All Dressed in White Read online

  “Yes, I suppose I was.”

  “And were you the one to tell him you didn’t want to see each other anymore, or was that his decision?”

  “It wasn’t like that. We didn’t even have that discussion. We just never went out on a third date.”

  “And is that because Jeff didn’t invite you?”

  “Sure, I guess.”

  Meghan could feel the implication in the pause that followed. The show had scored a point at her expense. All these years, she had allowed people to think that she played cupid between Amanda and Jeff. Would everyone see the truth now? Would they know that she had loved Jeff all along? That she had sobbed for hours after Amanda called her the day after the coffee-shop run-in to say that Jeff had invited her to dinner? Meghan had known instantly that she had lost her shot. She never could compete with Amanda.

  Now in desperation, she tried to turn the tables on her interrogator. “Have you ever heard of tunnel vision?” she blurted. “Let me explain it. It’s when an investigator gets suspicious of one person and views all the evidence through that lens. I could point to any person in the wedding party and start raising questions. It doesn’t mean any one of us is involved. Take Kate, for example. On the night Amanda disappeared, she said she had too much to drink and needed to go to her room. But when I went to check on her, there was no answer, even though I banged on the door. In the morning, she claimed not to have heard the knocking, even though Kate is the lightest sleeper I’ve ever met. In college, she would wake up if someone played a CD two rooms away. Do I know where Kate was that night? Not really. But did Kate have anything to do with Amanda’s disappearance? I’d bet my life she didn’t. Are you going to play gotcha with all of us? Are you trying to make us all look guilty?”

  Meghan felt like she had made a valid point, but realized the producers could always edit anything they didn’t like. By the time they were done with their creative splicing, she might come across like a defensive lunatic.

  Alex shifted gears. “Did you threaten to sue Amanda for stealing a product idea from you?”

  Meghan’s worst fears were coming true. Well, not her very worst fears, but she knew this interview was not going well. She felt even more nauseous than she’d become accustomed to in the past week. How in the world did they even know about the fight at the Ladyform offices? She thought Amanda’s disappearance had long ago overshadowed their argument. It must have been Charlotte. That woman never forgot a grudge.

  “I didn’t threaten her, but I did let her know my feelings were hurt. Back in college, the two of us came up with a trick to hold our keys and our iPods while we were working out. We sewed neoprene pockets onto our exercise clothes. It kept the contents dry and tucked snugly into place. Plus, we thought it was pretty cute. When I saw Ladyform’s X-Dream collection in stores, I was so upset that I went to Amanda’s office. We argued over whose idea it was. I thought it was mine, or at least a joint idea. She insisted the real work and the ownership was hers and the company’s. In my opinion, if she didn’t think she was doing anything wrong, she would have told me in advance.”

  “You were screaming loudly enough that people could hear you all the way down the hall. Did the fact that Amanda was going to marry a man you were still interested in add to your anger?”

  Meghan was beginning to regret not trying to dissuade Jeff from coming here. Now she was trapped. She had no choice but to keep talking. “I admit, the argument in her office was heated. But she called me the next day. We met for lunch. She explained all the design work and experimentation that had gone into turning our simple little trick into a breakthrough product. She apologized for not telling me in advance, and I told her she could make it up to me by paying for the very nice bottle of champagne we were drinking and sending me a box full of free workout clothes.” She smiled at the memory. “In the end, it was a minor snit between friends. And it was over the same lunch that we had the conversation I always go back to. It’s the reason I truly believe that Amanda left this hotel on her own.”

  Alex leaned forward. Meghan prayed that he would believe her. She had never told anyone this before, except Jeff. “Amanda’s illness fundamentally changed her. She told me that she would no longer do things only out of loyalty or obligation. She was going to live for herself. It was her reason for not giving me credit for X-Dream. In her heart, she didn’t believe I deserved it, so sharing credit with me would diminish her own accomplishment.”

