All Dressed in White Page 13

  “The intern,” Austin said immediately. “Kind of a nosy, nondescript fellow. He took good pictures as I recall.”

  “So you do remember him!”

  “Austin remembers everyone,” Nick said. “He’s the Rainman of people-watching. Me on the other hand? I don’t even remember there being a wedding photographer.”

  Austin launched into a detailed description of the photo shoot by the swimming pool the afternoon of the bachelor party, but Nick’s face was still blank.

  “Did you notice anything unusual about him?” Laurie asked.

  “Are you thinking he might be a suspect?” Austin asked, his voice tense. “We’ve been telling people all these years that there’s no way Jeff would hurt Amanda. Henry said from the beginning she probably went for a walk and ran into a dangerous creep. Is it possible this intern’s the one?”

  “At this point, we’re just trying to make sure we have a complete list of people Amanda would have encountered down here.”

  “Come to think of it, the guy did seem very interested in everyone,” Austin said. “I thought he was just too eager, the way interns can be.”

  “Did he seem especially interested in Amanda?”

  “Yes, I think so.” His voice was deeply concerned now. “That seemed normal at the time. After all, she was the bride. Maybe someone should have mentioned it to the police.”

  “It’s a big leap from being overly interested in your job to hurting someone.” She saw no reason to mention Jeremy’s more recent problems with the law.

  Nick downed the rest of his scotch and signaled for the bill. “Is that all we can help you with for now, Laurie?” They were clearly eager to move on to more fun conversations with more available women.

  “Just one more question while I have you here: We were trying to clarify who had access to rental cars that week. Jeff and Amanda rented a car; did either of you have one?”

  “No, only Jeff had one. On this trip we’re yacht people,” Nick said with a smirk at his own joke. Austin began to tell Laurie in agonizing detail about their newfound love for boats and putting their Ladies First and Lonesome Dove nameplates on their charters.

  “So is that it?” Nick asked. Laurie had the impression that he either needed to leave right now or would be ordering another drink.

  “Yes, and, please, let me get this,” she said, reaching for the tab. “It’s the least I can do.”

  Nick placed a gentle hand on her forearm. He certainly was a flirt. “I hate to break this to you, Laurie, but you’ve been picking up more tabs than that one. We’ve put everything on our rooms.”

  Brett Young will be so thrilled, Laurie thought.

  38

  “How’d that go?” Alex asked when she returned to the table.

  She related the new information to him.

  As usual, he processed it quickly. “So that’s one more person saying Jeremy Carroll is a little off.”

  Jeff, Austin, and Nick had all given the same timeline to police. According to the three friends, after dinner, they went to Jeff’s room for a nightcap. Around eleven o’clock they said good night and Nick and Austin went to their own rooms and to bed.

  “Alex, think about this. All four men supposedly were in their hotel rooms alone by eleven o’clock. Henry claims that he went to bed earlier, close to ten o’clock. That means that nobody can confirm the whereabouts of those four after eleven the night Amanda disappeared.”

  “Yes, it does,” Alex agreed.

  “And it was about eleven o’clock when Amanda stepped back from getting on the elevator.”

  “Do you think she was meeting one of the four?”

  “I don’t know. And the question is, was Jeremy hanging around the hotel at that time? If so, he could have seen Amanda and followed her again.”

  “I know your father found Jeremy’s address and it’s not far from here.”

  “That’s where my mind was going. After the shoot tomorrow, I want to pay a visit to Mr. Carroll.”

  “Laurie, please don’t tell me you’re planning to go alone.”

  “Don’t worry. Armed Commissioner Leo will be going with me.”

  “That makes me feel better. Switching to another subject, can you and I have dinner tomorrow night? There’s a new gourmet restaurant in town that I hear is wonderful.”

  “Really? Just the two of us?”

  “Over a romantic dinner you can tell me all about your meeting with Jeremy Carroll.”

  Laurie laughed and said, “What could possibly be more romantic? You’re on.”

  • • •

  Half an hour later they were walking to the elevator. Laurie found herself thinking about Jeremy Carroll. Her gaze drifted to the now dark atrium outside the bar. She could picture Carroll lurking there, his camera strapped across one shoulder. She imagined Amanda walking past him that night, never noticing that the young photographer was watching her. And following her.

  39

  Jeremy Carroll’s neighborhood, a mix of ranch-style and bungalow homes, was modest but well maintained. The one exception was his address. The split-level ranch was in dire need of both a paint job and a lawn mowing. According to his neighbors’ application for a restraining order, Jeremy had inherited the home three years earlier from his great-aunt.

  Laurie paused on the sidewalk. “Now that we’re here, I’m worried that we should have called the local police instead.”

  “I was on the job three decades, Laurie. I know police work. If we took our suspicions to the police department here, they’d spend the entire day mulling things over. They’d probably even call in an Assistant District Attorney for advice. Jeremy would lawyer up the second they started asking questions about Amanda. But we’re just a couple of civilians from a New York City television show. We can use that to get him talking.”

  “Is it safe to just walk up there and knock on the door?”

  “While I’m around, we’re fine.”

