Page 85 of Nash Falls

“Well, sir, a forced entry and a person potentially missing? What would you conclude?” He looked Nash over and said, “Please don’t touch anything, and don’t go into your daughter’s room. In fact…” He went up the stairs. When he came back down he said, “The detectives will need to speak with you and your wife. So do whatever you can to wake her up. The first twenty-four hours are critical in matters like this.”

“Of course. Thank you.”

The officer walked off. Nash hurried upstairs and saw that he had sealed off Maggie’s door with yellow crime scene tape. He stood there for a few moments, his mind unable to deal with what was going on. His life had been anything but normal recently, but this… this was just too much.

He hurried to his bedroom and sat next to his sleeping wife. Nash pushed a strand of hair out of her face and then gripped her shoulder.

He said gently, “Judith? Judith, you need to wake up, honey. Can you hear me?”

She made no sound or movement. He rose with an idea that he would make some coffee for her. He made a detour into the bathroom to wash his face. When he passed by the shower he saw something on the tile-and-pebble floor.

It was vomit. Revulsed, he used the handheld shower head to hose it down the drain and then used some cleaner to get rid of the smell. Curious, he looked into Judith’s closet. It was always a mess, but piled in one corner were the clothes she had apparently worn the previous night: a very short, clingy skirt, a low-cut blouse, a thong, push-up bra, and stilettos.

She said she didn’t go out last night, but this says differently. Where was she when I was out of town?

He bent down, picked up the blouse, and took a whiff. Alcohol—wine, most likely. And the aroma of her perfume. And… something else.

He dropped the blouse and headed downstairs to make coffee.

CHAPTER

42

BY ONE IN THE MORNINGthe forensic team had finished their examination, and shiny fingerprint dust lingered on many surfaces around the house like glittery remnants from a birthday party.

Judith, wearing a terry cloth robe and sitting on the couch in the living room, stared at her bare, tanned feet.

Nash was perched beside her, his mind racing with mingled thoughts of his missing daughter and where his wife had been the night before, and whether there was a connection between the two.

The pair of detectives seated across from them looked like they had seen things most human beings would never encounter. John Ramos was tall and stocky, and Nash had noted that he was methodical and deliberate in his movements and line of questioning. The other, Carroll Summers, was small, wiry, and nimble. Dressed in rumpled suits, with ties loosened, they now stared across the heft of a $2,000 coffee table at the devastated couple. Summers had his notebook out and had been industriously scribbling in it, while Ramos leaned back, one thick leg crossed over the other, and apparently committed what he needed to memory.

Summers said, “So, Mrs. Nash, you saw your daughter last around midnight. How was she, her mood, attitude?”

Judith took a moment to clear her throat, draped the fold of her robe over her dimpled knees, and said, “Maggie seemed fine. Nothing out of the ordinary.”

“So she wasn’t upset about anything?”

This came from Ramos, whose eyes had been closed while Summers spoke but now they were open and staring fixedly at her.

“No,” said Judith. She glanced at Nash, as though for support. “It was just… normal.”

“You two were home together all evening?” asked Summers.

Judith broke off looking at her husband and said, “Yes.”

“Dinner together?”

“I, uh, wasn’t that hungry. I snacked. Maggie probably made something for herself.”

“What did you two talk about?” asked Ramos.

“I said it was just normal stuff,” said Judith, her voice raised.

“Be that as it may, sometimes a small detail becomes important,” noted Ramos, his voice low and calm. “We’re doing all we can to find your daughter. But we need your help.”

Nash said gently, “Whatever you can remember, honey, please.”

Judith closed her eyes and drew a deep breath. Then she took a sip of water from the glass in front of her and said, “She was talking about her influencer proposal.”