All Dressed in White

8

Walter Pierce stood in his office overlooking a production floor at Ladyform’s factory in Raleigh, North Carolina. Most CEOs would have opted by now for a fancy office on a high floor in a skyscraper, far removed from the everyday employees who worked in manufacturing. But Walter prided himself on running Ladyform as a traditional, family-owned business whose products were all designed and made in the United States. He was a large man, tall and burly, with a monk’s ring of hair around a jowled face.

When his great-grandfather first started this company, women were still transitioning from corsets to brassieres, a change galvanized by the metal shortage in World War I. As he was proud to say, “The change reportedly saved more than fifty million pounds of metal, enough to build two battleships.”

In the beginning Ladyform had one North Carolina factory manned by thirty workers. Now Ladyform maintained not only the original factory here, but also operations in Detroit, San Antonio, Milwaukee, Chicago, and Sacramento, not to mention the offices in New York.

As he looked down at the busy scene below, he thought how Amanda had been the one who pushed for Ladyform to have a New York City presence. At the time she was still in college, but she was a straight-A student with savvy business sense. “Dad, we need to bring the brand into the future,” she had told him. “Women my age think of Ladyform as frumpy girdles that their mothers and grandmothers wear. We need women to see us as the company that helps them look and feel better in their own bodies.” She had so many ideas about rebranding-designing garments that were both fun and comfortable, modernizing the logo, and adding a line of sports clothing so that the brand represented, as she said, the female form instead of “the underwear people,” he thought sadly.

Walter knew he would have rejected Amanda’s advice had it not been for Sandra. He had come home one night from work to find her waiting for him at the kitchen table. He could tell from her stern expression that it was time for “a talk.” She insisted that he sit down across from her so she could tell him something.

“Walter, you’re a wonderful husband and, in your own way, a loving father,” she had begun briskly. “And because of that, I don’t try to change you or tell you what to do. But you have pushed and pushed and pushed our children to share your passion for the family business.”

“I’ve also insisted that all the children were free to do whatever they wanted,” he had answered heatedly. But even as he spoke the words, Walter felt a twinge at the thought of Ladyform ever going forward without a Pierce at the helm.

“Good for you,” Sandra snapped. “But may I remind you that you’ve pushed so hard that our son wants nothing to do with it and has moved all the way to Seattle so he can do something all on his own at the other end of the country. On the other hand, Amanda and Charlotte have done everything you’ve asked. They do it because they love you and desperately want your approval. And let’s face it, Amanda’s the one who has really poured herself into the company. Her ideas are spot-on, Walter, and if you ignore them outright, you will absolutely crush her. I’m telling you, I won’t stand for it.”

So without ever telling Amanda about her mother’s intervention, he had approved Amanda’s request to open and head a New York office handling the design, marketing, and sales divisions of the company, Walter remembered. Amanda and Charlotte worked there, and he stayed put at the main manufacturing facility in Raleigh.

Then, thanks to Amanda, the company was more profitable than ever, and Ladyform was regularly touted in business magazines as an old-fashioned American company that had successfully “repositioned” itself for the twenty-first century. Amanda, Walter wondered to himself, do you know that you saved the company from going over the cliff?

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of his phone ringing. He took it from his pocket and recognized the incoming number as Sandra’s cell. It wasn’t the first time she’d happened to call when he was thinking about her. It had been nearly two years since she moved to Seattle, and still, he thought, they were connected.

“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.”