  Laurie saw Leo’s hand reach inside his jacket to where he kept his gun. After all those years with the department, he felt unnatural without it.

  Laurie felt her heart start to race as her father rang the doorbell. Were they about to look into the face of Amanda’s killer?

  As the door slowly opened she immediately recognized Jeremy from his booking photo. He even had the same trapped, fearful expression.

  “What are you doing here?”

  On instinct, Laurie looked at his hands and clothing to see if he might be armed. His hands were empty, and he was wearing a T-shirt and sweatpants, not ideal for concealing a weapon. She felt her pulse begin to return to normal.

  But then her gaze moved past Jeremy, into his home. A worn brown sofa and an old television were the only furniture in the living room. Past that, she saw a small table and two chairs in what was meant to be a dining room. Despite the paucity of furniture, the house was cluttered beyond belief. Old computers, video equipment, and printers were scattered in random places. Stacks of magazines and newspapers stood five feet high. And everywhere Laurie looked, there were photographs—on the floor, strewn across the table, pinned to the walls, lining the stairwell.

  Her eyes widened as she looked at Leo.

  He took the lead. “We’re with Fisher Blake Studios and wanted to talk to you about your photography work.”

  It was a smart move. The name of their show would put Jeremy on high alert. Fisher Blake Studios sounded like a photography company. Even so, Jeremy looked wary.

  “I’ve sent my work to every major photographer in Southern Florida. I’ve never heard of you, Mr. Blake.”

  “Oh, I’m not Mr. Blake. My name’s Leo.” He offered a handshake. “This is Laurie. And we’re not local. We’re from New York.”

  Jeremy’s eyes lit up at the mention of the Big Apple, then immediately lowered as Leo handed him a still photograph from the Grand Victoria surveillance video. Laurie could tell that he recognized himself. There was no doubt in her mind: Jeremy was the man she had spotted w
alking behind Amanda at five-thirty the night she disappeared.

  “This is from the Grand Victoria Hotel,” Leo stated. “See the date stamp at the bottom of the picture? Do you remember that night?”

  Jeremy nodded slowly. He wasn’t denying being the man in the security video.

  “Ray Walker, the photographer who hired you, told us that the two of you had finished taking pictures at five o’clock. But you were still there a half hour later, with your camera. And when you saw Amanda, you changed your direction to follow her. We have the whole thing on film.”

  “I don’t understand. Who are you?”

  Laurie decided that it might be best to let Jeremy experience a bit more fear and told him they were from Under Suspicion, investigating Amanda Pierce’s disappearance. “Can we come in?” She stepped inside without waiting for a response, and Leo followed her. She was no longer afraid. This man was a coward, finding power in the shadows, behind a camera. He was not going to lash out with her father around.

  “Why didn’t you tell the police that you saw Amanda after you and Walker finished taking pictures?” Leo demanded.

  “Because nobody asked me if I’d seen her. And I knew if I told them, they’d suspect me. Everybody always suspects me.”

  “You like taking pictures when people aren’t looking.” Laurie gestured to all the photographs strewn around his house. Even at a superficial glance, she could tell that most were taken with long-distance lenses, their subjects unaware of the stranger watching them.

  “It’s my art. I don’t photograph flowers or landscapes. I photograph people, and not when they are posed and artificial. I capture their reality. Isn’t that what everyone really wants? Look at all the selfies posted all over the Internet. People love having their picture taken.”

  “Even your neighbors?” Leo said. “They didn’t seem happy with your art.”

  “That was all a misunderstanding. I tried to explain. Once I realized they were offended, I got rid of all my images of them. It wasn’t right to keep them.”

  “What about Amanda?” Laurie asked. “Do you have pictures of her? Ones she didn’t know about?” Laurie walked to the dining room and began rifling through the photographs spread across the table.

  “Stop it!” Jeremy’s voice was booming. Leo lunged in Laurie’s direction, placing himself between her and Jeremy. “Please,” Jeremy said, lowering his voice, “you need to go now. You have no right to be here. You’re trespassing. Get out.”

  Laurie looked to her father for guidance.

  “I’ll call the police if you don’t leave,” Jeremy threatened.

  Leo took Laurie’s hand and led her to the front door. They had no choice.

  “Dad,” she said once they were safe in the car, “he has photographs of Amanda. I could feel it. He’s going to destroy them now.”

  “No he won’t,” Leo said grimly as he started the engine. “They mean too much to him. They’re his mementos.”

  40

  Alex embraced Laurie when she walked into his suite.

  “I didn’t want you to know how worried I was, but thank God you’re both back in one piece. How did it go? What was he like?”

  Laurie sat on the sofa and pressed her hands to her face. “Scary.”

  “Major creep,” Leo said. “Seriously off.”

  “He’s living like a hoarder,” Laurie explained. “Floor-to-ceiling photographs everywhere. It was like something out of a horror movie. When I pressed him about whether he had pictures of Amanda, he threw us out of the house. Dad, should we call the police now?”

  “And tell them what?” Leo said. “We don’t have any evidence. But I’m telling you: he’s the guy, the one the police missed all those years ago. Tying him to the case is a big breakthrough.”

