She adored Nolan—she was always a daddy’s girl. Looking back, I guess I’d have to say he was one of her fixations. And then he left. Maybe you thought you were only leaving me, Nolan, but Caitlin took it a whole lot harder than I did. And it took me far too long to see that there was something really wrong, not just acting out. Nolan left, and I had no money. I had to find a way to support myself and my child, and that meant I had to work long hours, take classes to improve my credentials. The city schools weren’t good, so I sent her to a local private school, the best I could afford. She was a scholarship kid, but even so, money was tight. Which meant I had to keep saying no to her, because there were too many things we simply couldn’t afford. I was lucky to hang on to the house through it all.”

“I’m sorry, luv,” Nolan said quietly. “I didn’t know. Not that I could have helped you much—I was pretty strapped myself.”

“Well, as you can see, we managed,” Arabella said bitterly. “But Caitlin was harder and harder to handle, and puberty only made it worse. Then her school stepped in and insisted that I get her psychological testing, and that’s when we found out about the Asperger’s.”

“She’s really all right now, Arabella,” Jason volunteered. “I mean, even with all the stress she’s been under—moving in with me last summer, working full-time, putting together this exhibit—she’s kept it together. Even when I was shocked, she was there with me all the way.”

“Maybe that was the final straw?” Arabella said sadly. The phone on her desk rang, and she snatched it up. “Caitlin? Is that you?” She nodded at us all to indicate that it was her daughter, listened intently for a moment before saying, “Okay, I will,” and then replaced the receiver. She looked up, different emotions fighting in her expression.

“Caitlin’s at Hadley Eastman’s, of all places. She says I have to come out there, right now—she wouldn’t explain.”

“Did she say anything else?” I asked.

Arabella shook her head, bewildered. “No, she just said to get there as soon as possible.”

“How did she sound?” I asked.

“Really worked up—all her words were rushing together. So, now what?”

“Go to Hadley’s. Do you know where she lives?”

Arabella started rummaging through the stacks of papers on her desk. “I know I’ve got it here somewhere—she insists on sending me letters, all the time . . . Ah, here it is. Someplace in Gladwyne. That’s your territory, Nell. Will you drive? Please? I’m too upset to handle driving in this weather right now.”

I knew
of
Gladwyne—it wasn’t far from my own town of Bryn Mawr. However, it was in another category altogether when it came to status; I couldn’t afford a doghouse in that neighborhood. Hadley must have done well for herself with the
Harriet the Hedgehog
books. “Okay, I suppose. Luckily I drove to work today,” I said.

“I’m coming, too,” Nolan announced.

“We don’t need you there,” Arabella began, but Nolan cut her off.

“You’ve complained that I haven’t been part of her life. Well, that can change, beginning now. Tell me, Bella—do you think everything’s all right with our daughter?”

They exchanged a long silent look before Arabella finally answered. “I . . . don’t know. I think . . . maybe something’s wrong. And I have no idea why she’d have gone to Hadley’s, now of all times. Nell, maybe we should have a man along?”

To do what, beat up Hadley? But I wasn’t going to argue. “Fine. Nolan, you can come. Jason, how about you?”

“Of course I’m coming. I love Caitlin, and I’m as worried about her as anyone here.”

“All right, it’s the four of us.” I stood up, relieved to have something concrete to do. “I’m going to go get my car, and I’ll come by and pick you up. Half an hour, maybe. Arabella, you look up the directions to Hadley’s house. Eric, let’s go.” I turned and left before anyone could argue with me, with Eric trailing behind.

Back on the street we walked at a fast clip. “Okay, Eric—what the hell was going on in there?”

“Nell, the more I think about it, the more I recall there having always been something a little off about Caitlin. Maybe the Asperger’s explains it—nobody ever mentioned that. I don’t know. But you can find out what’s going on.”

“That’s my plan. It’s probably all totally innocent—maybe Caitlin had some last-minute brilliant idea for the exhibit, and she wanted to clear it with Hadley. Or vice versa. She’s an adult, and she doesn’t have to check in with her mom every time she blows her nose. I have to assume that she thought whatever it was, was important, to go haring off to the suburbs like this. The best way to find out what Caitlin’s up to is to ask her.”

We reached the Society in a record fifteen minutes. “Eric, you can hold the fort while I go take care of this. I probably won’t make it back to the office today.”

“Will do. But let me know what happens, if you can.”

“Just as soon as I figure it out myself,” I promised.

I really wasn’t happy making this trip. I still wasn’t convinced
that there was any real problem here; that Caitlin hadn’t just gotten caught up in some new excitement about the exhibit and not bothered to tell anyone where she was. Why she wanted Arabella to meet her at Hadley’s was an open question, but chances were still good that it was legitimately work related.

But even Arabella thought there was something odd about the situation, and I didn’t like what I was hearing. Caitlin had been a troubled girl, although to all appearances she had moved past that. But maybe the stresses of her recent responsibilities for the exhibit, coupled with the unfortunate accident, had triggered something?

The weather had definitely taken a turn for the worse. It was already dark, even though it was barely five, and the temperature was dropping. I had to scrape a thin layer of ice off my windshield. The same ice coated the streets, although the early rush hour traffic wore it away quickly. I was pretty sure that the ice would be worse outside of the city. I hated driving in winter.

I arrived at Let’s Play without mishap. When I pulled up at the front door, Arabella, Nolan, and Jason were waiting just inside and hurried out quickly. Nolan opened the front door for Arabella, then climbed into my rather messy backseat. I pointed us toward Gladwyne. Unfortunately the most direct route required taking the Schuylkill Expressway, known affectionately as the Surekill. Predictably, some idiot, or maybe several idiots, had tried to drive as though there wasn’t any ice, and managed to slam into each other, blocking all but one lane. The flashing lights of the police cruisers and the multiple tow trucks reflected off the wet surfaces—further distracting and slowing the other impatient drivers. Worse, the wind had picked up, blowing the icy rain sideways, and straight into my windshield. I should have had the brains to check the weather report this morning before I’d decided to drive into the city, but it was too late now.

There was no alternate route. We just had to wait it out, a slow and slippery mile at a time. “Why don’t you try Caitlin again, Arabella?”