All Dressed in White

46

Laurie was shocked the next morning when Charlotte Pierce arrived on set at the courtyard behind the hotel. She wore an impeccably tailored white suit with a black silk shell. Her hair and makeup were camera-perfect. This did not look like the same woman she’d met in the office at Ladyform.

“Don’t look so surprised,” Charlotte said, perching herself comfortably on the love seat they had staged for the occasion. “You didn’t think I’d go on national television looking like the ugly duckling, did you?”

Alex took his place, nodded, and the cameras began to roll.

Five minutes later, Laurie checked her watch. Charlotte had already recited the same information she’d given Laurie when they met in New York. She was a businesswoman who was used to communicating efficiently.

But part of Alex’s talent was to introduce questions that his subjects hadn’t anticipated. “What was it like being Amanda Pierce’s sister?” he asked casually.

“I have no idea what you mean by that. It’s like asking me what it’s like to breathe. She was the only sister I ever had.”

“Yet I sense in you a woman who could in fact describe what it’s like to breathe, if someone asked you the question.”

She gave him a half smile. Laurie could almost hear her deciding to play along. “Fine. It was like being the weed next to the rose. In any other family, I would have been a superstar. I graduated at the top of my class from the University of North Carolina. I’m a pretty nice person. I work hard. But Amanda was special. Men wanted to marry her, women wanted to be her. She knew how to please people.”

“Jeff’s friends sensed that you weren’t especially happy about the wedding. Disinterested was the word one of them used.”

“Well, first of all”-Charlotte waved her hands dismissively-“Jeff’s friends are idiots. Second of all, I wasn’t disinterested. I was worried, and not about Amanda. I thought Jeff was the one making a mistake. I loved my sister, but I was probably the only person who really knew her. She looked like a princess from a fairy tale, with bluebirds brushing her hair. But she was cunning. Ambitious. And there’s nothing wrong with that, but she hid it behind this perfect, gentle façade.”

Laurie found herself fascinated by Charlotte’s description. It felt utterly honest.

“So why were you worried about Jeff?” Alex asked.

“Because he had no clue what he was getting himself into. He started dating Amanda and then almost immediately she became very sick. Weak,” she added sorrowfully. “It was the only time in her life when she was vulnerable, but if anything the experience only hardened her. I can tell you this. She was going to put him through the ringer. She was going to change him the way she changed Ladyform. Her idea of a successful husband was not a public defender.”

Alex leaned toward Charlotte. “So do you suspect Jeff Hunter in your sister’s disappearance?”

She paused a long time before answering. “I guess that depends.”

“On what?”

“On whether he figured out that if he married Amanda, he’d be under her thumb as I always was.”