“He hadn’t. And I guess he still hasn’t. So I was a little surprised this morning when I got a phone call asking me about the inheritance.”
“Jeff called this morning about the will?”
Alex’s eyes widened.
“No, not Jeff,” Lands said. “His wife, Meghan.”
Laurie’s suspicions had been right. “Meghan was the one asking about the inheritance? What time was this?”
“First thing when I showed up at nine A.M.”
Not even Amanda’s parents had known yet about the discovery of her body. Laurie remembered Detective Henson saying that the person who called in the anonymous tip could even have been a woman, given the easy availability of voice-distortion equipment.
“And she knew Amanda’s remains had been found?” Laurie asked.
“No, I’m sorry. I don’t think I’m being very clear. Jeff’s wife called prior to the news reports. She was asking about the process for Jeff to inherit-how to go about having Amanda declared legally dead and the timing. I told her they’d have to hire their own lawyer since I represent the estate. But then once I heard the news, I called Jeff as the beneficiary to let him know that he wouldn’t need to pursue a declaration once the death certificate was signed.”
“How did Jeff handle the news?”
“That’s the thing. He seemed very upset, and quite surprised when I told him that Meghan had called this morning. I don’t think he had the foggiest clue she was asking. She must have done it on her own. So that had me thinking he wasn’t a suspect, but I decided to check with you to be sure.”
“When did you talk to Jeff?”
“A few hours ago. Just before five.”
Laurie said good-bye and turned to Alex. “We thought there was no rush telling the police about Meghan, but she called Mitchell Lands this morning, asking about the inheritance. And then Lands called Jeff.”
As usual, Alex immediately understood her point. “Which means Jeff has probably already confronted Meghan about it. She’ll know it makes her look guilty. We have to tell Detective Henson.”
“I’ll ask Dad to do it. She trusts him more than either of us. But I need to call him right now.”
63
Just as Meghan expected, Jeff laid into her as soon as they were alone again in their hotel room.
“Why do you keep telling me I need to wait?” he demanded. “Are you trying to buy yourself time to come up with a lie?”
“I would never lie to you. I just can’t talk about it right now. Not like this.”
“Why in the world did you call that lawyer this morning?” Jeff insisted. “After all these years, and just hours before we all learned about Amanda’s body. I can’t get my head around it.”
“I promise, there’s a reason-”
“Then tell me!”
“Stop screaming at me!”
“I’m asking you one simple question, Meghan. I deserve an answer.”
Jeff could not believe his eyes when she stood up, grabbed her purse, and walked out of the room, slamming the door behind her and leaving him in silence.
Meghan used the short amount of time in the hotel elevator to wipe the tears from her face and catch her breath. She and Jeff rarely argued, and neither of them had ever walked out on the other when they did, but leaving the room felt like the only way to keep her blood pressure from rising. The doctor had warned her to avoid unnecessary stress.
Good luck with that, she thought, as she placed a hand on her belly. She had no way of knowing whether the baby could feel it, but resting her palm near her unborn child was calming to Meghan, if to no one else. Don’t worry, she thought, everything’s going to be just fine. Once your father calms down, I’ll go back to the room. He’ll believe my side of the story, I’m sure of it.
Meghan had been planning to give Jeff the news once they were back in New York. She wanted a clean break between this place and their baby. She wanted it to be a perfect moment.
But she never should have called that lawyer this morning. Of course it looked terrible, especially in light of the police finding Amanda only hours later. No wonder Jeff was demanding an explanation. She turned back toward the elevator, ready to tell him the truth, even though it wouldn’t be anything like the moment she had imagined.
Her cell phone buzzed with an incoming email message. There’s no way to escape work, she thought. How can I be on twenty-four-hour call once I’m a parent? But the message wasn’t about a client. The subject line said “from Kate.”
She clicked on it. Hey there. I didn’t want to say anything in front of everyone at dinner, but I have something important to tell you about Jeff. I think that TV show is trying to railroad him. Meet me by the pier behind the hotel so we don’t run into anyone from the show?
Perfect, Meghan typed. Jeff could use a few more minutes to cool down before we talk, she thought. Headed there now.
64
Detective Marlene Henson sprawled on the area rug in her den and allowed her two standard poodles to jump on top of her. They were three-year-old sisters named Cagney and Lacey. Even on days when her daughter Taylor stayed with her father, these two sturdy girls gave Marlene someone to come home to.
Their exuberance about Mommy coming home temporarily quelled, the two dogs ran into the living room to continue an epic round of wrestling. She had learned the hard way when she adopted them as puppies not to leave anything breakable within a few feet of the floor. The upside was she no longer had so many knickknacks cluttering the house.
She felt her eyes begin to close involuntarily. Marlene loved her job, but today had been a rough one.
She had inherited the Amanda Pierce case-already cold-three years earlier when homicide detective Martin Cooper died of an aneurysm in his sleep. She reached out to Sandra and Walter the following week. She had told them that no new leads had come in of late, but Marlene had a standing alert with the department that she be called-day or night-if that ever changed. Then last night came the tip about the body. Since then she’d been working more than twenty hours straight.
She was starting to doze off right in the middle of the floor when her cell phone buzzed on the coffee table. It was a New York City area code.
“Henson,” she said, stifling a yawn.
“Detective, it’s Leo Farley.”
The ex-cop, she thought. He’d been invaluable in dealing with his daughter and her team. She was usually distrustful of the media, but she trusted Leo, and he seemed to trust the people who worked for that show.
“Hi, Leo. What can I do for you?”
“We know you’ve got officers watching Jeff, but they need to keep their eyes on his wife, Meghan White, too. Laurie got some photographs from that intern we told you about-”
Marlene sat up immediately. “She did what?” So much for trusting them.
“She thought she had a better shot getting him to open up if she went in alone. I waited outside, worried every moment. But she was right. It worked. Jeremy gave her some facts we didn’t know before.”
Marlene felt a headache coming on as Leo started talking about pictures of Meghan looking lovingly at Jeff, and then fighting with Amanda the very night she disappeared. She was close to a migraine by the time Leo got to Meghan’s phone call to Amanda’s lawyer and her connection to the girl who’d been killed at Colby.
“Where are you?” he asked. “Do you have a location on Jeff and Meghan right now?”
“I came home, but I’m sure everything’s fine. Last I heard, they were at dinner with their friends. Let me call my lead guy on the scene now.”
She hung up without saying good-bye, pulled up the number for Sergeant Jim Peters, and hit enter.