Miss Me When I'm Gone

chapter 25



The night after the baby shower, I found a few files in Gretchen’s computer that had Grippo in them. McDonald’s Parking Lot and 78 Durham Road were the only ones that described direct contact between Gretchen and Frank Grippo.

Rereading the second file, I had a wary feeling. I thought of what Gregor had said about Gretchen’s voice recorder. Had she gone to Frank with the idea of recording him, hoping he’d confess something to her? What on earth had Gretchen been thinking, going to this man’s house alone?

After reading this piece, I called Gregor’s cell number, and he picked up.

“Hey, Gregor,” I said. “Thanks again for helping me out the other day.”

“No problem,” he replied. “Glad I could do something.”

“I wanted to ask you about something you mentioned.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. You said something about Gretchen using a voice recorder for some of her interviews lately?”

“Uh . . . yeah?”

“Did you say she was recording people without their knowledge? Or did she generally ask their permission?”

“I don’t know. I just assumed she asked people. And I remember she said it kind of helped her relax . . . knowing she could access it later. Knowing she wouldn’t have to remember everything.”

“So she didn’t say if she recorded anyone without the person knowing?” I asked.

“She didn’t mention anything like that to me. But . . . um . . . in the end, I don’t know if she would have, anyway.”

“I see.”

“Have you checked with Gretchen’s brother about that?”

“No. I will, though.”

“Yeah, I haven’t looked around here again. Don’t think it’s here, but I’ll check again for you.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

After we’d hung up, I considered the small size of a digital voice recorder, and wondered how long it might take us all to dig up such a thing in all of Gretchen’s clutter. Would she have put such a thing in a prominent place, or buried it somewhere deep? But then another possibility dawned on me—one I should’ve thought of from the beginning. If she used it often, likely she kept it close. Like in her purse. If she’d had a purse on her the night she died, that voice recorder was probably in it.