“Hello, Sandra. I was just thinking about you.”
“Not in a bad way, I hope.”
Their divorce had been finalized without too much contention. But despite a mutual promise to keep matters cordial, the process of having lawyers negotiate the end of a marriage that had lasted more than a third of a century had led to some tense moments.
“Never,” he said, firmly. “I was crediting you with Ladyform’s success. We would never have had the New York offices if not for you.”
“Well, that is a coincidence then, because I’m in New York now. I’m about to have lunch with Charlotte.”
“You’re in New York?” Walter asked. “Just to see Charlotte?”
The question caused a pang of guilt. He had made an extraordinarily difficult decision to choose between Amanda and Charlotte as his successor to head the company. Of course, Charlotte as the older sister had been bitter and hurt, and the fact that she got the job after Amanda disappeared still didn’t diminish her resentment.
This past November Sandra had invited him to have Thanksgiving dinner with her, Charlotte, and Henry and his family in Seattle. He supposed it was unrealistic to expect Sandra to continue to see him regularly. The visit had left him wistful and sad.
“No, not only to see her,” Sandra was saying. “I’m afraid I’ve done something that might upset you. Have you heard of the television show Under Suspicion?”
What’s this about? Walter wondered, then listened as Sandra went on and on about the two-hour meeting she’d had with the show’s producer about Amanda’s disappearance.
“I thought it was a long shot, but I think she may have actually listened.” Sandra’s voice was excited. “Please, Walter, don’t be angry. She said they only choose a case if the family members all approve. Walter, will you please consider it?”
He winced. Did she really think that he wouldn’t turn over every stone if that would somehow solve Amanda’s disappearance? “Sandra, I’m not angry. And of course I’ll cooperate any way I can.”
“Really? Walter, that’s wonderful. Thank you. One hundred times, thank you.”
There was a smile in her voice.
A little more than five hundred miles north, in the Pierre Hotel in Manhattan, Sandra disconnected her cell phone and tucked it in her handbag. Her hand was shaking. She had been prepared for another argument with Walter, like the ones that had eventually led to the end of their marriage. How long are you going to keep up with this, Sandra? When are you going to face facts? We still have our lives and two other children. We owe it to Henry and Charlotte and our grandchildren to move on. You’ve become obsessed!
But they hadn’t had any fights like that since Walter came home from work to find her in the bedroom, struggling to close a very full suitcase. Protesting, he had carried it down to the waiting car. As she got into it, she said, “I can’t deal with you any longer. Good-bye.” Sandra was relieved that today’s conversation hadn’t led to another confrontation. Still, as she walked down Sixth Avenue, something was bothering her.
Walter had quickly gone along with being involved if Laurie Moran made Amanda’s disappearance the next case in the Under Suspicion series. But she knew that reliving it moment by moment as the investigation began would tear him apart.
“I’m sorry, Walter,” she said aloud. “But if I get the chance to have Amanda’s disappearance examined, I’m going to go through with it, come hell or high water.”
9
In Brett Young’s office at Fisher Blake Studios, Laurie was making her strongest pitch to feature the Runaway Bride case in their next special.
She began by laying the button that Sandra had given her on Brett’s desk. Normally, she would have brought eight-by-ten glossies, but today, she was working on the fly. “You might recognize her photograph. Her name is Amanda Pierce. Five years after her disappearance, her mother, Sandra, still wears these buttons.”
Raising his eyebrows, Brett inched the button toward him for closer inspection, but said nothing.
“New Yorkers Amanda Pierce and Jeff Hunter had plans for a luxurious destination wedding. The ceremony was planned for Saturday afternoon, to be followed by a lavish reception. The wedding would be fairly intimate-sixty of their closest friends and family. But the wedding never happened,” she continued. “On Friday morning before the Saturday afternoon wedding, the bride, Amanda Pierce, did not show up for breakfast. Her fiancé and maid of honor knocked on the door of her room. There was no answer. A security guard let them in. The bed had not been slept in. Her wedding dress was spread across it. The night before, the bridal party had had dinner together. That was the last time they saw Amanda.”
Laurie could tell she had Brett’s attention now. “They started to worry. They checked the hotel gym, the beach, the restaurant, the lobby-everywhere they could think of to look for her. Jeff went to the front desk to ask if housekeeping had already made up Amanda’s room. The clerk checked, and just as he said, ‘no,’ Amanda’s parents arrived in the lobby. They had to hear from Jeff that their daughter was missing. She’s never been heard from again.” Brett snapped his fingers. “I knew her face looked familiar. This is that Runaway Bride thing, right? Didn’t she turn up in Vegas with some other guy?”
Laurie vaguely recalled a similar story a few years back along those lines, but assured him that it wasn’t the Amanda Pierce case. “Amanda vanished without a trace. People don’t run away for over five years.”
“Without a trace? As in, no body? No new clues at all? Doesn’t sound promising.”
“It’s a cold case. That’s what we do, Brett.”
“But this one is ice cold. We’re talking igloo at the North Pole. Let me guess: the person you were talking to before the meeting was the button-wearing mother? I ran into her in the elevator.” Before she could answer, he said, “You’re a sucker for a sad story, Laurie. I can’t green-light a special just so you can give a platform to the sobbing family. We need clues. We need suspects. I’m sure you want to help this mother, but as I recall, the parents weren’t even there yet when the girl disappeared, right? And who are the people who have been living under suspicion since then?”
Laurie explained Amanda’s decision to leave her trust fund to Jeff, even though they weren’t married yet.
Jerry chimed in. “If you go online, there are thousands of people obsessed with this case. Almost everyone thinks the groom did it and it had something to do with the money. And the facts about the will aren’t even public. Not long after Amanda disappeared he had the nerve to hook up with her best friend. They’re married now, and I bet it won’t be long before they spend all the money together.”
“Not that we’re biased or anything,” Laurie added jokingly.
“Of course not,” Jerry said.
The mention of money gave Laurie another idea. “The setting would be perfect, Brett. The Grand Victoria Hotel in Palm Beach. It was supposed to be a dream wedding. All travel, lodging, and entertainment paid for by the bride’s wealthy family.”
Laurie was pleased when she finally saw Brett scribble some notes. She made out the word “resort,” followed by dollar signs. Just as she had predicted, Brett relished the idea of a glamorous setting and financially comfortable participants. Sometimes Laurie wondered if Brett would have preferred for her to have created Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous: Unsolved Murders.
“But her body was never found,” Brett observed. “Up until now, for all we know, Amanda Pierce is happily enjoying a new life under a new name. I would have thought, Laurie, that your journalist ethics would leave you concerned about violating the woman’s privacy.”