Vanished in the Dunes by Allan Retzky Page A

whomelse she spoke to after she left the bus. Conversation then stalls. Henry stands and walks toward the steps. He moves down the stairs without incident, stands beside the front door, turns, and asks, “Would you mind if I called on you again? There maybe something else you might remember.”
    Posner doesn’t answer. He merely shrugs his shoulders a moment before the door clicks shut.

CHAPTER 5
    Peter Wisdom watches the lazy fly ball float toward his son Kevin in right field. Kevin moves to his left, hesitates as he squints into the late afternoon sun, wavers for a moment as he surely loses sight of the ball, then lunges to the side and stabs it inches above the ground. The gathering of parents and friends applaud the effort.
    Wisdom joins in, then turns around, faces the setting orange ball, and thinks again of the missing woman. She has become hard to forget. Perhaps the sun has been in his eyes too long. He’s missing something and realizes it’s become personal. He admits that the woman holds some physical attraction for him.
    He remembers an old film where a police detective investigates the suspected murder of a beautiful woman and becomes obsessed with her portrait, until events change and she turns up alive. In this case, the missing woman doctor named Heidi Kashani has not turned up, yet Wisdom feels an uncontrolled obsession beginning to grow. Perhaps that is why he carries the color photo of her in the pink-and-white dress that Stern gave him. There is an exotic sexuality in her eyes, and from the way Stern describes her, he can understand Stern’s own obsession. Moreover he can understand why other men might easily become attracted.
    He notes that he should ask NYPD for a detailed check on Stern, and particularly his whereabouts on the day the woman disappeared. Obsession can beget violence. He has seen it too often. Still, there is no evidence of a crime, much less a death. Wisdom knows theywould need considerable circumstantial evidence in the absence of physical proof. All the more reason for him to inquire about the whereabouts of Dr. Henry Stern on a chilly day this past May. Since so many capital crimes involve people who know each other, this is as good a place to start as anywhere else. He knows that the NYPD won’t be too happy. If someone goes missing outside of the city, then another jurisdiction has the problem, but in the end they’ll still help out.
    He becomes lost in thought as the teams change sides. Since early in the case he’s assumed that the woman is dead. It might not even have been murder. She might have become lost in the woods and fallen into a sinkhole. All he knows is that she disappeared after leaving the bus in East Hampton, and apparently after trying to induce two separate men to drive her to the beach. She might even have gone back to Austria as some of his colleagues at County have suggested, although there is no record of her being on any scheduled flight. The fact that her parents have not offered to come to America puzzles him. The reasonable conclusion is that they know where she is, but they neither offer nor ask for help from the police.
    By all accounts the woman was reasonably content at work and had a rather active social life, especially with Henry Stern. Yes, he tells himself, we’ll start with a closer look at Dr. Stern. If he was involved in Heidi’s disappearance, his behavior since then would give him an opportunity to deflect suspicion. Stern’s actions in providing the photos and insisting on interviewing other passengers all represent the expected activity of a concerned boyfriend, except that Wisdom could hear an obsession in the man’s voice that gives him pause. His contacts at NYPD will give it all a good look. No one has yet suggested that they call in the FBI. Hell. There isn’t even any evidence of a kidnapping.
    He looks up just in time to see his son swinging a bat as he moves into the on-deck