All Dressed in White

52

An hour later, Laurie was pacing yet again in the living room of Alex’s suite.

“Laurie,” Alex said, obviously concerned, “I’ve never seen you so nervous. You’re going to wear a hole in the hotel carpet at this rate.”

The only other people in the room were her father and Detective Henson. Jerry was out with the camera crew gathering footage of local scenery to use during the narration between interviews. Laurie had asked Grace to watch Timmy so her father could be here while they met with Detective Henson.

“You’re right,” Laurie said. “I am a bundle of nerves. Shouldn’t we tell Sandra and Walter about this latest development?”

So far, only her production team-and Jeff-knew about both the significance of the wedding band found with Amanda’s body and Jeff’s connection to Carly Romano.

Leo grabbed Laurie’s hand abruptly as she passed his wing chair. “Stop pacing. The detective here knows what’s she’s doing, and for what it’s worth, I’d make the same call. When you’re working a case, you can’t always tell the family everything in real time.”

Alex had been able to extract some helpful information from Jeff. He had admitted knowing Carly, and he had locked himself into a very specific story about the wedding bands. But Detective Henson couldn’t make an arrest until the Medical Examiner’s Office completed the autopsy that might produce physical evidence connecting him to her death.

Detective Henson had changed back into her black pantsuit. “I’ve got police officers in plain clothes all over the property, and I have Jeff Hunter’s name flagged with all the airlines, rental car companies, and Amtrak. If he tries to flee before his scheduled flight back to New York, we’ll know.”

“And what about when he’s back in New York?” Alex asked.

“We’ll deal with that when the time comes, but trust me, we’re not going to lose sight of him.”

“Good,” Leo said. “If we’re right, Jeff’s gotten away with too much for too long.”

“There’s one thing I still don’t understand,” Laurie said, her pacing commencing once again. “Was Jeff really the one to call the police? But why would he tip us off to the location of the body? He had to have known that the wedding band would only call attention to him.”

“I thought of that, too,” Alex said. “But I’ve had clients who are extremely calculating about the costs and benefits of the choices they make. Jeff may have been confident that the ring wouldn’t be enough proof for a conviction-because it’s not. But now that Amanda’s body has been found, he can finally inherit her trust fund without having to sue to declare her dead, which would have made him look like a real heel in the public eye.”

“The account was worth two million dollars more than five years ago,” Henson said.

Leo let out a whistle. “It’s probably considerably more by now.”

Laurie said, “Is there any way to analyze the voice on the tape to see if it’s Jeff’s?”

Henson shook her head. “You can buy a voice distorter in any spy shop. As I told you earlier, the caller could be a woman for all we know. We traced the call, and it came from a burner-a throwaway phone, no name attached to it. According to the cell site information, the call originated through a cell tower two blocks from here. So any of the people you are interviewing could have made the phone call. So, nothing helpful.” Henson continued. “Can I trust the three of you to keep all this to yourselves? Don’t make me regret this.”

Laurie assured her that they would not let on that the police were closing in on Jeff, but as she shut the door behind the detective, she just couldn’t picture Jeff making that phone call. They had to be missing something.

As she and her father left Alex’s room, she asked if he could join her for a ride in the car after taking Timmy to the water park.

“No need to wait,” Leo reported. “I just saw Jerry, who was quite proud to have finished scouting locations with the camera crew early. Much to my surprise, Jerry announced he’d been looking forward the entire trip to checking out the four-story slide Timmy keeps carrying on about.”

“I’ll see if Jerry is joking or if he minds staying with Timmy so you can keep me company.”

“Dearly as I love my grandson, at sixty-four I’m not up to the water slides. But Laurie, give yourself a break and spend your free time with Alex. I know you’re done shooting for the day.”

“I am, but there’s something I need to do, and I’d feel safer if you came along. But you have to promise that this time, we do it on my terms.”