“He’s got that right.”
Arnie tapped the edge of my card with his thumbnail a couple of times. “Wait here. I’ll go get Gus.”
He turned and disappeared down a short hallway.
While he was gone, I walked over and watched the workmen in the auto repair shop through a plate glass window in the waiting room.
Everyone was busy doing something.
I didn’t see any loafers, and all the bays had a vehicle in them.
Montgomery Auto Service appeared to be a thriving business.
* * * *
Arnie came down the hallway a couple of minutes later and pointed me in the direction of Gus’s office.
“Gus said for you to come on back. His office is at the end of the hallway; it’s the last door on the right.”
When I knocked on the door, Gus immediately opened it, which made me wonder if he’d been standing on the other side waiting for me.
“Come on in, Mylas,” he said. “I’m Gus Montgomery.”
We shook hands.
“Nice to meet you, Gus. Thanks for seeing me.”
“Oh, no problem. Have a seat.”
He pointed to a cushioned chair in front of his desk, and then he sat down in an identical chair next to me, moving it around so we were facing each other.
His actions surprised me a little.
I was expecting him to take a seat behind his desk, thus creating a physical, as well as a psychological, barrier between us.
Instead, he did the opposite.
Although his actions surprised me, his appearance didn’t.
Lizzie was an attractive girl, so I figured any guy she was dating would be a good-looking guy, and Gus was a good-looking guy.
Some might even call him handsome.
He had a thatch of thick blond hair, blue eyes, and a dimpled chin. Since he was a big guy, I figured he’d played football in high school, maybe as a tight end or a wide receiver.
Like Arnie, Gus was wearing a shirt bearing the auto service logo, but unlike Arnie, his shirt was a spotless button-down white oxford, which told me he wasn’t a boss who worked alongside his employees in the grease pit.
As soon as he sat down, Gus said, “So you work for Senator Allen. Is he here in Columbia?”
“No, he stayed in Washington. If Lizzie doesn’t turn up soon, I’m sure he’ll be here.”
He reached over and picked my card up off his desk. “Why would Senator Allen need a chief investigator on his staff?”
“I don’t know how much you know about Senator Allen, but he’s the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee. That’s the committee responsible for confirming the President’s judicial nominees to the courts. However, before a nominee is confirmed, he or she goes through a vetting process, and it’s my job to conduct that investigation.”
“Okay, that makes sense. Did he send you here to conduct an investigation into Lizzie’s disappearance?”
Since I’d already told Lieutenant Lawrence I wouldn’t be actively involved in investigating the circumstances of Lizzie’s disappearance, I continued this charade with Gus.
“No, I’m not here in any official capacity. I’m only here representing Lizzie’s family. As you can imagine, they’re very concerned about her. I’m sure you share those feelings.”
“Of course, I do.” He looked away for a moment. “I’m worried sick about her.”
“When I talked to Savannah last night, she mentioned you and Lizzie had seen each other on Sunday. Is that right?”
He nodded. “We were together most of the day.”
“Did she talk to you about leaving town, maybe going shopping with some of her girlfriends, taking a trip somewhere?”
“No, she never mentioned anything like that.”
“Did she seem depressed?”
“Are you kidding? I’ve never seen Lizzie depressed about anything. If something’s bothering her, she doesn’t get depressed; she gets mad.”
“Did you see her on Monday?”
“No, I tried to see her on Monday, but when I texted her and invited her to go to lunch with me, she said she was tied up with something.”
“Did she say what it was?”
“Not that I remember.” He pulled his cell phone out of his back pocket. After swiping through the screen a couple of times, he said, “No, she just said she was busy and couldn’t make it.”
“Would you mind if I take a look at her text?”
He shrugged. “No, I guess not.”
He turned the phone around so I could read Lizzie’s text, but he didn’t actually hand me the phone. I suppose he knew I would have tried to see more of his texts with Lizzie if he’d given me the phone.
“Was this your last communication with her?” I asked.
“That’s right.”
He slipped his phone back in his pocket. “But why all the questions? I thought you weren’t doing your own investigation.”
“Sorry. Force of habit.” I gave him a big smile.
He nodded. “I’m the same way about cars. I can tell a car needs brake pads as soon as someone pulls up next to me at a stoplight.”
Whether my questions were making Gus uncomfortable and he was trying to change the subject, or whether he was the kind of guy who turned every conversation into something about himself, I wasn’t sure, but I decided to go with it.
“Have you always been interested in cars?”
“Yeah, pretty much. I worked at a repair shop the whole time I was in high school. When I graduated, all I wanted to do was open up my own place. I had no interest in going to college.”
“Not even junior college?”
“Oh, I took some courses at the junior college, but that was before I was able to convince my dad to use the money he’d saved for my college education and help me buy this place.”
“From what I can tell, your business is doing great.”
My observation seemed to please him.
He smiled. “You’ve got that right, and that’s because I’ve worked hard to make this place a success. My goal was to make it as nice as an auto dealership’s service center. Most people who own expensive cars go to a dealership to get their car serviced. Did you know that?”
