“Painfully so,” Grace observed. “It’s sort of hard not to hate her.”
“Sean said he had nothing to offer in any event. He was out of town the night of the foundation gala and hadn’t seen Hunter and Casey for at least a couple of weeks before that. All he could say was that they seemed very much in love. He wrote off their arguments as debates they both enjoyed. But after she was arrested, he would read the news coverage and wonder if there was a darker side to their relationship that he hadn’t seen.”
Ryan raised an eyebrow. “He sounds like a smart man. Where are we on alternative suspects?”
Jerry was ready with an answer.
“I’ve been looking into the names you gave me, Laurie,” he said. He emphasized her name in an attempt to return control of the meeting to her. “I got renowned socialite Gabrielle Lawson on the phone, and I made an appointment for you to see her at three o’clock today.”
Grace interrupted. “I’m sorry, but what the heck is a socialite? I mean, I’m a secretary, Laurie’s a producer, Jerry’s an assistant producer, and Ryan here’s a kick-butt lawyer. What makes someone a socialite?”
Laurie smiled. “In Gabrielle Lawson’s case I would say it’s generally someone from a prominent family who likes to walk on the red carpets and see her name in gossip columns.”
Once Grace was satisfied with that response, Jerry continued. “The day before Hunter was killed, a gossip column called ‘The Chatter’ ran a photograph of Gabrielle looking cozy with Hunter at a fundraiser for the Boys and Girls Clubs.” He handed Laurie a printout of the picture in question. Gabrielle was staring at Hunter adoringly. “Perhaps not coincidentally, the reporter was Mindy Sampson, the blogger who has been posting constantly about Casey since her release. When Mindy was a newspaper columnist, she was practically tailing Hunter, claiming that he was back to his playboy ways and was on the verge of breaking off his engagement to Casey because of an infatuation with Gabrielle, who made no secret of her interest in Hunter.”
Fifteen years later, Mindy Sampson’s constant blog posts about Casey were the reason Brett was rushing them into production.
“I also found this ‘Whispers’ piece that ran the previous week,” Jerry added.
“I used to love that column,” Grace exclaimed. “It ran so-called blind items: whispers about hot gossip, without naming names.”
Laurie read aloud the item Jerry had highlighted: “ ‘Which of the city’s most sought after men might be heading back to the bachelor scene instead of heading down the aisle?’ And we think this was Hunter?” she asked.
“The press certainly did after Casey was arrested,” Jerry said. “That, plus the picture of Hunter with Gabrielle, suggested that all wasn’t right in paradise.”
As far as Gabrielle Lawson was concerned, Laurie had some inkling of what she’d say if interviewed for their show. “Gabrielle testified at Casey’s trial. According to her, Hunter flirted with her at that fundraiser. Her exact words were that he was ‘not behaving like a man who was spoken for.’ At the gala she had approached their table, put her arms around him, and kissed him. The prosecution used that as further evidence to suggest that Hunter was about to break things off with Casey.”
Laurie could tell from Jerry’s eager expression that there was more to the story.
“But we know there’s more today than Casey’s defense lawyer knew fifteen years ago. Gabrielle Lawson has been married and divorced three times, with high-profile romances in between, which she always plays up in the press, whether real or imagined. Many of her advances on wealthy, powerful men have been rebuffed. One of her crushes, the director Hans Lindholm, even obtained a restraining order.”
Laurie, Grace, and Ryan all murmured vague recollections of the momentary scandal, but Jerry was prepared with the details. “According to Lindholm’s petition, he met Gabrielle in passing at the Tribeca Film Festival, and then she began showing up unexpectedly at other public events he attended. He claimed that she even called a gossip columnist and swore that the two of them were shopping for an apartment together.”
“Who was the gossip columnist?” Laurie asked, her eyebrow arching.
“The one and only Mindy Sampson. Of course, there’s no way to confirm that Gabrielle was Mindy’s source, but the court did issue the restraining order.”
Grace frowned. “She sounds like a literal Fatal Attraction. Maybe she decided that if she couldn’t have Hunter, then no one could. She killed Hunter, and framed Casey for the deed.”
“Notice that even Grace is starting to see another side to the story,” Laurie said. “As you know, I’ll be seeing Gabrielle this afternoon. I’ve also been doing some digging of my own into Jason Gardner.”
“That’s Casey’s ex-boyfriend,” Laurie told Ryan. “He was a junior banker and just happened to be sitting at his employer’s table at the Raleigh Foundation gala.”
“Seems like another possible stalker to me,” Grace added.
“Ryan,” Jerry explained, “Grace is our in-house conclusion-jumper.”
“Put another way,” Grace said defiantly, “I’m the one with good instincts about people. And I started out absolutely certain that Casey was guilty as sin.”
“Join the team,” Ryan snapped.
“Now I’ve opened my eyes,” Grace declared. “And Jason’s my number one suspect. Think about it. Your ex is newly engaged to Mr. Muckety-Muck. Your enormous company buys an obligatory table at the gala, where Hunter Raleigh is bound to be the center of attention. Any normal person would want to be anywhere in New York City other than in that room. Instead Jason shows up. I’m telling you: that guy was jealous.”
“You may be onto something,” Laurie agreed. “Both Casey and Angela claim that Jason tried getting Casey back, even after her engagement was announced. And like Gabrielle, Jason has accumulated some skeletons in his closet since Casey was first charged with murder. He raised eyebrows by writing a tell-all book immediately after she was convicted. But since then, he’s been divorced twice. Both wives complained to the police that he would drive by the house after he moved out. He even confronted his second wife’s new boyfriend in a restaurant. She alleged he had a substance abuse problem.”
Ryan held up a hand to interrupt. “I don’t know how you can possibly get either of these people to talk to me on camera.”
Laurie thought she saw Jerry and Grace both cringe at the use of his word me. She was relieved when Jerry spoke up. “Laurie can be very persuasive. The ones who are innocent help because they trust us. And the ones who aren’t so innocent pretend to trust us because they’re afraid of looking guilty.”
Laurie couldn’t have put it any better herself. “If we can get Gabrielle and Jason on board, we should have enough to start production. If we get new leads, we can always do a second round of interviews.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Ryan said.
Our plan, she thought, not yours.
Jerry tucked his pen inside the spiral of his notebook. “It’s too bad we don’t know more about this financial issue with the foundation.”
“Why?” Ryan asked.
“Because Casey told us she was suspicious of Mark Templeton. He left the foundation under a cloud. She said she thought Hunter was planning to order an audit of the foundation’s books.”
“According to media reports at the time,” Laurie explained, “the foundation’s assets had significantly dipped.”
“That’s very interesting.” Ryan’s voice was thoughtful, but he did not explain himself. “Very interesting.” He didn’t share whatever inferences he might have drawn from that information. The man was utterly useless.
“I need to run,” Laurie announced. “My meeting with Gabrielle is in half an hour, and her apartment is near Gramercy Park.”