“After I’ve canvassed the property thoroughly I may note other tipoffs to her recent presence here,” Frank said. “I can start an in-depth investigation now if you like.”
I told him that wouldn’t be necessary and hustled him into his pajamas. I’d put Mr. Vargas in Frank’s monastery cell and made up the red love seat in my bedroom with sheets so the kid could stay with me. I worried he would have a harder time sleeping that night than ever, but when I tucked him in on the couch he said, “All of us could use a little rest, right, Alice?” and his eyelids fluttered shut. Once I was sure he was sleeping I went looking for Mr. Vargas. He was on the white couch, holding a plastic martini glass.
“What are you drinking?” I asked.
“I didn’t get that far,” he said. “I ran out of steam after I found the glass. There’s something funny about it. The weight’s off.”
“It’s plastic,” I said.
“Ah. That explains it.”
“Glass and Frank are a bad combination. I’m worried about Mimi, Mr. Vargas. Should we call the police?”
“Call the police? Why?”
“Because she’s missing. Something terrible may have happened to her.” Sirens.
“Mimi’s not missing, Alice. She packed a bag and left.”
He had a point. Not one that I liked, though. “What if she doesn’t come back?”
“I suppose that’s a possibility, but I doubt it. She’s done this kind of thing before.”
“What kind of thing?”
“Bolted. When Mimi gets overwhelmed, she takes off.”
Like mother, like son. Also like Xander.
“But she didn’t have a kid before. She wouldn’t abandon Frank, would she?”
“Frank isn’t abandoned. You’re here.” Mr. Vargas held the glass to the light and twisted it between his fingers. “Plastic, huh? It does look different when the light shines through it.”
I dropped onto the couch alongside him and covered my face with my hands.
“Try not to worry so much, Alice. I don’t know where Mimi is, but I imagine she’s off someplace trying to piece her novel back together. She knows that you’ll take care of Frank while she’s gone. She wouldn’t have kept you around if she didn’t think you could handle the job.”
“But I haven’t handled the job,” I wailed. “You sent me here to transcribe Mimi’s book and I never saw a page of it. If I’d done it right, we’d be back in New York having cocktails in real cocktail glasses at the Algonquin now. There might not have even been a fire.”
“What I love about you, Alice,” Mr. Vargas said, “is the way you simultaneously give yourself too much credit for everything that happens and not enough. Listening to you makes me feel young again.”
“This isn’t funny, Mr. Vargas.”
“Who said it was? Listen to me, Genius. I sent you out here to help Mimi in whatever way Mimi needed help. You did that.”
But I hardly heard what he was saying because I’d suddenly thought of something. “Hang on a minute,” I said, and ran into my bedroom.
When I came back I thrust my ridiculous-looking unicorn notebook into his hands.
“What’s this?” he asked.
“The notes you asked me to keep. Before I went to sleep at night I wrote down everything that happened every day. I really ought to type them out for you. Some of the entries are pretty cryptic and my handwriting isn’t the best. But then neither was Einstein’s.”
“Notes?” Mr. Vargas asked. “What are you talking about, Alice?”
I WOKE UP in the night pretty sure I’d heard somebody knock on my bedroom door. As much as I wanted to stay asleep, I skidded out of bed and went to check.
It was Mr. Vargas, clutching a flashlight and looking embarrassed. I stepped out into the hall and closed my door behind me so we wouldn’t wake Frank. “I’m sorry to disturb you,” Mr. Vargas said. “But is it conceivable that a raccoon found its way into my bedroom closet? Something’s moving in there, but I don’t think it’s a burglar, as the sound is more shuffling than ransacking.”
“I suppose one could have found a way under the tarp over the hole in Mimi’s office wall,” I said. “But I imagine a raccoon would go for the kitchen instead of Frank’s closet. Although knowing Frank he might have snacks wrapped inside some of his pocket squares. Did you close your bedroom door before you went to sleep?”
“I did. And it was closed when I woke up.”
“Let’s have a look,” I said, sounding braver than I felt. Where was that plastic machete when we really needed it?
When we got to the bedroom I noticed a line of light under Frank’s closet door. “Was the closet light on before?” I whispered.
“I didn’t notice.”