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Her voice had been hard Cold Had it been full of guilty knowledge? Had she set Alton up to be killed? Or had she suffered brain dae that had resulted in memory loss while she was in that cataleptic state? Did she truly not remember her lover?

Conklin’s cell phone vibrated He looked at the caller ID and saw that it was Robert Murphy

Rich answered the phone by si his name, and Joan’s husband replied, “This is Robert Murphy Have you heard from Joan?”

“Not today Why do you ask?”

“She’s ht, but both she and her car are gone now”

“Can you please give me the plate number?”

Murphy recited the numbers

Conklin asked, “Is there a tracking device on her phone?”

“You’ve got htest idea Inspector, I’ht of recent events”

Rich said, “I’ll put out a lookout on her car and will let you know if I hear anything If you hear from her in the meantime, please call me”

“I will”

Conklin hung up and then played the conversation back in his ? It see for a few hours, even though he hadn’t been ruffled when she’d beenfor almost twenty-four hours

The alar just didn’t add up

What had happened to Joan?

Had she collapsed soone into another cataleptic state? Had her husband killed her? Or perhaps she’d just gone sorieve for her dead lover because thecame back