  “And how does that relate to her disappearance?” Alex asked.

  “She was so different than the Amanda I knew before she was sick. In retrospect, I think she was trying to tell me she was no longer going to be the good girl. The good daughter. The good friend. The good wife. She wanted freedom, and she wanted power, and she didn’t want to feel guilty for being the strong, independent woman she’d grown to be. But, she couldn’t do all those things in the shadow of her family and friends and her impending wedding.”

  “Friends have said that you were less frantic than everyone else when she disappeared. Why didn’t you tell anyone this before?”

  “In time, I did tell Jeff. But it didn’t feel right saying it to anyone else. I felt like I was criticizing her, as if I was saying cancer made her selfish. Doesn’t that sound terrible? But that’s not how I saw it. I was happy for her. I thought she had found a way to start over again. That’s why I didn’t feel guilty when Jeff and I became closer. Do you know that the wedding bands were missing?”

  She had been hoping to surprise Alex, but he was ready for the question.

  “Yes, Jeff explained that he did not realize the rings were missing until he got back to New York. He admitted he was careless about always locking the hotel safe. He thinks an employee could have stolen them.”

  For the first time since she took her seat, Meghan felt like she had the upper hand. Did they really believe that the rings happened to disappear along with the bride? “What a coincidence that would be,” she said. “And I bet if you check, theft is extremely rare here. These are excellent jobs. I can’t imagine the employees would take the risk.”

  “So what is your theory?” Alex asked.

  “I always thought Amanda took them as a memento. She may have wanted a new life, but she did love Jeff. I just loved him more, and that’s not a crime.” She looked directly into the camera. “Amanda, I’m happy and I hope you are, too.”

  That was the best Meghan could do. When Jerry removed her microphone, it felt as though he had lifted a thirty-pound weight from her chest. She wanted to go home. Please, Jeff, she thought to herself, let’s just go home. I have something to tell you.

  42

  “If you believe that woman, I’ve got a bridge I’d like to sell you, and it’s made of gold.” Grace pointed a French-manicured index finger for emphasis.

  The team was meeting in the living room of Alex’s suite, rehashing the interview with Meghan. It was the first time they had ever gone directly on camera without first having a more wide-ranging conversation off-camera.

  Jerry and Grace had wildly different impressions of Meghan. “You’re so cynical,” Jerry told Grace. “She struck me as very straightforward. I believe that’s what both of Amanda’s siblings told us to expect. She’s unemotional. Matter-of-fact. Everything she said seems credible to me.”

  Grace looked as though she wanted to jump out of her skin as she waited for Jerry to finish. “You could tell she memorized every last word. Even her pauses seemed rehearsed.”

  “That doesn’t mean she’s lying,” Jerry retorted.

  “No, but it does mean she thought she had something to hide. The only question is whether Alex got her to come clean, or if there’s more to learn. At the very least, that woman’s been lying over the years about her feelings for Jeff. She didn’t reintroduce him to Amanda, at least not intentionally. My guess is she wishes they’d never bumped into each other at that coffee shop. I bet she was pining for Jeff since college. Maybe that’s even why she went to New York after law
school and just happened to live near him in Brooklyn.”

  Laurie was following the conversation but was distracted by her own thoughts about Meghan.

  Alex adjusted his black-rimmed glasses after tipping them up to review his notes. “I agree with you, Grace, that she was probably more interested in Jeff prior to Amanda’s disappearance than she ever let on. But I believed her when she said she and Amanda smoothed things over after the blowup at the Ladyform offices.”

  “Really?” Grace asked. “That’s a whole lot of money to put behind you with one champagne lunch and a box of gym clothes.”

  “If they were feuding, would Meghan still be her maid of honor?” Alex paused. “What did you think, Laurie? A few people have mentioned Amanda’s illness, but this is the first time anyone tried to explain how it really did change her.”

