“Of course not. She lives at home, and will until she marries.”
“Is she engaged?”
“I told you, she’s only just turned eighteen.”
Isaac Bell asked a question that he was reasonably sure he already knew the answer to. “When did you report that the girl was missing?”
“I’m doing that right now.”
“But today is March twenty-fourth, Mr. Pape. Why have you waited so long to raise the alarm?”
“What does it matter?”
“It is the first question the police will ask when they get wind we’re looking.”
“I do not want the police involved.”
The tall detective had a steady, baritone voice. He used it to speak soothingly as if explaining a disappointment to a child. “Police involve themselves when the facts of a case indicate the possibility of foul play.”
“She’s an innocent girl. There’s no question of foul play.”
“Policemen suspect the worst. Why did you wait so long to raise the alarm if Anna’s disappearance was unusual?”
Pape gripped his stick harder. “I suspected that she ran away to New York.”
“What did she want in New York?”
“To become an actress.”
Isaac Bell hid a smile. The situation was immensely clearer.
“May I ask why you have come to the V
an Dorn Agency at this juncture?”
“She should have come home with her tail between her legs after a couple of weeks.”
“Are you concerned for her safety?”
“Of course.”
“But you still waited another week after those ‘couple of weeks’?”
“I kept waiting for Anna to come to her senses. Her mother has persuaded me that we cannot wait any longer . . . Listen here, Bell, she was always a levelheaded child. Since she was a little girl. Eyes wide open. She’s no flibbertigibbet.”
“Then you can comfort your wife with the thought that a girl with Anna’s qualities stands a good chance of a successful career in the theater.”
Pape stiffened. “She would disgrace my family.”
“Disgrace?”
“This sort of behavior attracts the newspapers. Waterbury is not New York, Mr. Bell. It’s not a fast city. My family will never live it down if the papers get wind of a well-born Pape on the stage.”
Bell’s manner cooled. “I will have a Van Dorn detective familiar with the theater districts work up the case. Good afternoon, Mr. Pape.”
“Hold on!”
“What?”