Hangman. Faye Kellerman

She sat down and tears leaked from her eyes. “I can’t think about food. Kathy called me, asking me to come over. I said of course, but I don’t know why. I’m still in shock. I’m sure I’m not going to be any help to her.”

      “Kathy is Adrianna’s mother?” Oliver asked for confirmation.

      “Yes, sorry. She’s almost like a second mother. It’s going to be so awful.”

      “Sometimes the best thing to say is nothing,” Marge told her. “You spoke to Adrianna this morning.”

      “I didn’t speak to her,” Sela said. “She left a message on my cell.”

      “The call was almost two minutes.”

      “She left a long message.”

      “What about?” Oliver asked her.

      “I wish I could tell you all of it.” A big sigh. “The truth is that sometimes Adrianna kind of rambles and I don’t pay attention. Actually I deleted it before I heard all of it.”

      “What was the gist?”

      “Something about us getting together tonight because Garth is out of town, but not that his presence would stop her anyway ’cause he’s always gone. Then she started saying that it’s good that he’s gone, and if she was really smart she’d ditch him because he was a drain on her emotionally and financially. And he never appreciates a single thing that she does for him and there were lots of fish in the sea and blah blah blah.” Wet tracks were streaking down her face. “I erased the message when I got to blah-blah-blah part.”

      Oliver said, “You called her back, Ms. Graydon.”

      “Is that a statement or a question?”

      Marge said, “We have her cell phone, so we know you called her back.”

      “I did call her back. I left a very short message. I was busy tonight. How about we meet for brunch on Sunday. It’s always easier dealing with Adrianna in the daylight.”

      “Meaning?” Oliver asked.

      Sela’s smile was achingly sad. “Don’t take this the wrong way. I loved Adrianna with all my heart. But sometimes…especially if she’s feeling low…she has trouble knowing when to stop.” Again, she wiped her eyes. “She was never a mean drunk…but she could get careless with her words.”

      “Can you give me an example?” Marge asked her.

      “Let me think how exactly to say this,” Sela said. “When Adri-anna drank too much, she started giving advice—that I needed to get out more, that I needed more exercise. She’d try to fix me up with people I loathed. I knew she was tipsy but I could tell that she was saying what she really thought. It got on your nerves.”

      Marge nodded.

      “She could be really ridiculous.” A flush had come to the lawyer’s cheeks. “I don’t mean to sound snobby, but we’re in different places. And Adrianna kept on equating our stations in life. I didn’t care about that. But even when she wasn’t tipsy, she would say things. Like the time I was complaining to her that I had overbooked a couple of clients and I didn’t know what I was going to do. So instead of being sympathetic, Adrianna said to me, ‘Oh, you have clients. Isn’t that cute.’ I swear I wanted to slug her.”

      The table fell silent.

      “Oh God, that’s awful of me!” Sela started to cry. “She could be difficult, but she was also the nicest person in the world. I really loved her.”

      Marge put a hand on her shoulder. “Of course you did. You were close. And close people know how to push each other’s buttons.”

      “It’s horrible that she died in such a tragic, brutal way,” Oliver said. “But you’re not required to extol everything she’s ever done. Mean people die, too.”

      “She wasn’t mean, she was just careless.”

      “She could be a handful,” Oliver told her. “Her own father said so.”

      “She didn’t get along with him.”

      “We gathered that. What did they fight about?”

      “What difference does it make? He didn’t kill her. I can guarantee that.”

      “Just trying to get a complete picture,” Marge said. “Like when Garth was out of town and Adrianna had too much to drink, did she hook up with men?”

      There was a long pause. Finally, Sela said, “She didn’t go missing from a bar, she disappeared from work.”

      “But maybe she was meeting a pickup from the previous night,” Marge said. “From what she was telling you about Garth, it sounded like she was mad at him.”

      “She was always mad at him. But she always went back…one of the reasons I tuned out her complaining. She’d never do anything about it.”

      “Maybe cheating was her way of doing something about it,” Oliver suggested.

      “How could she cheat with a guy? She worked last night.”

      “She didn’t go on her shift until after eleven P.M.,” Oliver pointed out.

      “She wouldn’t go to a bar before she worked.” Sela’s eyes were moving back and forth. Oliver could tell she was nervous. “She was dedicated in her job. I didn’t see her last night if that’s what you’re asking.”

      Oliver said. “Would you know if Adrianna went out for dinner or a Coke at a bar before she went in to work?”

      “I told you, she wasn’t with me.”

      “That doesn’t answer the question,” Marge said. “What we’re asking is do you know if Adrianna went out last night.”

      “Okay, here’s the deal.” A sigh. “I found out after the fact. Because Crystal called me. Crystal Larabee. The three of us were inseparable all through school. God, that seems like ages ago. Anyway, she told me that Adrianna was at Garage last night and she was flirting with someone. But Crystal insists that they didn’t leave together…that the guy went on to other women after Adrianna left for work. And since Adrianna showed up at work, the guy was probably a dead end. So Crystal didn’t want to say anything, especially to the police, because she didn’t want to get in trouble.”

      “Why would she get in trouble?”

      “I can’t say for sure, but I suspect she was comping Adrianna. Maybe even comping the guy along with Adrianna. She’s done it before. Crystal probably didn’t want the manager to find out she was giving away free drinks.”

      “So why does she continue to comp people?”

      “Because Crystal is Crystal. The point is that Adrianna didn’t leave with anyone, so it’s probably nothing.”

      “What if Adrianna and the guy she was talking to decided to get together the following morning?” Marge said.

      “From her phone call to me, it didn’t sound like anyone was waiting in the wings. She was tired and pissed. She’d just gotten off shift, so she probably wasn’t at her best.”

      “Crystal isn’t at work,” Oliver said. “We’ve already called Garage looking for her.”

      “She took a sick day off,” Sela told him. “When I spoke to her, she was at home and in bed.”

      “We stopped by her place,” Marge told her. “She wasn’t in.”

      “Any idea where she might be?” Oliver asked.

      “I don’t know. I don’t routinely spy on my friends.”

      “We’re just asking if you know where Crystal likes to spend her free time,” Marge said. “We need to talk to her.”

      Oliver said, “But she’s