Savage Lane (24 page)

When Larry entered the station at Bedford Hills, a young police officer, Robert Kelly, came over and said, “Thanks for coming in. Been slow so far today, but we’re undermanned.” Kelly explained that Charlie Wilson, another cop at the station, had to go home with food poisoning, which was why Larry had been called in for OT. Larry, seeing a flash of Stu’s body, was irritated that he hadn’t been called in for a more urgent reason, but he didn’t want to get into it with his subordinate.

“No problem,” Larry said. “I had some paperwork I needed to get done anyway.”

It was true he was way behind on paperwork, and it would be good to get it out of the way, but he wished he was still in bed with Stu. They’d had fewer opportunities to see each other lately, and they had to make the most of them if this relationship had any chance of working out.

At his desk, Larry sipped coffee, trying to focus on the reports he needed to file, ignoring the images of the sex earlier that kept coming to him. Then he smiled when his phone chimed and he saw a text from Stu:
You were awesome this afternoon, bro
. Smiling, Larry texted back,
I’m the luckiest dude in the world
, trying to fight off some tears, aware of how tenuous this relationship was and how he was all-in emotionally—potentially a lethal combination.

“Hey, Larry.”

Shit, it was Officer Kelly. Larry looked down immediately and concealed the cell phone behind the desk. Larry didn’t want the young cop to see that he was crying over a text.

“Yeah,” Larry said, trying to sound casual, hoping his voice wasn’t cracking, giving his mood away.

“There’s a girl on the phone,” Kelly said. “Says she thinks her mother’s missing.”

“A girl?” Larry asked.

“Yeah, you know, a teenager,” Kelly said. “She sounds pretty upset.”

“Okay, put her through.”

“Right, boss.”

When Kelly left, Larry wiped the tears away with the back of his hand. Then a few seconds later his phone rang.

He picked up and said, “Bedford Police, Detective Walsh speaking.”

“He-hello.” The girl did sound upset, as if she’d been crying.

Hiding his own tearful tone, Larry said, “What’s your name please?”

“Riley. Riley Berman.”

“And how can I help you, Riley?”

“I-I think my mother’s missing.”

“And what makes you think that?”

“Because she didn’t come home last night.”

“Okay.” Larry wasn’t sure what to make of this. “How old are you, Riley?”

“I’m sixteen.”

“Is there an adult or another relative at home I can speak with?”

“My father’s here.”

“Can you put him on please?”

“No.”

“Why ca—”

“Can you just look for my mother, please? Can you do
something
? I’m really scared. She didn’t come home or call or text or
anything
. This isn’t like her at all.”

“Okay, you’re going to have to calm down,” Larry said. “I want to help you, but I’m going to need you to stay calm and answer some questions, okay?”

“Okay, I’m calm, I’m calm.”

“Good. Now is your father home or not?”

“He’s here, but he doesn’t care, okay? He’s barely worried at all.”

“Maybe he’s not worried because he knows she’s okay.”

“No, he’s not worried because he’s mad at her. My parents are getting a divorce. I saw my mom’s iPad. She was looking up divorce lawyers.”

“I understand,” Larry said, thinking this sounded like a lot of teenage drama. “So how do you know your mother’s not staying with a friend?”

“Because my mother wouldn’t do that. She’d never just go someplace and stay overnight without telling us. I’m telling you, she wouldn’t.”

“Okay, I understand,” Larry said. He wasn’t very concerned—this girl’s mother hadn’t been gone long enough to be considered missing—but he was glad to have a distraction from thinking about Stu. “What’s your mother’s name?”

“Deborah.”

“And your father’s name?”

“Mark.”

“Berman, right?”

“Right.”

Mark Berman, why did that name sound familiar? Wait, didn’t Stu play golf with a Mark Berman? Larry was pretty sure he did.

“And can I have your address, please?”

The girl gave him her address, on Savage Lane in South Salem. Larry knew exactly where it was and it was sort of on his way home.

“I’ll tell you what,” Larry said. “I’ll stop by in about an hour to check in on you and look into the situation. In the meantime, you let me know if your mom comes home, okay?”

“Okay.” The girl was crying again. “But something happened to her. I’m telling you something happened.”

L
ARRY DIDN’T
get a call from the girl so after he put in another hour or so doing paperwork he swung by the house off Lake Shore Drive. He parked in the driveway at the end of the cul-de- sac on Savage Lane, then went around to the front and rang the bell. Inside a dog was barking.

A stocky, middle-aged dark-haired man opened the door. Larry watched the man’s expression morph from anger to surprise. He’d obviously been expecting someone else.

“Mark Berman?”

“Yeah.” He was squinting, confused.

While Larry still didn’t know whether this Mark Berman was the Mark Berman who played golf with Stu, he seemed to be about the right age—mid-forties—and seemed like the suburban golf-playing type. But what straight guy out here didn’t?

Larry showed his badge, said, “Larry Walsh, Bedford Hills Police.”

Now Mark’s surprise became concern.

“Is your wife home?” Larry asked.

“No,” Mark said. “Actually I thought it was her when I heard the car in the drive. Is everything okay?”

“I don’t know,” Larry said. “That’s why I’m here.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I called him, Dad.”

A teenage girl, hair back in a ponytail, had appeared from behind Mark.

“For Chrissake, Riley,” Mark said.

“I’m scared, and you weren’t doing anything,” Riley said.

“This is ridiculous,” Mark said to Larry. “There’s no reason for you to be here.”

“So you’ve located your wife,” Larry said.

“No, but she doesn’t need locating,” Mark said. “She’s probably in the city with a friend.”

