I'll Be Seeing You Read Online Free Page B

asked anxiously. “It’s nearly seven-thirty. Aren’t you going to Drumdoe?” She switched on the light and took in Catherine’s blotched, tear-stained face. She sank to her knees and grabbed her mother’s hands. “Oh God, did they find him? Is that it?”
    â€œNo, Meggie, that’s not it.” Haltingly Catherine Collins related the visit from the insurers.
    Not Dad, Meghan thought. He couldn’t, wouldn’t do this to Mother. Not to her. There had to be a mistake. “That’s the craziest thing I ever heard,” she said firmly.
    â€œThat’s what I told them. But Meg, why would Dad have borrowed so much on the insurance? That haunts me. And even if he did invest it, I don’t know where. Without a death certificate, my hands are tied. I can’t keep up with expenses. Phillip has been sending Dad’s monthly draw from the company, but that’s not fair to him. Most of the money due him in commissions has been in for some time. I know I’m conservative by nature, but I certainly wasn’t when I renovated the inn. I really overdid it. Now I may have to sell Drumdoe.”
    The inn. It was Friday night. Her mother should be there now, in her element, greeting guests, keeping a watchful eye on the waiters and busboys, the table settings, sampling the dishes in the kitchen. Every detail automatically checked and rechecked.
    â€œDad didn’t do this to you,” Meg said flatly. “I just know that.”
    Catherine Collins broke into harsh, dry sobs. “Maybe Dad used the bridge accident as a chance to get away from me. But why, Meg? I loved him so much.”
    Meghan put her arms around her mother. “Listen,” she said firmly, “you were right the first time. Dad would never do this to you, and one way or the other, we’re going to prove it.”
8
    T he Collins and Carter Executive Search office was located in Danbury, Connecticut. Edwin Collins had started the firm when he was twenty-eight, after having worked five years for a Fortune 500 company based in New York. By then he’d realized that working within the corporate structure was not for him.
    Following his marriage to Catherine Kelly, he’d relocated his office to Danbury. They wanted to live in Connecticut, and the location of Edwin’s office was not important since he spent much of his time traveling throughout the country, visiting clients.
    Some twelve years before his disappearance, Collins had brought Phillip Carter into the business.
    Carter, a Wharton graduate with the added attraction of a law degree, had previously been a client of Edwin’s, having been placed by him in jobs several times. The last one before they joined forces was with a multinational firm in Maryland.
    When Collins was visiting that client, he and Carter would have lunch or a drink together. Over the years they had developed a business-oriented friendship. In the early eighties, after a difficult midlife divorce, Phillip Carter finally left his job in Maryland to become Collins’ partner and associate.
    They were opposites in many ways. Collins was tall, classically handsome, an impeccable dresser and quietly witty, while Carter was bluff and hearty, with attractively irregular features and a thick head of graying hair. His clothes were expensive, but never looked quite put together. His tie was often pulled loose from the knot. He was a man’s man, whose stories over a drink brought forth bursts of laughter, a man with an eye for the ladies, too.
    The partnership had worked. For a long time Phillip Carter lived in Manhattan and did reverse commuting to Danbury, when he was not traveling for the company. His name often appeared in the columns of the New York newspapers as having attended dinner parties and benefits with various women. Eventually he bought a small house in Brookfield, ten minutes from the office, and stayed there with increasing frequency.
    Now