“Sure,” she said. He smelled nice, nicer than Ted.
In the morning Ted’s BMW was missing and the only sign he’d come and gone was a pair of skis taken from the roof rack and thrown alongside the driveway.
The ski season was over.
From the breakfast room the sounds of quarreling began as soon as it was light outside. Loud sounds, soft sounds, then loud again, depending on who was talking, Frieda or Hilton.
Cleo stared up at the ceiling and listened. Frieda was such a good screamer that every word was clear: Ted was her son as well as Hilton’s... Hilton had no right to kick him out so cruelly, his very own son... It wasn’t even Ted’s fault, it was hers, that damned girl, spoiled, spoiled rotten... She didn’t know right from wrong and had no intention of learning... It was Hilton who spoiled her, letting her twist him around her little finger, setting him against his own son... And what if she had a baby?... All these damned morons should be sterilized...
Cleo put her hands over her ears but the sounds sifted in through the open window, seeped up through the floorboards and under the cracks of doors like poison gas... your fault... sacrificed the whole family... damn morons should be sterilized... spoiled brat... one bad apple spoils the whole barrel...
She rolled her head back and forth on the pillow, smothering the words in feathers. She wasn’t an apple, a brat, a moron. She was Cleo.
“I am Cleo,” she said aloud. “I got rights.”
Woman
3
During the next few days Aragon thought of the girl off and on in a desultory way. It wasn’t until Thursday that he had reason to remember her more vividly. A card was brought into his office by the receptionist: Hilton W. Jasper. The card made him think of the girl’s high, thin voice repeating, “Hilton says... Hilton says.”
He told the receptionist, “Send him in here.”
“Here?”
“It’s the only place I have.”
“It’s a mess. This man looks important, you know, like in M-O-N-E-Y.”
“Send him in anyway. He might enjoy slumming.”
Hilton Jasper wasn’t quite what Aragon expected. A tall, well-built man in his forties, he was almost handsome except for the puffiness around his eyes and the thin, tight mouth.
“Mr. Aragon?”
“Please sit down, Mr. Jasper.”
“Thank you.” He sat in the same straight-backed cane chair his sister had occupied. “We haven’t met, Mr. Aragon. I didn’t even know of your existence until an hour ago. Now it seems you may be very important to me.”
“In what way?”
“I have a young sister, Cleo. Her welfare is of prime concern to me.” He paused. “I have reason to believe she came here the day before she disappeared.”
“She came to my office on Monday afternoon.”
“Why? Oh, I’m aware of the confidentiality between lawyers and clients but I can hardly consider my sister a client. She had no reason to seek legal advice. Everything has always been taken care of for her. The idea of her coming to a law office is quite incomprehensible to me. Unless — and I’m forced to consider this possibility — she was interested in you personally.”
“No.”
“You’re young, I thought there was a possibility... She’s so innocent. She has this habit of taking a fancy to people, of trusting them.”
“I saw her Monday the first and last time. Her visit lasted fifteen minutes approximately. And that’s just what it was, a visit. She didn’t seem to be in any kind of trouble that would require the services of an attorney.”
“Thank God for that.”
“Would you like a glass of water, Mr. Jasper?”
“No.”
Aragon poured one anyway from the pitcher on his desk into a paper cup. Jasper drank it.
“Did she appear normal to you, Mr. Aragon?”
“Normal is a pretty big word.”
“Not big enough to include Cleo, I’m afraid.”
“While she was here she behaved in a responsible manner. I don’t give I.Q. tests.”
“What brought her here?”
“What brought you, Mr. Jasper?”
“A private detective I hired traced her movements on the day before she disappeared. He found out she took a taxi from the school during the lunch hour. She told my wife and me that she’d spent the afternoon at the museum. I didn’t believe it. The museum’s closed on Mondays. Anyway, the taxi driver said he drove her to this office. So here I am... The school knows nothing, or so they claim. These places never know anything except about collecting money. In that field they’re experts.”
“You’ve been to the police?”
“Yes. They were polite, no more.”
“They don’t get very excited about missing persons because they usually turn up safe and sound. Do you think she ran away, Mr. Jasper?”
“I’ve had no ransom demands,” Jasper said grimly. “Also, she withdrew her entire savings account from the bank, a matter of a thousand dollars. The money won’t do her any good, may even make things worse. She’s so vulnerable, at the mercy of anyone, anything.” He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. “It never occurred to me she’d draw the money out. I gave her everything she needed, everything she wanted. The account was in her name because I was trying to encourage her to be responsible about money, to save. And she did save, money she got for birthdays, Christmas, things like that.”
“Then it was her own money?”
“Yes.”
“She committed no crime to get it?”
“No.”
“And she’s over twenty-one?”
“Yes.”
“Are you her legal guardian?”
“Yes.”
“You signed a document to that effect?”
“Yes.”
“Have you checked it recently?”
“No. It’s in one of my safe-deposit boxes. I’m not even sure which one.”
“Legal guardianships usually terminate at twenty-one.”
“But she’s not... not competent.”
“A judge would have to decide that.”
“It’s common knowledge.”
“Common knowledge is not a term recognized by the courts,” Aragon said. He felt uncomfortable with the man, more uncomfortable than he had with Cleo. “I’m not sure what you want from me, Mr. Jasper.”
“Help. I must get Cleo back to the safety and security of her own home. But first I have to find her. Where could she have gone, where in God’s name could she have gone? We have relatives here and there throughout the country but none of them would take her in. They wouldn’t want to be held responsible for her. They know what she is.” His voice rose. “No, she’s out there alone someplace, probably telling everyone she meets how much money she’s carrying, inviting disaster, asking for it. You don’t understand how easily a girl like that can be taken in, a mere smile or a kind word. I have to find her.”
“You told me you hired a detective.”
“Yes, when it became clear the police weren’t interested. The detective traced Cleo as far as your office, then he had to fly to Houston to testify in a custody case. It was a poor start. I anticipated a poorer finish and fired him.”
“And came here.”
“I had you checked out by one of my secretaries. You’ve looked for missing people before. And you have an additional advantage. You’ve seen my sister, talked to her, noticed the extent of her incapacity. You know her.”
“You don’t get to know someone in fifteen minutes.”
“Perhaps she told you things.”
Aragon thought of all the times he’d heard ‘Hilton says, Hilton says.’ “A great deal of her conversation consisted of quotes from you, Mr. Jasper. Your opinions seemed very important to her.”