“Thank you so much,” Lily said as we sat, she and I on a sofa with plaid slipcovers and our hostess in a chair facing us. “I seem to remember you telling me once that your husband works for a scrap metal company over in Brooklyn.”
“That is right, Miss Rowan. He is there now.”
“How long have you been married?”
Sofia rolled her eyes, as if thinking. “Almost six years, yes. I was what you call a ‘war bride,’” she said, cheeks flushing.
“That is very romantic,” Lily said with a smile. “So, your husband is American?”
“Stan fought in your army, yes, Miss Rowan. We met in England just after the war was ending. I was one of many from Poland who were moved to London when the fighting still went on. We were married there. My name was Kaminski then, a very Polish name. But I am a Jurek now, which is much shorter. And that is nicer, I think.”
“Do you have children?”
“Not yet,” Sofia said. “Stan felt we should get settled in and save some money first. But we do want to have a family.”
Lily nodded. “Let me ask you about Miss Carr,” she said. “Before she... left, did she appear to be worried or upset to you?”
“No, the last time I saw her, she did not seem to be at all unhappy.”
“When was that?”
“I think two weeks ago last Wednesday. I go to Miss Carr’s three times each week, sometimes more if she needs me to help when she has guests.”
“On that day, did she tell you she would be taking a trip?”
“No, she said nothing about any trip to me, Miss Rowan, as I told you before.”
“And what happened the next time you went to her apartment?”
“That was a Friday. Miss Carr was not there.”
“Were you surprised?”
“No, she very often was not at home when I came in the morning. She is very busy, with many meetings, breakfasts, lunches.”
“Yes, I know, and I am at some of those very same meetings,” Lily said. “When did you become worried about her?”
“I think it was on Monday. Again, she was not home, and there was no message for me. She often left me, what do you call them... instructions?”
“Did you make a telephone call to anyone asking about Miss Carr?”
Again, Sofia shook her head. “Was I wrong to not tell someone?”
“No, no, not at all,” Lily assured her, reaching over and lightly squeezing the young woman’s arm. “Thank you so much for the coffee. I think we should go down to Miss Carr’s now. Archie, be a dear and carry the cups and pot back to the kitchen.”
“Oh no, no, I should do that, Miss Rowan.”
“Mr. Goodwin is perfectly capable. I don’t want to see him spoiled,” Lily said with a laugh. Knowing my role, I put the cups, spoons, and pot on the tray and headed for the small and neat kitchen with Sofia at my side.
“You can just put everything down next to the sink, Mr. Goodwin,” she said, going to the wall next to a calendar, taking a key off one of a series of hooks, and slipping it into her pocket. We returned to the living room, where Lily was putting her beret on. “You make very good coffee, Sofia,” she said. “And now we all are off.”
Sofia nodded, her expression somber. It was obvious she had mixed emotions about our venture. “I will get my raincoat,” she said.
“You make a good detective,” I whispered to Lily. “Ask a few personal questions first to make the interrogee relax, and then start in with the more probing ones.”
“I hardly think I asked anything that was very probing,” Lily replied. “By the way, is interrogee really a word?”
“All I can say is Nero Wolfe has used it in the past, so I rest my case. Now, let’s go.” As we left the apartment, Sofia’s face still registered uncertainty.
The drive southeast found us in front of a brick-and-stone Park Avenue tower with a modest dark blue canopy in front. Any wealth this building contained, and there had to be plenty of it, was not reflected in its subdued exterior. As someone once said, the really rich have no need to flaunt it.
I parked in defiance of the posted regulations and we greeted the uniformed doorman, whose face had Ireland written all over it. His coat had the word Seamus stitched on the front, confirming his roots. “We are dear friends of Miss Carr,” Lily told him with the same dazzling smile that first captivated me years ago. “And you of course know Mrs. Jurek.”
“Yes, although I refer to her as Sofia,” Seamus said, touching the brim of his hat, winking at the young woman, and returning Lily’s smile. “I have not seen Miss Carr for some time,” he said, turning serious. “Has she been away?”
“Yes, and we promised that we would look in on her place,” Lily improvised, showing him the key. “I am Lily Rowan, and this is my friend Mr. Goodwin.”
“I am very good with faces, and I of course recognized you, Miss Rowan, from the many times that you have been here to see Miss Carr. All of you, please go right on up.”
The building had no hall man, so we breezed through the vaulted and chandeliered lobby to the automatic elevators.
“Needless to say, Maureen occupies the penthouse,” Lily said to me as the three of us were smoothly carried skyward. The doors opened at the eleventh floor, and we found ourselves in a circular entrance hall, done in the moderne style, with indirect lighting and a black-and-white-checked tile floor that gleamed. Through an archway, I could see what probably was a living room, also high-ceilinged, although in a layout like this, it probably carried a more impressive name, maybe salon or drawing room.
“Also, needless to say, Maureen occupies all of this floor and the one above it. And that puts her at the very top,” Lily informed me, gesturing toward a stairway that wound upward.
“To use your phrase, ‘needless to say.’ And similar to you in your own nearby aerie, I suppose she has a terrace as well.”
“She does indeed. First, it’s ‘interrogee’ and now ‘aerie.’ It seems to me that you’re showing off.” I know Lily well enough to tell when she is nervous, and when that happens, she often covers her unease with light banter, as if she doesn’t have a care in the world.
Turning to Sofia, Lily said, “Where do you think we should look first? You know this apartment far better than I do. And Mr. Goodwin has of course never been here.”
The young woman had apparently overcome her reluctance at this excursion, and she seemed ready to take orders. “Wherever you suggest,” she said.
“We should start with Miss Carr’s bedroom. What do you think?” I addressed the question to Sofia, trying to give her some say over the proceedings.
She smiled shyly. “Yes... I... yes, if you think so.” She led us down a hall with several doors and opened one at the end.
And what a boudoir it was that greeted us. A corner room twice the size of Wolfe’s office had large windows that looked out upon the sprawl of Central Park to the north.
The scene within the room was impressive as well. The carpeting and furnishings were a dazzling white, and the canopied bed, with a white spread, of course, looked large enough to accommodate several people. “All that’s needed here is a couple of white Corgi puppies to complete the effect,” I observed.
“Now there is no need to be acerbic. This very room, and indeed the whole apartment, has been featured in two of the toniest home decor magazines,” Lily said.
“I stand chagrined. By the way, you are pretty snappy with the vocabulary yourself, as in ‘acerbic.’”
“I am only trying to keep pace with you.”
“Noted. Sofia, do things in here appear to be in order to you?”
She nodded, looking around. “Nothing seems to be out of place, Mr. Goodwin.”
“You may want to check some of the other rooms to see if you find anything that doesn’t look as it should,” I suggested.