“Let’s sit over here where we can be more comfortable.”
Sam and Freddie took their glasses of water with them to a comfortable sitting area with plush white sofas and a shaggy white rug that would be a red-hot mess in ten seconds with her family.
“You were the last to see Harlowe before she went missing, correct?”
“I believe so.We went out for drinks and appetizers after yoga on Friday night.”
“Where did you go?”
“A taco place down the street from the yoga studio in Adams Morgan.”
“Where was Harlowe living?”
“She had a place near the studio.She could walk there, which she loved.”
“How did she plan to get home from the restaurant?”
“She said she was going to walk because it was so nice out.I didn’t object because she said she lived close by.”
“What do you know about her job?”
“She worked for Premier Foods out of Chicago.She was here to increase their presence in this city, meeting with restaurants, grocery stores and other retailers.”
Sam took notes as she listened.“How much longer was she scheduled to be in town?”
“I’m not sure.I think she’d planned to stay as long as necessary to cover as much of the market as she could.I got the sense that it was a relief to her to be away from home, but she never did say why.”
“Did she like the job?”
“She loved it, especially going to conventions that were all about food and samples.She joked about doing yoga to offset her career in the food business.”
“Did she share anything with you about her life before she came to DC?”
Deb thought for a second.“She graduated from American and was briefly married after college.She didn’t say much about that to me.I was really excited when she seemed to connect with Joe’s friend Archie when they met through us.”
“Tell me about that.Was it a setup?”
“Not specifically.We had friends over on a Saturday night.They were both invited, we introduced them, and it sort of took off from there.They exchanged numbers, and I think they’d gotten together a couple of times before she went missing.”
“How did you find out she was missing?”
“Archie texted Joe on Sunday, after she and I went out after yoga on Friday, to ask if I’d heard from her.He said he felt weird even asking because things were so new with them, but they’d been talking regularly, and he hadn’t heard from her since Friday, and his texts to her were going unanswered.”
As Sam made a note of the timing, she empathized with Archie.As a detective, he would’ve realized something was amiss, even with a relatively new friend.A sudden change in routine or pattern was almost always a red flag in a situation like this.
“Had you heard from her?”
“Not since we parted company Friday night, but that wasn’t unusual.I didn’t expect to see her again until yoga on Monday.I told her I was skipping the Saturday-morning class we went to sometimes because I’ve been nursing a pulled hamstring.”
“Do you think you could show us where you were when you parted with her?”
She glanced at her husband, who shrugged.
“I mean, sure, if it would help.”
“It would.Are you able to take a break now?”
“Let me tell work I’ll be out for a bit and change really quick.”