  That was the part of the conversation that Laurie had been replaying in her head for the last half hour. The way Meghan described the transformation in her friend sounded completely authentic. And as her friend, she may have been in a better position to recognize the change than either Amanda’s family or even her fiancé. For the first time, Laurie believed it really was possible that Amanda had wanted to break free. Maybe she ran away, as Meghan believed. But maybe she told Jeff she didn’t want to go through with the wedding. And if that happened, they were right back where they started: with a finger pointed at Jeff.

  “The missing rings,” Laurie said suddenly. “I didn’t think much of it when Jeff first mentioned them. But Meghan made a good point that it’s quite a coincidence that they went missing during their stay at the resort. Jeff said he assumed an employee slipped them from the safe during the chaos, but that would be quite a bold move. To be caught with wedding bands belonging to a missing woman would make that person a prime suspect in her disappearance.”

  “And wedding bands aren’t worth much compared to what many of the guests probably lock in their safes,” Jerry added. “Meghan’s right: they were more likely to be taken as a keepsake than loot. It really got to me when Meghan looked into the camera and said she loved Amanda. Wouldn’t that be amazing if Amanda saw our show and contacted her family?”

  “Oh boy,” Grace said. “You really bought her bull—hook, line, and sinker!”

  Two days into filming, Laurie thought, and I don’t feel any closer to the truth.

  43

  “Grandpa, come in with us!” Timmy and four other kids were immersed in an epic round of Marco Polo. “Jake’s dad says he’ll play if we get another grown-up.”

  Leo scanned the pool area. A man in his mid-forties caught his eye and subtly shook his head, a pleading expression in his eyes. Jake’s father, as Leo expected, had been looking for a way to avoid getting chased by a pack of children in the water.

  “I think you guys have taken over enough of the pool on your own.”

  As the rhythmic chants of “Marco . . . Polo” continued, Leo smiled to himself and took another sip of his piña colada. Laurie wouldn’t approve of the calories, but he felt entitled to a little celebration. When he and Timmy had left Alex’s suite, Laurie, Alex, Jerry, and Grace were all bouncing around the various theories of what happened to Amanda.

  But Leo was ready to close the case. The more he thought about it, Jeremy Carroll had to be their man. Leo had felt the old, familiar kick in the gut when you’re certain you’ve discovered the missing link in the investigation. Usually, you find it within twenty-four hours: the spouse gets caught in a lie, or one of the victim’s colleagues fails to show up for work the next morning. But when the key to the case is a minor player in the victim’s life—the landscaper or the grocery store bag boy or an intern working for the wedding photographer—it can take years to make the connection.

  Jerry said that the phone call to Jeremy had gone well; he accepted the apology and seemed to go along with Jerry’s explanation that this morning’s visit to his house was a routine research visit clumsily conducted by two overeager staffers. With Jeremy feeling safe, Laurie and Alex could finish interviewing the rest of the show’s participants, but then Leo would convince his daughter to go to the local police with what they knew. Leo already had an idea about using Jeremy’s probation officer to search his house. If they found pictures of Amanda—and Leo knew they would—a good detective could use them to get a confession.

  Leo felt the old police muscles working again. He could envision every piece of a renewed investigation falling into place. He had no regrets about retiring to help Laurie raise Timmy, but he would never stop missing the job.

  Now that Timmy was getting older, he thought, I might think about doing some private detective work on the side. I’d be good at it. He closed his eyes and felt the sun warm his face. As his thoughts wandered, he remembered Laurie mentioning that Amanda had organized prayer vigils for a girl who was killed at her college. He wondered if the case was ever solved. Maybe that could be Laurie’s next cold case.

  He reached into Timmy’s beach bag, pulled out his iPad, and connected to the hotel’s Wi-Fi. He couldn’t remember the woman’s name, so he searched for “missing student Colby College.”

