“Surveillance duty.” He explained what he was after.
“I like it,” Van Camp said. “You tell us the time, and we’ll be there.”
*
Mo nearly jumped when Rollo started barking, she was so deeply engrossed in what she was reading.
He wagged his tail, which meant, she supposed, that Aidan had arrived.
She peered through the small window in the door and let him in. It was a cool day; he had a trench coat on over his suit. She stepped back, a little breathless. It really wasn’t the time to be thinking about how much she liked his looks.
“Thanks for waiting,” he said.
“No, I’m glad to go and see him with you,” she said. She wrinkled her nose. “Most people, even hospital staff, love Rollo. We do hospital visits at Christmas and bring cards and games and— Well, never mind. But if there’s a fierce nurse on, she’ll see you and Rollo. You’re both so official-looking, I won’t have to explain that he’s more of a cure than a menace.”
He grinned. “Are you ready?”
“Yes, just let me close my computer. I’ve spent the day looking for your Lizzie.”
“And?”
“I might have found her.”
She walked him back to the computer, where she’d keyed in a “find a grave” search. “Elizabeth Hampton. I came across her in a history book about the area. The historical evidence is that Andre was in love with Peggy Shippen, who wound up marrying Benedict Arnold, instead. And, at some point, he had a broken engagement. But, as you know, he was a charming and well-liked man, and it’s not hard to imagine that there might’ve been another woman he loved—who loved him in return. There are stories that, on his moves through the area, Major Andre met Elizabeth Hampton and it was love at first sight. It’s hard to tell exactly when they managed to meet and fall so deeply in love, but apparently they did. Andre, of course, came to a sad finish at the end of a rope. But there were those who considered Elizabeth a traitor for having fallen in love with a traitor—and probably hiding him at times. No one knows how, but poor Elizabeth came to a bad end, as well. Less than a year after Andre’s hanging on October 2, 1780, at Tappan, Elizabeth was found dead. A local merchant discovered her body by the river. Her throat had been slashed, her jewelry was stolen and the authorities at the time believed they were looking for a transient murderer and thief.
“Most people suspected, however, that she was killed by local toughs, executed for betraying her patriot family and friends...and the local boy who was in love with her. Andre’s body wound up in Westminster Abbey. Elizabeth’s is somewhere at the old Episcopal burying ground, not far from where we found Richard Highsmith and Wendy Appleby. But I haven’t located any references that tell us the exact spot, whether she was buried in a family tomb or vault, or if she was just placed in the ground. The next step would be to search local records.”
“Good work,” he said. “We’ll find her. I don’t know what any of this means. But we’ll find her.”
She wanted to tell him she’d seen Richard Highsmith. But she hadn’t learned anything yet. She’d wait.
She sat in her computer chair and he bent to look at the screen. She fought the urge to touch him.
Or to reach out, drag him close and bury her face against his jacket just to breathe in his scent. She stood quickly—and managed to bump into him. “I’m so sorry! But I was thinking I should get Rollo and we should go. It’s silly under the circumstances, but this is Halloween in Sleepy Hollow and I promised to help out, so I need to go be the Woman in White again.” She was babbling. She wanted to touch him, but she was afraid to.
He seemed unaware and glanced at his watch. “Yes, let’s get going.” Rollo was already dressed in his service-dog vest. Mo attached his leash and they set out.
“I listened to the news today. They talked about J.J. and the woman who’d been arrested. Has anything else happened?”
“Anything new? Anything that’s brought us closer?”
“Yes.”
“It’s a slow process. We do have some answers, thanks to forensics and J.J. We know that two people have to be involved. And Wendy Appleby wasn’t randomly killed. She was targeted. We’re questioning people, waiting for forensic reports—and we’ll follow every clue until we get to the truth.”
“He was a nice guy, wasn’t he? Richard Highsmith?” she asked.
Aidan nodded. “He was the real deal.”
“I’m sorry. And I’m sorry, too, about Wendy Appleby. She was a good mother. You could tell from the house and the way J.J. talks about her. I hope he’ll be okay. At least, he seems to love Debbie, so I hope it’ll work out for them.”
“She’s a friend of yours, right?”
“Yes. Not a really close friend, like Grace. Remember, I wasn’t from here. I got to come for weekends and summer vacations. But you know Debbie. And you like her.”