All Dressed in White

43

“Grandpa, come in with us!” Timmy and four other kids were immersed in an epic round of Marco Polo. “Jake’s dad says he’ll play if we get another grown-up.”

Leo scanned the pool area. A man in his mid-forties caught his eye and subtly shook his head, a pleading expression in his eyes. Jake’s father, as Leo expected, had been looking for a way to avoid getting chased by a pack of children in the water.

“I think you guys have taken over enough of the pool on your own.”

As the rhythmic chants of “Marco… Polo” continued, Leo smiled to himself and took another sip of his piña colada. Laurie wouldn’t approve of the calories, but he felt entitled to a little celebration. When he and Timmy had left Alex’s suite, Laurie, Alex, Jerry, and Grace were all bouncing around the various theories of what happened to Amanda.

But Leo was ready to close the case. The more he thought about it, Jeremy Carroll had to be their man. Leo had felt the old, familiar kick in the gut when you’re certain you’ve discovered the missing link in the investigation. Usually, you find it within twenty-four hours: the spouse gets caught in a lie, or one of the victim’s colleagues fails to show up for work the next morning. But when the key to the case is a minor player in the victim’s life-the landscaper or the grocery store bag boy or an intern working for the wedding photographer-it can take years to make the connection.

Jerry said that the phone call to Jeremy had gone well; he accepted the apology and seemed to go along with Jerry’s explanation that this morning’s visit to his house was a routine research visit clumsily conducted by two overeager staffers. With Jeremy feeling safe, Laurie and Alex could finish interviewing the rest of the show’s participants, but then Leo would convince his daughter to go to the local police with what they knew. Leo already had an idea about using Jeremy’s probation officer to search his house. If they found pictures of Amanda-and Leo knew they would-a good detective could use them to get a confession.

Leo felt the old police muscles working again. He could envision every piece of a renewed investigation falling into place. He had no regrets about retiring to help Laurie raise Timmy, but he would never stop missing the job.

Now that Timmy was getting older, he thought, I might think about doing some private detective work on the side. I’d be good at it. He closed his eyes and felt the sun warm his face. As his thoughts wandered, he remembered Laurie mentioning that Amanda had organized prayer vigils for a girl who was killed at her college. He wondered if the case was ever solved. Maybe that could be Laurie’s next cold case.

He reached into Timmy’s beach bag, pulled out his iPad, and connected to the hotel’s Wi-Fi. He couldn’t remember the woman’s name, so he searched for “missing student Colby College.”

Her name was Carly Romano, a twenty-year-old sophomore, putting her one year behind Amanda and her friends at the time of her disappearance. She was from Michigan and was last seen at an off-campus party. No one saw her leave, but the assumption was that she tried walking back to campus alone. She was missing for two weeks before they found her body, strangled, in Messalonskee Lake.

Leo looked up to make sure that Timmy was still okay in the pool. He was convinced these kids were going to keep playing until they passed out from exhaustion.

He continued to click through the news results. As far as he could tell, no one had been arrested and no suspect had ever been named by police.

He looked up the phone number for the police department in Waterville, Maine, where Colby College was located, and emailed it to himself along with the name, Carly Romano. I may not be ready to open my own private detective business, he thought, but that doesn’t mean I can’t do a little independent research now.