  “I don’t understand,” Alex said. “You just said you don’t have any evidence. How can you be so sure he’s guilty?”

  Leo shook his head. “Sometimes I forget you’re a defense attorney. Trust me, we were the ones who were there. Jeremy Carroll knows something.”

  “Leo, with all due respect, that doesn’t mean he’s guilty. I see clients all the time who get railroaded by police simply because they were nervous, or were trying to protect some harmless secret.”

  “No one’s railroading anyone—”

  “Okay, please, don’t argue,” Laurie pleaded. “Alex, Dad’s right. You weren’t in that house. There’s no question that Jeremy’s—” She paused, searching for the word. “A weirdo. And he didn’t even deny being the man in that video. He turned around to follow Amanda, and he’s been convicted of stalking people.”

  “But you’re suggesting he did something far worse,” Alex pointed out.

  Laurie turned to her father. “Dad, Alex is right that until we have solid evidence, we shouldn’t leap to conclusions.”

  “So what do you want to do?” Alex asked. “It’s up to you.”

  “Dad,” Laurie began slowly. “Based on your experience, you don’t think Jeremy will make a run for it or destroy evidence if we don’t move against him right now?”

  Leo shrugged. “You never know, but if the guy can’t throw out old newspapers, I don’t think he’ll dump pictures he’s been holding on to for more than five years. And that house is probably his only asset. He’s not the type who can hop on a jet and live a fugitive lifestyle on the other side of the world.”

  “And keep in mind,” Alex said, “just because he might know something about Amanda’s disappearance doesn’t mean he was involved.”

  Laurie nodded. “What do you think about this? Jerry can call him and try to smooth things over. He can say that we’re reaching out to everyone who was at the Grand Victoria that weekend and didn’t mean to invade his privacy. That might calm his nerves.”

  “Good idea,” Alex said.

  “And Alex, none of us want to rush to judgment. We’ll keep an open mind for now, but that makes it all the more important that we hold everyone else’s feet to the fire. Don’t go easy on anyone.”

  “I have no intention of going easy on anyone.” There was a glint in Alex’s eyes.

  “Next up is Meghan. I can’t wait to hear how she wound up marrying her best friend’s fiancé,” Laurie said as she stood up and headed for the door.

  41

  “Are you almost ready, Ms. White? We have the cameras set up with the current light, and the shadows can change quickly outside.”

  Meghan White held up one finger. She would have finished by now if she could have gotten a better phone signal. When she told Jeff that she would be part of this awful show, she assumed they’d have plenty of notice to make arrangements with work. Instead, they’d been hauled down here on the spur of the moment, as if Meghan could put her entire caseload on hold with the push of a button.

  She was doing her best to telecommute, but hotel Wi-Fi connections were infamously insecure, so she had created her own using her cell phone’s hotspot. She watched the progress bar move slowly on the download of this appellate brief. The production assistant—was his name Jerry?—was obviously getting antsy. She wanted to tell him that if time was of the essence, they should have filmed inside. “Just another second, I promise.”

  When the download was finally complete, Meghan closed her laptop and followed Jerry to the set of rattan furniture Laurie Moran had arranged on the promenade behind the main building. She resisted the temptation to wipe all the makeup off her face. The woman who caked it on had promised her that she would look natural on camera, but to Meghan, it felt as though she were wearing a layer of mud. She had stopped arguing when the makeup artist said, “You don’t want to look washed out on the screen. It makes people look scared.”

  Meghan was scared, but she didn’t want to look that way. She asked for a little more blush.

  Laurie Moran, the woman who had been hounding her on the telephone for the previous week, seemed amiable enough, but Meghan thought she had noticed a hint of sarcasm in the producer’s voice when she said she was
happy to finally meet in person. Meghan was more nervous about going toe-to-toe with Alex Buckley. His cross-examination skills were well known.

  Her laptop tucked away, she no longer had an excuse for delay. Okay, she said to herself, let’s do this and then Jeff and I can go home and move on with the rest of our lives.

  • • •

  The minute they were past introductions, Alex Buckley began by asking Meghan to explain the timing of her courtship with Jeff.

  He clearly isn’t pulling any punches, Meghan thought. He’s going for the jugular.

  “You had to have known that some people would disapprove of your starting a relationship with him when Amanda—his fiancée and your best friend—was still missing.”

  Meghan had practiced her answer hundreds of times, but now that she was here, all she could think about was those hot lights and cameras pointing at her. She had worked so hard to avoid all this attention.

  She managed to make it through her memorized response. “We were both as surprised as anyone, Alex.”

  “You’ve told people over the years that you were the one to reintroduce Amanda and Jeff.”

  “That’s right. At a coffee shop in Brooklyn. Amanda loved their bagels,” she said sadly.

  “But you didn’t intentionally get them together, did you?” he asked in a sympathetic tone. “Isn’t it true that Jeff just happened to bump into you?”

  “Yes, I guess that’s right.”

  “In fact, weren’t you romantically interested in Jeff all the way back in college?”

  She shrugged. “College crushes come and go.”

  “So you did have a crush. And then you were excited when you both ended up in New York after law school and he invited you out.”