The Couple Next Door Read Online Free PDF Page A

find their missing baby – which he is, along with the rest of the police force – even while he knows that in most cases when a child goes missing like this, it is the parents who are responsible. And there are factors here that certainly make him suspicious. But he will keep an open mind.
    ‘I’m very sorry,’ Rasbach begins. ‘I can’t even imagine how hard this is for you.’
    Anne looks up at him. The sympathy makes her eyes instantly well up with more tears. ‘Who would take our baby?’ she asks plaintively.
    ‘That’s what we have to find out,’ Rasbach says, setting his mug on the coffee table and taking out his notebook. ‘This may seem too obvious a question to ask, but do you have any idea who might have taken her?’
    They both stare at him; such an idea is preposterous. And yet here they are.
    ‘Have you noticed anyone hanging around lately, anyone showing interest in your baby?’
    They both shake their heads.
    ‘Do you have any idea, any idea at all, who might want to do you harm?’ He looks from Anne to Marco.
    The two parents shake their heads again, equally at a loss.
    ‘Please, give it some thought,’ Rasbach says. ‘Take your time. There has to be a reason. There’s always a reason – we just have to find out what it is.’
    Marco looks like he’s about to speak, then thinks better of it.
    ‘What is it?’ Rasbach asks. ‘This is no time to hold back.’
    ‘Your parents,’ Marco says finally, turning to his wife.
    ‘What about my parents?’ she says, clearly surprised.
    ‘They have money.’
    ‘So?’ She doesn’t seem to understand what he’s getting at.
    ‘They have a
lot
of money,’ Marco says.
    Here we go

, Rasbach thinks.
    Anne looks at her husband as if dumbfounded. She is, possibly, an excellent actress. ‘What do you mean?’ she says. ‘You don’t think someone took her for . . .’ Rasbach watches the two of them carefully. The expression on her face changes. ‘That would be good,’ she says, looking up at him, ‘wouldn’t it? If all they want is money, I could get my baby back? They won’t hurt her?’
    The hope in her voice is heartbreaking. Rasbach is almost convinced that she has nothing to do with this.
    ‘She must be so scared,’ she says, and then she falls completely apart, sobbing uncontrollably.
    Rasbach wants to ask her about her parents. Time is of the essence in kidnapping cases. Instead he turns to Marco. ‘Who are her parents?’ Rasbach asks.
    ‘Alice and Richard Dries,’ Marco tells him. ‘Richard is her stepfather.’
    Rasbach writes it down in his notebook.
    Anne regains control over herself and says again, ‘My parents have a lot of money.’
    ‘How much money?’ Rasbach asks.
    ‘I don’t know exactly,’ Anne says. ‘Millions.’
    ‘Can you be a little more precise?’ Rasbach asks.
    ‘I think they’re worth somewhere around fifteen million,’ Anne says. ‘But it’s not like anybody knows that.’
    Rasbach looks at Marco. His face is completely blank.
    ‘I want to call my mother,’ Anne says. She glances at the clock on the mantelpiece, and Rasbach follows her gaze. It’s two fifteen in the morning.
    Anne has a complicated relationship with her parents. When Marco and Anne are having issues with them, which is frequently the case, Marco tells her that her relationship with them is fucked up. Maybe it is, but they are the only parents she has. She needs them. She makes things work the best she can, but it isn’t easy.
    Marco comes from an entirely different kind of background. His family is large and squabbling. They yell good-naturedly when they see one another, which isn’t often. His parents emigrated from Italy to New York before Marco was born and own a dry-cleaning and tailoring business. They have no money to speak of, but they get by. They are not overly involved in Marco’s life, as Anne’s wealthy parents are in hers. Marco and his four siblings have had to fend for themselves from a young age, pushed