Appraise Her by Paula Priamos

Author:Paula Priamos [Priamos, Paula]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Power Punch Publishing
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Nobody will let me inside my own home. The police officers on hand are making me wait out here like some curious onlooker, like several of my neighbors who’ve made the trek over from their houses to see the charred remains of the SUV that burned to the ground practically in their own backyard. Yellow caution tape extends across the front porch of my home as well as cordoning off Elise’s vehicle, forming a misshaped octagon. The tape sags in places then picks up in a slight gust of wind.

There is no need for an ambulance because thankfully there is no body in the SUV.

Elise could still be alive.

Whatever physical evidence that could link the person or persons behind her disappearance is lost to black ash.

I try Hugh’s cell for the second time, but I’m sent directly to voice mail. I’ve already left one message. I don’t see the reason for leaving another.

It’s mid-afternoon and he should have his cell on him, in his back pocket where he always keeps it, even when he’s on a site. Then I remember that long faint scratch that extended between his freckled shoulder blades.

I see Hugh’s cell phone turned off on the nightstand. I see thin white linen sheets, tangled up from lovemaking, I see the raised point of a woman’s nipple, I see my fiancé bending over the woman’s chest to kiss it. I see a soft sea breeze coming in through the open window, cooling off two naked bodies, a couple having sex for pleasure not pregnancy.

The owner of the elaborate three level beach house Hugh is working on is a divorcee’, a studio executive’s ex who’s taken him to the cleaners with no prenup. She could be a real knockout for all I know. I’ve never seen her.

Hugh has spoken about this woman like he would any client, just another job, a bank account with unlimited resources that will allow for top-of-the-line building materials while also adding another high digit to his 401K, helping him get that much closer to retirement.

But creating disinterest about the person one’s secretly bedding is common when someone is having an affair. He could’ve gotten pointers from his sleazy friend Glen on how best to pull off being unfaithful. For all I know maybe Hugh cheated on his first wife, the one who tragically drowned.

I turn off my cell as Detective Ramirez and his female partner get out of his sedan. She’s a thick woman with short blonde hair, a pantsuit and gold aviator shades. He introduces her but I don’t pay attention to her name. All I want is inside my own house.

A news van has arrived and a man in a suit is setting up to give his report from my front yard. This is leading news for the upcoming five o’clock hour – what appears to be key evidence in Elise Davis’s missing persons’ case, her vehicle, that she was believed to be driven away in on the day of her disappearance, now a steel skeleton, hollowed out by heat and flames.

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