Maggie hadn’t talked about the Althorp case in a long time, but I’ll bet anything that if she was at the supermarket checkout and saw that Celeb magazine with Peter Carrington’s picture on the cover, she would buy it. Which explains her sudden uneasiness at the thought of my being in his presence.
I kissed the top of her head. “Maggie, I’m hungry. Let’s go out and have some pasta. My treat.”
When I dropped her home an hour and a half later, she hesitated, then said, “Kay, come back inside. I want to go to that affair. I’ll write you a check for a ticket.”
“Maggie, that’s crazy,” I protested. “That’s too much money for you.”
“I’m going,” she said. Her determined expression left no room for argument.
A few minutes later I was driving over the George Washington Bridge, back to my apartment, her check in my wallet. I knew the reason she had insisted on attending. Maggie had appointed herself as my personal bodyguard while I was under the roof of the Carrington mansion.
4
As she waited for her visitor to arrive, Gladys Althorp studied the picture of her missing daughter. It had been taken on the terrace of the Carrington mansion the night Susan disappeared. She was wearing a white chiffon evening gown that clung to her slender body. Her long blond hair, slightly tousled, tumbled onto her shoulders. She had been unaware the camera was on her, and her expression was serious, even pensive. What was she thinking at that moment? Gladys asked herself once again, as her fingers traced the outline of Susan’s mouth. Did she have a premonition that something was going to happen to her?
Or did she finally realize that night that her father had been involved with Elaine Carrington?
Gladys sighed as she slowly stood, resting one hand on the armchair for support. Brenda, the new housekeeper, had served her dinner on a tray and then headed back to her apartment over the garage. Unfortunately, Brenda wasn’t much of a cook. Not that I’m really hungry, Gladys thought as she carried the tray to the kitchen. The sight of the uneaten food made her feel slightly nauseous, and she quickly scraped it into the compactor, rinsed the dishes, and placed them in the dishwasher.