All Dressed in White (7 page)

Once I told Charlotte about my meeting this morning with Laurie Moran, she seemed excited, Sandra thought. And she was quick to volunteer her willingness to participate if the show got the go-ahead. “A day never passes that I don’t miss Amanda,” Charlotte had said. But there was that moment when her face fell at the mention of her sister’s name, followed by the urgent request for a martini.

Charlotte is a good, decent person, but why is she so insecure, even jealous? Sandra sighed. Charlotte’s envy could bring out the worst in her. In the seventh grade, she had been suspended for tampering with another student’s entry in the science fair.

But no matter how jealous she had been of Amanda, Charlotte would never hurt her little sister. Or would she? Sandra, horrified that the thought would even cross her mind, felt a stinging lump in her throat.

14

A
s the number 6 train lurched to a stop at the 96th Street station, Laurie was replaying the conversation with Jerry in her head. He knew more about Amanda’s disappearance from five-year-old news coverage than Laurie had managed to glean during a two-hour conversation with Amanda’s own mother. That’s how well he knew the case. Yet he had refrained from pitching a show about his own cold-case obsession because of a comment she had made months ago in Los Angeles.
You looked sad,
he had said
. I assumed—

Jerry hadn’t completed the sentence. He didn’t need to, because he had assumed correctly. Laurie’s only previous visit to the Grand Victoria had been with Greg. It was their second anniversary. New York had suffered an especially bitter winter. More than by the cold, Laurie’s mood had been affected by yet another month passing without becoming pregnant. Her doctor told her that these things didn’t always happen right away, but she and Greg had been so eager to start a family once they got married.

Sensing her worry, Greg had surprised her on a Thursday night, announcing that he had arranged to take a long weekend off from the Mount Sinai emergency room, where he was a resident. They spent four marvelous days, swimming and reading on the beach during the day, enjoying long dinners in the evening. Timmy was born nine months later.

When Greg died, I had felt so alone, Laurie thought. We had always pictured ourselves having four or five kids. She loved Timmy—he was more than enough all on his very own—but she never thought he’d be an only child.

But now, nearly six years after Greg’s death, she realized that she and Timmy had never been at risk of being alone. Her father, Leo, had retired from the NYPD to help raise her son.

And my immediate family didn’t stop there, Laurie thought. Grace could read her mind with one look. Jerry had known that she might not be ready to delve into a story about a young couple getting married at a resort where she’d once celebrated with Greg. Jerry and Grace were co-workers, but they were also family.

And then there was Alex. I don’t want to go there right now, she thought.

She walked quickly the few blocks to the apartment. As she slipped her key into the front door, she felt the stress of the busy day fade away. She was home.

15

S
he was greeted by the smell of chicken roasting in the kitchen and the familiar sounds of cartoon fighting from the living room.
Pow! Hah!
Timmy was playing Super Smash Bros. on his Wii, while Leo read the sports section on the sofa. Laurie had tried to restrict Timmy from these types of games for as long as possible, but even she had been forced to cave.

“Mario doesn’t stand a chance,” Laurie said, recognizing one character on the screen battling her son’s virtual self.

Timmy unleashed a lethal kick and then let out a satisfied “Yesss!” He scrambled up to hug her.

“There she is,” Leo said as he stood up. “How was your meeting with Brett?”

Laurie smiled, appreciative that her father remembered that today had been the scheduled pitch. “Better than I could have expected.”

“What was his reaction to the cases you were torn between?”

“Forget them. Something really terrific came up today.” She gave him the short version of the surprise visit from Sandra. “Do you remember the case?”

“Vaguely. I was still on the job back then, so there were enough crimes in New York to keep me busy.”

Laurie heard the musical chime of a game coming to an end,
and Timmy set his controller down. Obviously, he had been listening to them. “So does this mean you’re going to be leaving again?” he asked, a touch of anxiety in his voice.

Laurie knew that Timmy worried about her schedule. When they filmed the last special, she decided to pull him from school for two weeks while his grandfather watched over him on the set in California. She couldn’t possibly do that for every installment.

“You’re going to like this one,” she told him. “Instead of going somewhere so far away, it’s in Florida, and that’s only a two- to three-hour flight. If the project is approved, I’m even hoping to schedule it for next month before you go back to school.”

