All Dressed in White

49

The detective’s name was Marlene Henson. Laurie remembered Sandra mentioning her when she first came to Laurie’s office. She was short-barely five feet tall-with long red hair and round, full cheeks. She stood with her feet hips’ distance apart, sturdy like a tank.

“Are you sure you don’t want to keep this strictly within the family, Sandra?” the detective asked. Laurie detected a hint of a southern accent in her voice.

The entire Pierce family was gathered in the living room of Walter’s suite. Laurie suddenly felt all eyes on her and Alex, standing next to each other near the door. They were the interlopers.

“I want Laurie and Alex here,” Sandra affirmed. “Their show is the reason we may have finally found Amanda. I know they’re committed to helping us.”

“But they’re also reporters, Sandra. There are things we can’t divulge to the public without jeopardizing the investigation.”

“We’re not typical reporters,” Laurie said. “Anything you say in this room will remain between us for now. You have my word.”

“And unlike the police,” Alex said, “we have agreements with everyone in the wedding party to speak to us voluntarily. No arrests, no Miranda warnings. That could come in handy.”

Detective Henson looked one more time at Sandra and appeared satisfied. Sandra’s eyes were still bloodshot and puffy from crying, but she seemed ready to hear the details. Walter put his hand around her shoulder.

Her voice remarkably calm, Sandra asked, “Do you believe you have found my daughter’s body?”

“Allow me to explain the events that brought us here today. A phone call came into the station house last night, a few minutes before midnight. The caller’s voice was muffled. At this point we’re not even certain if it was a man or a woman. The caller provided specific information about the location of your daughter’s body. Of course we tried to trace the call but it came back to a phone you can buy and throw away.”

Walter pursed his lips. “That was over twelve hours ago. No one thought to tell us?”

“The department wanted to investigate first. I didn’t want to distress you if it was a crank call, but we acted on it immediately. The address the caller provided was for a parking lot across the street from St. Edward’s Church, which is two miles from here. We checked the records. That parking lot was being resurfaced at the time your daughter disappeared. The instructions were very specific regarding where the body would be found.

“We had GPR-that’s ground-penetrating radar-out there in the middle of the night. Based on what we saw on radar, we began excavation of the parking lot at sunrise and unfortunately did locate remains at that location. We’ll do further testing to confirm if they belong to your daughter, but we found these on the left ring finger.”

Detective Henson handed Sandra a photograph of two platinum rings: a classic Tiffany-style diamond engagement ring and a matching wedding band. The setting was caked in dirt.

“I think these are hers,” Sandra said. “The engagement ring was engraved. A and J-”

Detective Henson finished the phrase with her. “Semper amemus.”

“It means ‘Let us always love’ in Latin,” Sandra explained, choking back a sob. “It’s definitely our daughter. It’s my baby. It’s Amanda.”

Walter wrapped both arms around her, and she leaned her head on his shoulder.

“I’m so sorry to have to tell you this,” the detective said softly. “I’ll give your family some time alone. I’ve always hoped there might be a different ending.”