  Her name was Carly Romano, a twenty-year-old sophomore, putting her one year behind Amanda and her friends at the time of her disappearance. She was from Michigan and was last seen at an off-campus party. No one saw her leave, but the assumption was that she tried walking back to campus alone. She was missing for two weeks before they found her body, strangled, in Messalonskee Lake.

  Leo looked up to make sure that Timmy was still okay in the pool. He was convinced these kids were going to keep playing until they passed out from exhaustion.

  He continued to click through the news results. As far as he could tell, no one had been arrested and no suspect had ever been named by police.

  He looked up the phone number for the police department in Waterville, Maine, where Colby College was located, and emailed it to himself along with the name, Carly Romano. I may not be ready to open my own private detective business, he thought, but that doesn’t mean I can’t do a little independent research now.

  44

  “Are we really going to let them drink scotch during their interview?” Jerry was staging the bar table just so in the cocktail lounge. From the right angle, the cameras would be able to catch both the dark wood of the hotel bar and the sunshine and palm trees waiting just outside.

  “Trust me,” Laurie said. “This is the place where Nick and Austin will feel most at home. That’s what matters most, which means giving them their beverage of choice.”

  Laurie had decided to question the two friends together. They seemed to open up around each other, and that was what she wanted.

  As for wardrobe, Laurie couldn’t have hoped for more if she’d selected their clothing herself. They both showed up wearing tan summer suits with open-collared bright blue shirts. The only difference was the pattern of their pocket squares. Though their clothes were nearly identical, they looked nothing alike. Nick was strikingly handsome and fit, one of those men who wore a suit well. Austin was at best average-looking with the early signs of a paunch over his belt. His suit was impeccably tailored, but it did little to boost his overall appearance. She remembered what the mother of one of her friends had observed about her daughter’s date: “He does not yet look comfortable in his Paul Stuart suit.”

  “Let’s get straight to the point,” Alex said once they were filming. “By all accounts, you two are successful, eligible bachelors. Even our assistant on the show says you can’t help but flirt with every woman you encounter. As the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together. Was your friend, Jeff, ready to settle down with Amanda?”

  Laurie wasn’t surprised when Nick took the lead. He was definitely the alpha male of the pair. “Absolutely,” he said with confidence. “Look, Jeff and I were tight from the second we were paired up as college roommates, but he was never a wingman.”

  “And can you explain for our viewers what that means?” Alex asked
.

  “Oh, yeah, sure.” Nick and Austin exchanged an amused glance. “A buddy when you’re out talking to women. A partner in the hunt, so to speak.”

  Laurie wanted to edit both of them out of the show entirely. No wonder she had always avoided the dating scene.

  “Jeff wasn’t like that?” Alex asked.

  “Definitely not,” Austin said, trying to get a word in. “In college, he was focused on his studies. He’d hang out mostly in groups.”

  “What about later, once he was a lawyer in New York?”

  Austin clearly didn’t know the answer. Nick was the one who was closer to Jeff. “He’d go out on the occasional date,” Nick said, “but nothing serious. I was actually the one who got into a serious relationship for a while—”

  “Melissa,” Austin said. “That didn’t last for long.”

  “True. I had one misstep at a buddy’s bachelor party. Melissa found out about it and was gone. I haven’t tried again, but hey, unlike some people here, at least I gave it a shot. Anyway, once Jeff started seeing Amanda, she was all he talked about.”

  “But weren’t they on and off for a while?” Alex asked.

  “At first,” Nick said. “One or the other would be so busy at work that they’d shift the relationship to the back burner. But, wow, once they started going out for real and then Amanda got sick, every minute he wasn’t at work he was with her. When she told him she had cancer, he asked her to marry him the next day.”

  “What about after she was sick?” Alex asked. “Did you ever see them fight?”

  “They argued like any other couple,” Austin said, “but he would never hurt her.”

  Nick shot a disapproving glance to his friend. “Trust me: whatever happened to Amanda, Jeff had nothing to do with it. He was crushed when she went missing.”