“A number of people have been in and out,” he said, turning on the charm. “As you probably know, we’re shooting scenes for a movie. It might have been the script girl. She dropped in briefly to check some notes. What’s the problem?”
“The girl we’re looking for is local. Just turned sixteen, out past her curfew.”
“Sixteen?” Ryan heard his voice catch, felt his pulse quicken. The girl had told him she was twenty. Twenty was an annoyance; sixteen was real trouble. He worked hard to prop up his smile. “No one that young here, Officer.” He opened the door wider and took a step aside. “As you can see, I’m alone.”
“Just the same, a witness saw the girl come up to this room.”
“Perhaps it was another door. Easy to mistake one for another.”
“The witness gave us a room number—this one. You want to tell me what the girl was doing here, Mr. Stark?”
Ryan beamed. “You recognized me.”
“Just answer the question, Mr. Stark.”
“Now that you mention it, I do recall a young lady knocking on my door about an hour ago. She wanted an autograph. I obliged her and sent her on her way.”
“Funny you didn’t think of it until just now.”
“As I said, you woke me up. I’m still a bit groggy.”
“Slim, long blond hair, blue eyes?”
“I didn’t pay close attention, but that sounds about right.”
“That girl never got home, Mr. Stark.”
“Perhaps she’s out having some fun. You know how teenagers are.”
“It’s a school night. This girl’s a straight-A student. Never misses her curfew.”
“I wish I could help you, I really do.” Ryan shrugged apologetically. “If she comes back around, I’ll certainly let you know.”
He started to close the door, but the cop stopped it with the flat of his hand.
“Her father reported her missing,” the cop said.
“Awfully soon for that, isn’t it? It’s barely past midnight. She could have had a flat tire driving home, fallen asleep studying with a boyfriend. All kinds of possibilities.”
“Just the same, her father asked us to check.”
Ryan laughed lightly. “Does her father really have that kind of clout? To send out the local gendarmes just because his daughter’s out past midnight?”
The cop’s face remained implacable. “Her father’s the mayor. Duly elected by the good residents of Pine Haven. Yeah, he’s got clout.”
“The mayor?”
“There’s that echo again,” the cop said. “You have a problem with me looking around your room, Mr. Stark?”
“Really, Officer, this is getting out of hand.”
“It sounds like maybe you do.”
“It’s late, and I have an early call in the morning. Perhaps you’d like to drop around tomorrow, watch us work. Bring the wife and kids if you’d like. Autographs for everyone, photos with the cast.”
The cop kept his hand firmly on the door. “A minute or two, Mr. Stark, and that should do it.”
“Not to be uncooperative, but don’t you need a search warrant for that?”
“Witness saw the girl enter your room. That’s probable cause.”
Ryan felt a trickle of perspiration under his robe. He tried to relax, to get the confidence back in his voice. “I think I should speak with your supervisor. Perhaps he’ll understand. We’re spending quite a bit of money in your little town, you know.”
“My supervisor is a she, not a he. And I’ve already called her.”
Ryan was relieved to hear he’d be dealing with a woman. He hadn’t met one yet who hadn’t melted a little when he’d fixed her with the killer smile. The cop turned at the sound of a vehicle rolling into the parking lot below. It was a white, unmarked Crown Victoria, the type detectives often drive.
“That would be her now,” the cop said.
The driver pulled into a space near the stairs and parked. A trim, attractive woman of about forty climbed out. Her auburn hair was pulled tight in a bun and she wore a well-cut business suit that showed off her figure nicely.
From the second landing, Ryan stared at her wide-eyed, his mouth agape. “Is that Felicia Farwell?”
The cop looked at him curiously. “You know the chief?”
“Felicia’s the police chief?”
“Since last year, when our previous chief retired.”
“You don’t say.” Ryan watched Felicia mount the stairs with a sense of strength and resolve that surprised him and made him feel vaguely uneasy.
“I heard you were in town, Jack, shooting a picture.” Felicia faced Ryan across the doorway’s threshold, discreetly surveying the room behind him. “Frankly, I didn’t expect to run into you. Not if I could help it.”
“The name’s Ryan now. Ryan Stark.” He found his smile again, along with his composure. “Changed it when I got to Hollywood.”
Her smile was less pleasant. “You’ll always be Jack Gluck to me.”
“It’s been a long time, Felicia.”
“Fifteen years.”
“I never figured you for police work.”
“You always underestimated me, Jack.”
“Still, a bump in the road like this. Not really your style, is it?”
“Pine Haven suits me. The people here treat each other with respect. I needed some of that when I landed here fifteen years ago, on my way to nowhere.”
He flinched at that, not expecting her to be so tough. Then he looked her over, hoping to keep things light. “So, it’s Chief Farwell now.” The holstered gun caught his eye. He grinned, raising his finely tweezed eyebrows. “Wow—you’re even packing heat.”
“Chief, detective, and watch commander, all rolled into one,” she said tersely. “We’re a four-person department. I was on duty tonight. That’s how I caught this call.”
“Quite a coincidence, you ending up here, me stopping to shoot a few scenes. Life can be funny, the way it sometimes brings people back together.”
“Let’s not forget that report that came in, Jack.” Her eyes were as steady as a camera lens in the hands of a master cinematographer, searching his eyes for the truth. “The one about a missing girl last seen entering your room.”
He swallowed drily, tried to meet her gaze. “Yes, the officer mentioned something about it. There’s obviously been a mistake. I tried to explain that there have been no young ladies in my room tonight.”
“That would be unusual for you, wouldn’t it?”
“Really, Felicia, you shouldn’t believe everything you read in the tabloids.”
She glanced at her watch, suddenly impatient. “We need to take a look inside, Jack. If she’s not here, we’ll be on our way.”
He held his ground. “I don’t see why—”
“I’m not kidding about this, Jack. We’re not leaving until we have a look around.”
Her green eyes were fierce, unblinking. He felt himself running out of options and decided to take a more confrontational approach. He set his jaw and squinted slightly, glowering like Eastwood in his early Italian Westerns. “You’re just doing this because you’re still angry over the way we broke up. Frankly, I expected better of you, Felicia.”
“We didn’t break up, Jack. You left me.”
“People change,” he said. “They grow apart.”
“We didn’t grow apart until the day you got that phone call from Hollywood and took off without me.”
“Not every relationship is meant to last forever.” He shrugged sympathetically. “I’m sorry if it was painful for you.”
“It lasted until you didn’t need me anymore, after I’d supported you for years in New York while you took acting classes and made the audition rounds.”
“I seem to recall that you took a few acting classes yourself.”