Lisa Scottoline - Lady Killer

Perfect. Mary went inside, and a little bell went off above the door, letting someone know that she had come in. The small office contained three metal desks, each with an aged computer, and the front desk was littered with multicolored Beanie Babies. A middle-aged woman with frizzy red hair bustled from a door in the back, reapplying coral lipstick as she walked.

“Oh, my, I didn’t know anybody was here,” the woman said, with a fresh, if practiced, smile.

“Sorry if I startled you.”

“Are you lost? You look lost.” The woman twirled her lipstick closed, tossed it into a bulging makeup kit, then threw it in her purse. “Out-of-towners always get lost.”

Mary smiled. “How can you can tell I’m an out-of-towner?”

“No four-wheel drive and no flannel.” The realtor laughed, then she extended a hand with lacquered nails. “Julia O’Connell. Sorry about my bad manners.”

Mary introduced herself. “I know a guy who bought a second house up here, and he loves it. He wanted total privacy, he’s from Philly. He told me the address but I lost it, and now I can’t reach him on the cell. I’d love to see the house and was wondering if you sold it to him.”

“I only started last month and I haven’t sold anything. I’m on my second career and my third husband.” Julia laughed uncertainly. “Maybe one of the other gals worked with him. What’s his name?”

“Bobby Mancuso.” Mary held her breath, in the hope that the news of his murder hadn’t reached the boonies yet. Or betting that Bobby wouldn’t have given his real name when he bought his hideout. It wasn’t like he’d be applying for a mortgage, with proof of employment.

“Doesn’t sound familiar,” Julia answered, after a moment.

“He’s kind of eccentric, so he might have bought under a different name. Maybe you heard one of the other realtors talking about it. I think he might’ve paid in cash.”

“Cash!” Julia’s eyes lit up. “I didn’t hear anything about a cash deal, but like I say, I’m not here that long. I’m sure the owner, Mary Alice Raudenbush, would know, but she’s gone for the day and I’d hate to bother her at home. Maybe we should wait until your friend calls back.”

Mary thought a minute. “Are there other realtors that sell in Bonnyhart?”

“Locally, a few. Of course, anybody can sell anywhere these days. The MLS is online and such, and some of those Philly and New York realtors, they take their clients themselves, and we cooperate with ’em, you know.”

“He wouldn’t have done that.” Mary started working on a new working theory. “The reason I’m asking is I’d like to find a house like his.”

“Really?” Julia’s expression brightened. “You and your husband?”

“No, just me.” Mary warmed to the role. She really did want to buy a house and now she could, in an alternate reality. “I’m on my own, and I wanted something private.”

“You’ve come to the right place. We sell all around Carbon and Luzerne counties, very private Pocono properties. Let’s make an appointment, shall we?”

“I wanted to look tonight.”

“Now? It’s raining like crazy.” Julia groaned as she checked her watch, moving it faceup on a slim wrist. “I was just closing up, too.”

“If I knew the houses that have sold in Bonnyhart, let’s say in the past two years, I could go look at them myself, maybe get an idea of what I want. I don’t have a lot of time. I’m in the neighborhood only tonight.”

“I could give you the comps for Bonnyhart, but I’m not supposed to do that. I’m supposed to drive around with you.”

“What’s a comp?”

“The comparable sales for Bonnyhart. You’d use them to decide what to ask for your house, or to evaluate the asking price of a target property.” Julia sounded like she was reciting from the realtor’s exam. “Comps show the square footage, number of bedrooms and baths, lot size, like that.”

“Great. I’d like the comps.”

“I’m really not allowed to do that. If you come back tomorrow, we can go together.”

“I don’t have time for that and I’d prefer to go alone.” Mary played the part of a tough businesswoman, a partner at Rosato amp; DiNunzio. Or even DiNunzio amp; Rosato. “If you give me the comps, I’ll look at the houses and get back to you.”

“That’s not the way they do it.” Julia’s lined eyelids fluttered.

“That’s the way I do it. If you want your first sale.”

“Okay, hold on.” Julia leaned over the desk and hit a key on the computer, and Mary learned that hardball wasn’t all that hard. All you had to do was ask for what you want and shut up. Two hours later, she was driving through the rain, armed with Julia’s map of the Bonnyhart area and two pages of comps, with twenty-one houses total. Her windshield wipers worked overtime, and her high beams struggled to cut the driving rain. She wound her way along dirt roads, splashing through muddy puddles and around downed tree limbs that snapped under her car tires.

The first seven houses were occupied, all of them clapboard or brick three-bedrooms set back in the woods, priced around $100,000 to $150,000. None of them had black BMWs in the driveway, but Mary had waited at the curb in front of each one, the downpour and darkness allowing her to snoop from the car and see what was going on inside the houses. Everybody kept their curtains and blinds open, maybe because they lived in the middle of nowhere, and the first two houses got eliminated because they were filled with kids.

Inside the eighth house, an old couple watched TV, side-by-side on a plaid sofa, the lights from the screen flickering on their glasses, sudden as lightning. At the ninth house, nobody was home and the lights were off, so Mary had stolen up to the front window, covering her head from the rain with her purse, and looked inside with a flashlight. Four cats gazed at her from the back cushions of the couch, their eyes reflective in the dark, and she crossed that house off the list.

Mary got back in the car and hit the gas, heading for the next house. She told herself to stay the course. The plan made sense. It was logical that Bobby had taken Trish up here. The house could have been the surprise. If the diary was any indication, Trish didn’t know about the house. So what would’ve happened? Did he take her with him? Did he kill her up here and go back downtown? Did he lock her up in the house and then go? Could she still be alive, locked inside the house, like those schoolgirls in the Dutroux case? Or was she buried in its backyard?

Mary was slowing to a stop around a bend when she saw a large deer and two spotted fawns crossing the road, the littlest one springing from a standstill onto the hillside next to the road. She took two more right turns, then a left, following the map in the interior light, and reached the mailbox for 78 Tehanna Lane. She pulled over in front of the house, cut the headlights, and eyed the place through the trees.

There was no car in the driveway, but a light was on inside, a yellow square sliced by the trees in the front yard, their leaves dripping rainwater. The house was as nondescript as the others, and she flicked on the flashlight and scanned the comps in the car. Two bedrooms, one and a half baths, 1,320 square feet, half an acre, well water only, sold for $98,000 a year ago.

Mary shut off the flashlight and sat in the car a moment, watching to see if anyone was inside. The house was clapboard, but it must have been painted a darkish color, because it was barely visible at night. It looked like it had a front porch, because she could see an overhang sheltering a picture window and the gutter dripping water, twigs, and leaves. There were the twin shadows of two chairs sitting on the porch.