El Gas

In the second installment of the "Alphabet Mysteries", private investigator Kinsey Millhone is hired by Beverly Danziger to locate her missing sister, Elaine Boldt, whose name is needed on somepaperwork regarding an inheritance. Elaine was last seen getting into a cab with the intention of flying down to Boca Raton, Florida, where she spends her winters, but appears to have disappeared along theway. It seems a relatively straightforward matter, so much so that Kinsey is not sure Beverly needs a PI, but she agrees to take the case.
Things are not as easy as they seem however, as Kinsey canfind no trace of Elaine anywhere in Florida, although she does find a woman called Pat Usher, who claims Elaine agreed to let her sublet the Boca Raton apartment where Elaine lived while she was offtravelling. This claim rings false to Kinsey, since no one but Pat Usher has received a postcard from Elaine on her supposed trip, so she secures the able detective assistance of Elaine's elderlyneighbour, Julia, to keep an eye on things in Florida while she goes back to California. Kinsey suspects there is a link between Elaine's disappearance and the death of her Santa Teresa neighbour, MartyGrice, who was apparently killed by burglars who then set fire to the Grice home a week before Elaine left. Someone breaks into the home of Elaine's Santa Teresa apartment supervisor, Tilly, apparentlyon the track of some bills of Elaine's which Tilly was holding ready to forward on to her. Someone also searches Kinsey's apartment, and Kinsey realises it is Elaine's passport which the thief isafter.
Gravely concerned for Elaine's safety, Kinsey suggests to Beverly that Elaine's disappearance should be reported to the police, but Beverly objects so violently that Kinsey terminates theirrelationship and starts working for Julia instead. Kinsey reports the disappearance and meets Jonah Robb, a recently-separated cop working on missing persons - but despite her attraction to him she is...