All Dressed in White

55

Leo dropped Laurie off at the hotel entrance and waited for the valet to take the car while she went to see Alex. She had just walked into the hotel lobby when she saw Kate Fulton make a beeline in her direction.

“Oh, Laurie, thank goodness. I’ve been looking all over for you. I feel terrible thinking about anything other than Amanda right now, but it’s really important. I already talked to Jerry, but he said he couldn’t make any promises. I know I signed that agreement, but I don’t want you to use my interview after all.”

This was the last thing Laurie wanted to deal with right now. She had Brett breathing down her neck, and she desperately needed to talk to Alex. She could feel the photographs in her briefcase pulling at her. She and Leo both thought she should take them to Detective Henson, but she wanted Alex’s advice before making a final decision.

“Kate, I think I know why you’re having second thoughts about your interview,” Laurie said, “but can we please talk about it later? I’m sure we can easily edit out the segment you’re worried about.”

“Wait, do you know? Did Henry say something?”

Laurie reached into her bag and pulled out the first photograph she had taken from Jeremy, the one of the entire wedding party sitting around a table. Even from a distance, Jeremy had been able to capture Henry’s hand entwined with Kate’s. “An intern for the wedding photographer had this,” Laurie said, giving her only copy to Kate. “And trust me, I’ll edit out the part where you said you wondered if you got married too young, and no one ever needs to know.”

Kate had been the first to turn in for the night after the bachelorette dinner. Amanda’s brother, Henry, was the first of the men. They were the only married people in the gang. They were both parents to young children, eager for some downtime. After saying good night to their dinner companions, they had gotten together in one of their rooms.

“I love my husband,” Kate said. “It was just one night. It was a terrible mistake, for Henry, too.”

“You don’t need to explain.”

Kate gave her a huge hug. “I felt so guilty for thinking about myself when they’ve finally found Amanda. Poor Sandra and Walter. Austin offered the whole family the use of his jet if they needed to get home, but they said they wanted to stay here.”

“They’re actually holding up okay,” Laurie said. “After all these years, I think they were ready to hear the truth. There is one more thing you can help me with.”

“Anything.”

“Were Meghan and Amanda arguing while you were all down here?”

“Not to my knowledge,” she said. “But, as you now know, I had other things on my mind. Why?”

“Amanda told you she was having second thoughts about the wedding and needed to find something out. Is it possible she figured out that Meghan had feelings for Jeff?”

“I don’t know-maybe. You don’t think Meghan killed Amanda, do you?”

“Oh, of course not,” Laurie said quickly. “We just try to cover all our bases.”

She watched Kate head toward the elevator, knowing she was going to destroy that photograph. The pictures that mattered to Laurie were still in her briefcase. Five of them showed Meghan at various times during the week, staring longingly at Jeff as he doted on his fiancée. But it was the final photograph that was most shocking: Amanda pulling her arm from Meghan’s grip during a heated argument.