“Is there a water park?”

Laurie sent a mental thank-you to Grace, who had already looked up that kind of pertinent information. “Yep. They’ve got a slide that’s forty-feet high in one of the pools.”

“Awesome. And will Alex be there?” Timmy asked. “I bet he’d try the slide with me.”

Sometimes Laurie worried how excited Timmy was about Alex being part of their lives. She’d made a point of not rushing their relationship, but of course earlier in the day, her mind had leapt to the same place as Timmy’s, picturing herself with Alex on the beach.

“Yes,” she said, “Alex is an important part of the show. I’ve checked with him. He’s ready to go. And Grace and Jerry will be there, too,” she added.

“Grace is probably chartering a private plane for all her shoes,” Leo said.

“I wouldn’t be surprised.”

Two hours later, as Laurie cleared the dishes from the table, a text message from Jerry came in. He was still at the office and had contact information for everyone they wanted for the show.
Can’t wait to get started!
he said.

His college-aged obsession was proving handy already. As Laurie
thought about the various people she needed for the production, she worried that the groom and his new wife were absolutely essential. No matter what Sandra had promised, they were also both lawyers, which might make them reluctant to cooperate.

Fortunately, Laurie knew an excellent attorney who could be extremely persuasive. She sent a quick text to Alex, who was the guest of honor at a trial skills conference in Boston for the weekend:
Any chance you have some time Monday night? It might take a couple of hours. It’s about the show. And please bring your car. I hope we get to meet with one or two of the participants.

His response was immediate:
I always have time for you.

She replied,
I’ll call Monday morning with details. Good night, Alex
.

Smiling, she plugged her phone into the charger.

16

“O
rganized chaos” was the term often used by Kate Fulton when she was getting her four kids settled for the evening. The three-year-old twins, Ellen and Jared, had finished their bath and were in their pajamas, watching a Barney video in the family room. Tonight was a good night. Their singing along with one of the jingles meant they weren’t fighting.

After several reminders, Jane had finally gone to her room to read before bed. Now that she was ten, she had announced she should be allowed to stay up later than eight o’clock. “All of my friends go to bed later than that,” she had protested. Kate had agreed to consider the request.

Eight-year-old Ryan was her easier one. He always had a sweet and sunny disposition. But he was also the most accident prone as the recently applied cast on his arm attested. He had fallen off his new bike while trying to steer with no hands.

Normally the noise of her household before bedtime would have been oddly comforting. Tonight, though, all she wanted was silence. She had too many other sounds in her head.

Three days ago she had been shocked to receive a phone call from Sandra Pierce. Kate hadn’t heard from her since the second anniversary of Amanda’s disappearance. Then tonight before dinner, Sandra had called again for the third time since, saying that the
producer of
Under Suspicion
was excited about the prospect of featuring Amanda’s case. And then right on the heels, Laurie Moran, the producer, had called to explain what participation in the program would involve.

Sandra had offered to pay for all the expenses, so Kate could bring Bill and the kids. If that didn’t work, she had said, she would pay for a sitter to stay at the house while Kate was away. My mother will be happy to stay with them, Kate had told her, but I’ll accept your offer to pay for a sitter to help.

She got up from the table. The twins had begun to bicker. “Upstairs now, all of you,” she said firmly.

•  •  •

The Home Depot store was conducting its annual inventory. As the manager, Bill was still there and would be until some ungodly hour.

Twenty minutes later, the dishwasher on and her four children settled, Kate sat quietly in the den over a second cup of coffee. If this production did happen, how would she feel down at the Grand Victoria again?

She remembered how out of place she had felt last time. Amanda and Charlotte and Meghan had seemed so sophisticated. So very New York. She had felt like a dowdy housewife next to them.

I’ve loved Bill since I was thirteen years old, she thought. But sometimes I wonder how it would have been if I’d given myself a few years after college to live in New York and date other people, have some breathing room.

She took another sip of coffee.

I never thought I’d go back to Palm Beach, she thought. Five years ago, I committed the worst mistake of my entire life there. No one must ever know. Please, God, she pleaded silently, please don’t let anyone know.

17

W
alter Pierce opened an email from his daughter, Charlotte.
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