“I hadn’t really thought about it, but I’m sure that’s true.”
“It’s true all right. That was something I learned real quick when I was in high school working at a crummy little repair shop on the other side of town.”
“I’m sure you must attract a higher class of clientele here.”
He nodded. “Oh, you bet. This is where I met Lizzie.”
“Did you work on her Lexus?”
“One of my guys did, but when she saw her bill, she asked to see the owner. She thought my guy had overcharged her because she was a woman who probably didn’t know anything about cars.”
He laughed when he told me this.
“Did you?” I asked.
“What?”
“Overcharge her because she was a woman?”
He frowned. “No, of course not. Our price-per-hour labor cost is posted in the service area where our customers can see it.”
I nodded. “I noticed that.”
He gestured at several notebooks on the edge of his desk. “If a customer requests it, my mechanics will also show them our price list for all the parts used in their repair. The mechanic who worked on Lizzie’s car charged her exactly what he would have charged any other customer for the same repair, whether they were male or female.”
“Was Lizzie satisfied when you told her that?”
He looked up at the ceiling for a second. “Ah . . . yeah, pretty much, but after she saw my collection of political campaign buttons, all she wanted to do was talk about politics.”
Gus got up and walked over to a bookshelf where he picked up a glass-topped display case. When he brought it over to me, he pointed out the vintage campaign buttons, which didn’t seem all that vintage to me since I’d voted for at least one of the presidenti
al candidates.
When he placed the case back on the shelf, I asked, “How soon after you met Lizzie did you start dating her?”
“She called me the following week and asked me if I wanted to go to a movie with her, and we’ve been dating ever since. That was six months ago.”
“So you’ve been dating her for six months?”
“I’m sure that surprises you. Savannah told me Lizzie usually drops her boyfriends after a couple of months.”
“That’s news to me. I don’t really know Lizzie that well.”
He shrugged. “I’m just repeating what Savannah told me.”
“But you and Lizzie are pretty solid?”
He hesitated. “Uh . . . yeah, I think so.”
“Don’t look now, but your uncertainty’s showing.”
He grinned. “Okay, you’re right. For the past couple of weeks, I’ve actually wondered if Lizzie could be seeing someone else.”
“Why would you think that?”
“A couple of Saturdays ago she cancelled a date with me because she said it was the only time she could interview someone for a story she was working on for The Columbian, but then one of my employees told me he’d seen her at a restaurant with another guy.”
“Maybe he was the person she was interviewing.”
“That’s what I thought too, but the next day when I asked her how her interview had gone, she told me they’d had to reschedule it for the following week, which meant she wouldn’t be able to go with me to the auto show in St. Louis on Saturday.”
“I can see why that made you suspicious. Did you confront her about it?”
He sighed and looked down at his feet for a second. “No, and I’m not proud of what I did next, but instead of going to the auto show on Saturday, I stayed in town so I could see if she was lying to me.”
“So you followed her?”
He nodded. “I was afraid she’d recognize me, so I took one of the cars we were working on here at the shop, and when she left her apartment last Saturday night, I followed her.”
He was quiet for a couple of seconds, but I didn’t say anything.
One of the lessons I’d learned from Mac was that when people started telling me something of a secretive nature, it was time to stop asking questions and let them talk.
“Actually, I felt pretty foolish about the whole thing, because she drove over to the MU Law Library, and when I followed her inside, I saw her meet up with this nerdy-looking guy. They went inside one of those study rooms, and since the rooms are glass-enclosed, I was able to see her taking notes on her laptop while the two of them sat there and talked with each other the whole time. They were in there for about an hour, and when they left, they went their separate ways.”
“When you saw Lizzie on Sunday, I don’t suppose you said anything to her about following her over to the Law Library, did you?”
“No, of course not. In fact, I lied to her and told her I’d gone to the auto show in St. Louis.”
“Did she tell you anything about her interview?”
“When I asked her about it, she said she’d gotten everything she needed. She seemed pretty excited about it.”
“Did she say anything about doing a follow-up on Monday?”
Gus looked thoughtful for a moment. “No, I’m pretty sure I would have remembered that. Do you think that’s why she said she was tied up on Monday and couldn’t meet me for lunch?”
“Maybe. At least it’s something to be considered.”
“I hadn’t connected the two before.”
“That’s just a possibility, but if Lizzie doesn’t show up today, the police will start creating a timeline of what she did over the weekend.”
“Are you saying I need to tell them about Saturday?”
“When they interview you, you might want to tell them you and Lizzie didn’t go out on Saturday night because she was interviewing someone at the Law Library for an article she was doing for The Columbian. You don’t have to tell them the rest of the story if you don’t want to.”
He smiled. “I doubt if I’ll tell them what I told you. I’m not even sure why I decided to tell you about it.”
* * * *
As I was leaving Gus’s place, I got a call on my cell phone from Connor Ross. He introduced himself as Detective Ross, and then he asked if he and his partner, Detective Springer, could meet me somewhere.
