Page 97 of High Society

“Yes, please,” he says in a friendly tone, but his smile seems pinched.

After they’re seated across from each other in the interview chairs, Holly asks, “Have you found Liisa yet?”

“Not yet. No. But I did speak to her daughter.”

“Me, too. In fact, I encouraged Kimberly to get in touch with you.”

“Thank you for that.” His expression is unreadable.

“Kimberly told you about her mother and those texts? How she doesn’t believe her mom even wrote them.”

“She did.”

Holly is growing impatient with his poker face. “What do you make of it?”

He flattens a tiny crease in his pant leg. “It’s unusual. For sure. But it’s a stretch to jump to the conclusion that someone else wrote those texts.”

“How else do you explain it?”

“Maybe Dr. Koskinen meant it as a goodbye to her daughter?”

Holly shakes her head. “But Kimberly said it didn’t even sound like her. And everything I know about Liisa tells me she’s driven by a strong survival instinct.”

He only shrugs.

“But you’re not discounting the possibility someone else could be using her phone?” she asks.

“I’m not discounting anything.”

“Listen, Detective, if someone has her phone… they might also have Liisa.”

“Or maybe Dr. Koskinen doesn’t want to be found?”

Holly squeezes the armrest in frustration. “Even if she took off on her own, her behavior is worrisome, isn’t it?”

“Unusual, yes.”

“What then?” Holly snaps. “You’re just going to wait and see if she surfaces or not?”

Rivers pulls his phone out of his jacket pocket and consults the screen. “Dr. Koskinen is in Monterey,” he says. “At least that’s where she was when she sent her daughter those texts last night.”

“Monterey? That’s where Liisa grew up,” Holly says. “But she told me her family had all left.”

“Maybe she still has friends there from childhood? We tracked her phone there. But the signal has been intermittent.”

“How do you explain that?”

“She has kept it off most of the time. Or at least not connected to a WiFi or cell signal.”

Holly’s gut churns. “That’s odd, isn’t it?”

“Maybe, but not necessarily criminal.” He looks down at his phone. “I was also able to access her credit card records. She filled her car up yesterday outside Carmel. And then she paid for an Uber Eats delivery last night at a condo in Monterey.”

“Then you do know where she is!”

He shakes his head. “Where she was. I spoke to the owner of the condo. It was rented through Airbnb, but Dr. Koskinen had already checked out by the time I reached the landlord this morning.”

“Did he see her leave?” Holly demands.