The Second Time Around by Clark Mary Higgins

Author:Clark, Mary Higgins [Clark, Mary Higgins]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, Suspense, thriller, Crime, Adult, Romance
ISBN: 9780743206341
Amazon: 0743206347
Goodreads: 7766021
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 2003-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-EIGHT

Ken and Don had both left the office by the time I was on my way back from Caspien, so I went straight home. I left messages for both of them, however, and they called me in the evening. We agreed to meet extra early in the morning, at eight o’clock, and talk with clear heads. I worked on my column and was reminded again of the daily struggles 99 percent of the world has in trying to balance their expenses against their income. I went through the new batch of e-mail, hoping to hear something else from the guy who wrote about seeing someone leave Lynn’s Bedford mansion before the fire, but there was nothing from him. Or from her, I added mentally.

I finished up the column and at twenty of eleven washed my face, put on my nightshirt and robe, called out for a small pizza, and poured myself a glass of wine. The timing could not have been better. The restaurant is only around the corner, on Third Avenue, and the pizza arrived just as the eleven o’clock news came on.

The lead story was about Nick Spencer. The press had connected the report of his possibly being seen in Switzerland with the disappearance of Vivian Powers. Their pictures were shown side by side, and the news angle was “bizarre new twist to Spencer case.” The gist of the story was that Briarcliff Manor police doubted that Vivian Powers had been abducted.

I decided it was too late to call Lynn but reasoned that, if anything, this story strengthened her contention that she had no part in her husband’s plans. But if somebody did leave the mansion only a few minutes before the fire, that opened up the distinct possibility that she had an agenda of her own, I decided.

I went to bed with conflicting emotions, and it took me a long time to fall asleep. If Vivian Powers was planning to join Nick Spencer only hours after I saw her, I can only say that she was one hell of an actress. I was glad I hadn’t erased her phone message. I intended to keep it, and I intended to go back to Gen-stone and talk to some of the women who answered the mail.

* * *

The next morning at eight, Don and I were in Ken’s office, clutching mugs brimming with fresh coffee. They looked at me expectantly.

“Chronological?” I suggested.

Ken nodded.

I told them about Vivian Powers’s home, how the open door and overturned lamp and table had a phony, set-up look. Then added, “But having said that, she sure sounded convincing when she phoned me to say she thought she knew who took Dr. Spencer’s records from Dr. Broderick.”

I looked at them. “And now I think I know why they were taken and what they may have contained,” I said. “It all came together yesterday.” I laid the picture of the dais at the award dinner on the desk and pointed to Dora Whitman. “I visited her yesterday, and she told me that she had spoken to Nick Spencer at the dinner.

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