I told him I was on my way over to have lunch at Ernie’s Café, and they could join me there if that fit their schedule.
He said they’d meet me over there.
Ernie’s Café was a diner located near the courthouse where my father used to meet up with some of his clients who were too embarrassed to be seen walking into a PI’s office.
On my way over there, I remembered I’d had my first cup of coffee at Ernie’s when I was eleven years old. When I’d ordered it, my dad had laughed at me, but he let the waitress bring me a cup anyway.
I’d been drinking coffee ever since.
The place hadn’t changed that much since then, but today it was only half full, making it easy for me to spot the two detectives at a table along the back wall.
They weren’t that hard to miss; they were the only guys in the diner wearing a coat and tie.
When I walked over to the table, the younger guy stood up and said, “You must be Mylas Grey.”
When I nodded, he introduced himself as Connor Ross, and after he shook hands with me, he introduced his partner, Trent Springer.
Ross was tall and skinny, with black wavy hair and a thin face, whereas Springer was a couple of inches shorter and a lot wider. He had a round face, short blond hair and protruding ears.
A waitress appeared at our table as soon as I sat down, and after I’d ordered a patty melt and a cup of coffee, Ross said, “Lieutenant Lawrence suggested Detective Springer and I meet with you. He said you’d be able to answer any questions we had about Lizzie Allen.”
“If I can’t answer them, I can always contact Senator Allen. Is there something specific you wanted to know?”
“No, not at the moment. Senator Allen provided our lieutenant with all the pertinent facts, and his chief of staff sent us a photograph of Lizzie a couple of hours ago. If we need a DNA sample, we’ll be able to get it from her apartment.”
“I hope that won’t be necessary.”
“That’s our hope as well,” Ross said, looking very serious.
Springer said, “The lieutenant also told us we were to keep you updated about our investigation.”
“Right. Do you know if anyone has spotted her vehicle yet?”
Springer said, “A couple of our detectives are checking on a report that a black Lexus like the one Lizzie drives was seen in Centralia on Monday afternoon. That’s a small town just north of Columbia.”
“I know where Centralia is,” I said. “I grew up here in Columbia.”
“Oh, sure. The lieutenant told us that.” He shook his head. “I don’t know why anyone would want to leave Columbia and move to Washington, D.C. How are you able to live in that cesspool?”
“I just put on my tall boots and wade through it.”
Springer laughed. “Yeah, that’s what you’d have to do all right.”
I asked, “Does this mean you two are headed up to Centralia this afternoon?”
Ross shook his head. “There’s no need for us to do that. The detectives will check out the report on the Lexus and get back to us.”
“Lieutenant Lawrence told me you were at Lizzie’s apartment this morning interviewing her roommate. Do you mind if I ask you what’s on your agenda next?”
Springer said, “No, we don’t mind. After lunch, Connor and I plan to interview Gus Montgomery. Some of the answers he gave us yesterday weren’t all that satisfactory. We think he may know a lot more about Lizzie Allen’s disappearance than he’s letting on.”
I wasn’t about to tell the detectives I’d just spent an hour with the guy, and I didn’t agree with their assessment. As far a
s I could tell, Gus didn’t have a clue where Lizzie was, and even though he was a little self-centered, he seemed like a nice guy.
However, I’d been fooled by nice guys before, so I decided not to say anything.
I suppose I could have just asked Springer why he thought Gus was hiding something, but I decided to try a subtler approach.
I said, “I don’t know if your lieutenant told you or not, but I was at Lizzie’s apartment last night and spoke with Savannah.”
Ross nodded. “Yes, Savannah told us you were there last night.”
I waited a beat or two to see if they might bring up something about Lizzie’s doodles, but when they didn’t say anything, I said, “When I was asking Savannah some questions about Lizzie’s schedule, she noticed her camera was missing.”
“Yeah, she told us that too,” Ross said.
“Did she also tell you Lizzie usually took her camera with her when she was working on a story for the school newspaper?”
Springer nodded. “We discussed the possibility Lizzie could have gotten so wrapped up in a story she forgot to tell anyone where she was going.”
Ross said, “We’ll be contacting the managing editor at The Columbian later this afternoon to find out what assignments she was working on.”
“I was actually planning to go over to the MU campus and talk to the editor about the possibility of the senator giving them an interview if Lizzie doesn’t turn up soon. Of course, if you don’t want me to do that, I understand, but I assure you if I learn anything relevant to your investigation, I’ll let you know.”
Before Ross or Springer had a chance to say anything, the waitress arrived with our food.
As she was setting our plates in front of us, I saw Ross nod at Springer. I wasn’t exactly sure what that meant, but I had a feeling I was about to find out.
After I took a bite of my patty melt—which tasted every bit as good as I remembered it—Ross gestured at me with his fork.
“My partner and I don’t have any problem with you interviewing some of Lizzie’s friends or checking out her activities around the campus, as long as you keep us informed about what you’re doing and what you find out. This is basically the same agreement I have with your father, and he tells me you’re a better detective than he ever was.”
One Day Gone Page 10
