“And as far as you know, Jeff was not planning to leave his room after eleven?”
“That’s right.”
“And is it fair to say no one can confirm that you were in your rooms for the night beginning at eleven o’clock, which is approximately the last time anyone ever saw Amanda?”
A flash of anger came over Austin’s face. “I guess not.” Nick nodded in agreement.
“Were you aware at the time that in her will Amanda had left Jeff her two-million-dollar trust fund?”
“We found out about that after she disappeared,” Nick said.
“Do you think Amanda would have told Jeff about his potential inheritance?”
They looked at each other. “It’s entirely possible,” Austin said quietly.
Laurie could tell that they both desperately wanted to vouch for their friend, but they couldn’t. There was no getting around one basic fact: Jeff had the most to gain by Amanda’s disappearance.
45
“Mom, those ladies over there are drinking blue martinis.” Timmy was pointing to a group of four women. Their drinks were the color of dishwashing liquid. “You wouldn’t want one of those. You like martinis dry.”
Alex’s eyes sparkled with amusement behind his glasses. “Timmy certainly does know his mother.”
Laurie and Alex had postponed their plans for a dinner alone at a Michelin three-star restaurant after Timmy pleaded to go to the hotel’s sushi restaurant. Leo could not stand the thought of eating raw fish. He called it sea slime.
Timmy, on the other hand, was even more adventurous with a sushi menu than Laurie. But she suspected that her son’s excitement about this particular restaurant was less about food than about the two L-shaped aquarium bar counters where live fish swam beneath the glass.
Alex was about to check in with the hostess when Timmy asked if they could sit at the bar. “You’re always saying we should try new experiences,” he argued. “We don’t have this back home.”
Alex broke the bad news. “You’re a little young for the bar, buddy. Try again in about twelve years.”
“I can’t wait to be old enough to sit at the bar.”
“Just what a mother wants to hear,” Laurie said dryly. “I don’t want him to end up like those two barflies Austin and Nick.”
Once they were at the table, Alex said, “Speaking of the two Romeos, what did you make of their interview today?”
She shrugged. “They’re exactly as Sandra described them. I don’t get the appeal, personally, but I know Brett will be happy. At least they’re entertaining for television.”
“Enough about those two,” Alex sighed. “So Leo’s already convinced the photography intern was involved.”
Without new facts, Laurie wasn’t eager to revisit this topic. “I know you think he’s jumping to conclusions,” she said. “Maybe we should leave it on the back burner for now.”
Later, as they walked through the lobby, Timmy asked if he could sleep in Grandpa’s room tonight. Laurie found herself happy to have even more time to spend with Alex.
46
Laurie was shocked the next morning when Charlotte Pierce arrived on set at the courtyard behind the hotel. She wore an impeccably tailored white suit with a black silk shell. Her hair and makeup were camera-perfect. This did not look like the same woman she’d met in the office at Ladyform.
“Don’t look so surprised,” Charlotte said, perching herself comfortably on the love seat they had staged for the occasion. “You didn’t think I’d go on national television looking like the ugly duckling, did you?”
Alex took his place, nodded, and the cameras began to roll.
Five minutes later, Laurie checked her watch. Charlotte had already recited the same information she’d given Laurie when they met in New York. She was a businesswoman who was used to communicating efficiently.
But part of Alex’s talent was to introduce questions that his subjects hadn’t anticipated. “What was it like being Amanda Pierce’s sister?” he asked casually.
“I have no idea what you mean by that. It’s like asking me what it’s like to breathe. She was the only sister I ever had.”
“Yet I sense in you a woman who could in fact describe what it’s like to breathe, if someone asked you the question.”
She gave him a half smile. Laurie could almost hear her deciding to play along. “Fine. It was like being the weed next to the rose. In any other family, I would have been a superstar. I graduated at the top of my class from the University of North Carolina. I’m a pretty nice person. I work hard. But Amanda was special. Men wanted to marry her, women wanted to be her. She knew how to please people.”
“Jeff’s friends sensed that you weren’t especially happy about the wedding. Disinterested was the word one of them used.”
“Well, first of all”-Charlotte waved her hands dismissively-“Jeff’s friends are idiots. Second of all, I wasn’t disinterested. I was worried, and not about Amanda. I thought Jeff was the one making a mistake. I loved my sister, but I was probably the only person who really knew her. She looked like a princess from a fairy tale, with bluebirds brushing her hair. But she was cunning. Ambitious. And there’s nothing wrong with that, but she hid it behind this perfect, gentle façade.”
Laurie found herself fascinated by Charlotte’s description. It felt utterly honest.
“So why were you worried about Jeff?” Alex asked.
“Because he had no clue what he was getting himself into. He started dating Amanda and then almost immediately she became very sick. Weak,” she added sorrowfully. “It was the only time in her life when she was vulnerable, but if anything the experience only hardened her. I can tell you this. She was going to put him through the ringer. She was going to change him the way she changed Ladyform. Her idea of a successful husband was not a public defender.”
Alex leaned toward Charlotte. “So do you suspect Jeff Hunter in your sister’s disappearance?”
She paused a long time before answering. “I guess that depends.”
“On what?”
“On whether he figured out that if he married Amanda, he’d be under her thumb as I always was.”
47
Leo woke up feeling completely rested. This bed is great, he thought. It had been ten years since Eileen passed. Since then, it was only on trips with Laurie that he slept somewhere other than in his own bed or in Laurie’s guest room. He realized it was probably time to buy a new mattress. Maybe he’d think about it when they were back in New York.
He looked at the clock. It was already ten A.M. He saw a note beneath the door that joined his room to Laurie and Timmy’s. He felt his hamstrings ache as he bent down for it. At sixty-four years of age, he was in good shape but needed to stretch more. Figured I’d let you two sleep in, the note read.
Timmy was getting older. He could sleep until noon if undisturbed.
Leo walked over to the small desk in the corner, opened the laptop Laurie had bought him for his birthday, and clicked on the Internet browser. He could spend a few minutes working on his pet project before waking his grandson for a late breakfast. He used two fingers to type facebook.com into the search window. Grace was the one who was teaching him how to “cyberstalk,” as she called it. When he was on the job, gathering background information had required knocking on doors and pounding the pavement. These days, people posted their entire lives, including what they ate for breakfast, on social media.
He typed “Carly Romano” into the search window of Facebook. He read recently that it was increasingly common for families and friends to maintain pages of those who had passed, as a place for loved ones to post memories. Sure enough, he found her wall, with a posting as recent as two months ago, from a Jenna Romano: Happy Birthday, Sis. You’re still in my heart. Xoxo.