84.
Brooklyn, New York City
7th July, 1946
Peggy arrives home from a mission with the SSR, scratched up and bruised and in pain. She hopes there will be at least a few more days before she has to pursue anything for Stark or else working at the top of her game will be challenging to say the least.
She hobbles up the stairs to the apartment building, unlocking the door with a shaking hand, and steps into a silent apartment. The clicking of her heels on the floorboards is rather eerie in the silence. Isabel isn't supposed to be working, it's a Friday, her rostered day off. Peggy looks around, but something looks odd. The apartment looks untouched from the last day she had been there, the last time she had seen Isabel. It had only been a normal morning. She hadn't been expecting to get dragged into such a drawn-out turn of events when she said a normal goodbye to Isabel last Sunday morning.
She steps into Isabel's room, and it is untouched. Pristine, the way it had been left. The bathroom is untouched. The kitchen hasn't been moved, the same breakfast plates still stacked in the sink ready to be washed.
The hairs on the back of Peggy's neck rise.
She picks up the phone and rings the SSR office first, asking for any information on Isabel's whereabouts.
"She hasn't been seen here since last Sunday afternoon," the agent tells her, a small voice on the other end of the line.
"Sunday afternoon? Why was she in on Sunday? And for what?"
"She was questioned about her knowledge and possible involvement in Case 135, ma'am," the man tells her.
Peggy's blood boils and she hangs up the phone on whatever the man may have said next. Case 135 is the one with Howard Stark. Isabel was questioned the minute Peggy went on a mission about what she knew about Stark. Likely, Dooley was trying to find out about Peggy's activities beyond the SSR.
Peggy sighs, and picks the phone back up, dialing the phone to Isabel's parents' apartment. It rings for a few moments, and then a solemn female voice answers, "Hello?"
"Mrs. Barnes, it's Peggy."
"Oh, Peggy dear. Do you have any news?"
"On what?"
"On Isabel, of course."
"I-I've been out of town, Mrs. Barnes, for a work trip," Peggy says quietly. "What's going on?"
"Isabel's been missing since last Sunday, Peggy. No one's seen her. We haven't heard from her, her work hasn't seen her. There's been no movement in and out of the apartment. She's just…" Winifred pauses and Peggy hears a long sob come from the other end of the phone, and then a sniffle. "She's just vanished."
To die by your side,
Is such a heavenly way to die
To die by your side,
Well, the pleasure, the privilege is mine.
I see those tears in your eyes,
And I feel so helpless inside.
Oh love, there's no need to hide
Just let me love you when
your heart is tired.
If your ghost pulls you up high,
And it feels like you've lost who you are.
My love, there's no need to hide
Just let me love you when
your heart is tired.