“She wouldn’t go to the city overnight without telling us,” Riley said.

Now a boy, holding a gaming remote, came down, asking, “Is Mommy home yet?”

“Kids, I want you to go upstairs right now,” Mark said.

“But I’m the one who called him,” Riley said.

“It’s okay,” Larry said to Riley. “Why don’t you go upstairs? I want to talk to your father alone for a few minutes, okay?”

Riley muttered, “Okay,” and went up with the boy. Larry heard the boy asking, “Where’s Mommy?” and Riley telling him, “We don’t know yet,” and the boy saying, “I miss her.”

When the kids seemed out of earshot, Mark said, “I’m really sorry about this. I had no idea she was calling you.”

“It’s okay, I was passing through anyway and just wanted to check the situation out.”

“The situation is she’s probably with a friend, and she’ll be home any minute.” Mark sounded annoyed.

“Is that what she told you? That she was meeting a friend?”

“No, she didn’t really tell me anything.”

“Have you tried calling her friends?”

“I didn’t want to make a big deal about this for no reason. You know, get people all worked up.”

“Have you tried to call her yourself?”

“I did before you got here, yes.”

“And?”

“It went right to voicemail.”

“Does she usually have her phone off?”

“No, not usually, but sometimes it dies.”

“Can you try to call her again right now?”

“I don’t see why—” Then he let out a breath and said, “Okay, okay.”

Larry followed Mark into the kitchen. Mark picked up a landline phone, tapped in the number, then ended the call and said, “Voicemail again.”

“So when exactly was the last time you saw her?” Larry asked.

“I don’t know,” Mark said, running a hand through his thinning hair. “I guess yesterday at like seven, seven-thirty.”

“That’s significant,” Larry said. “It’s getting to the point when we’ll probably have to start getting concerned.”

“Concerned about what?”

“Let’s not worry about that right now. Let’s just try to locate your wife.”

“Shit,” Mark said.

Now Larry thought Mark seemed genuinely worried.

Larry took out a pen and a small pad from the pocket of his Windbreaker, flipped to a fresh page. After jotting,
7, 7:30?
in the pad he asked, “And she gave you no indication where she was going?”

“No,” Mark said.

“Is that unusual?”

“I didn’t think so at the time,” Mark said. “I figured she was just going out for a while.”

“Were you concerned when she didn’t come home last night?”

“A little but, like I said, I figured she was with a friend.”

“Who’s this friend?”

“I don’t know. I heard a car pull up.”

“So she didn’t drive her own car?”

“No, her car’s in the lot of the Oak Ridge Country Club where we have a membership.”

Stu’s club
.

Writing in his pad, Larry asked, “Did you get a look at the car she got in?”

“No, I just heard it.”

“And what was she wearing?”

“Is that really necessary?”

“Maybe, maybe not.”

Another deep breath then Mark said, “I didn’t notice.”

“Did she look like she was going someplace special?”

“I really have no idea.”

It seemed odd to Larry that he didn’t notice how his wife was dressed; Larry could name every outfit he’d seen Stu wear for the past two months.

“And behaviorally,” Larry said, “did you notice anything unusual yesterday?”

“What do you mean?” Mark asked.

Larry thought Mark suddenly seemed nervous, uncomfortable.

“I mean was there anything off about her, anything that seemed out of the ordinary, or did anything happen that may have gotten her upset, made her want to leave for some reason?”

Larry was trying to hint about Mark and Deborah’s possible divorce situation.

“No,” Mark said. “Not really.”

Larry noticed Mark’s right hand was clenched into a fist.

“Do you know where she was earlier in the day yesterday?” Larry asked.

“Nowhere special,” Mark said. “Just around.”

“Did she leave the house?”

“She picked up the kids, ran errands, went to the country club. Shit like that.”

“And is everything…” Larry wanted to be sensitive here. “…okay in your marriage?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Mark sounded defensive.

“I mean are you and your wife… divorcing?” Larry asked.

“
What
? Where did you get that idea?”

“From me.” Riley Berman had entered the kitchen.

Mark’s face was pink. “You told him that? Why? Where did you even get that idea?”

“Oh come on, it was so obvious,” she said. “She wasn’t talking to you yesterday, and I saw her iPad. She was looking up divorce lawyers. I saw Scott Greenberg’s page on there.”

“Okay, that’s enough, Riley,” Mark said. “Go upstairs.”

“Well, she
was
. You can’t lie.”

“I said that’s enough.”

Riley left the room slowly, shaking her head.

“Look, this is getting out of control,” Mark said to Larry. “I don’t know why Riley told you that. Teenagers, they get these ideas in their heads, you know?”

“So you aren’t getting divorced.”

“No, I… Look, I don’t know what was going on, okay? Did we have a fight yesterday? Yes, we had a fight. Was it any more unusual than any other fight we’ve ever had? No, not really. And she was always threatening me with divorce. That’s just what she did when she got mad. So, no, we were not
planning
to get divorced, that is absolutely untrue.”

“I understand,” Larry said.

“And you know,” Mark said, seeming more agitated, “I’m getting pissed off at you for coming here even asking me these questions. I mean, I get why you’re here and, honestly, I’m getting very concerned myself right now, but that doesn’t give you the right to pry into my personal life. What was going on with me and Deb has absolutely nothing to do with any of this except she might have gone out with a friend and stayed overnight to prove a point, to try to get my attention or something. I’ll call around now, check with all her friends, and I’m sure I’ll track her down. When I do I’ll call you and you’ll be the first to know. How’s that sound?”