All Dressed in White

69

After her call ended, Laurie turned and faced the detective.

“He said she’s ‘gone’?” Detective Henson was clearly unhappy about everything she’d learned in the last half hour. That Laurie had evidence she hadn’t shared with the police. That her officers had watched Jeff, but not Meghan. And now, that their plan to find Meghan without scaring her off had failed.

Henson signaled to the officer next to her-she called him Tanner-to hand her his radio. “Peters, you still got eyes on Hunter?”

“Yeah, on the beach. Almost back to the hotel. He just got off the phone.”

“Yeah, unfortunately that was us calling the wife. He said she’s missing.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Bring him back here-we’re in the lobby-so we can figure out what in God’s name is going on.”

Detective Henson made no attempt to mask her anger. “I can’t believe you people didn’t tell me all this hours ago,” she said. “You should have given me those photographs the moment you had them.”

Leo held up a palm. “Hold on a second. I backed Laurie up on that. We didn’t think there was a rush. And we’re able to do more as private individuals than the police. The minute we start working with you, the Constitution applies. We thought we were doing the right thing.”

“We, huh? Funny, in my world, cops are a different breed than reporters and defense attorneys.”

Leo was about to further defend himself when Alex interrupted. “I think it’s safe to say we could have played things differently today. What can we do to help you now?”

“You can start by telling me what else you’ve been hiding from me.”

Laurie started to say there was nothing else, but then she remembered there was one other thing. “Jeremy, the photography intern. I hired him to come to the hotel and take photographs of our subjects. His secret pictures from five years ago were helpful. I figured it was worth trying again.”

“And you think he’s here now?”

“I don’t know. But I can find out.” She called Jeremy’s cell phone. He picked up right away and confirmed that he was at the hotel, in the courtyard. “Come to the lobby now. It’s important,” she told him.

They were still waiting for Jeremy when Jeff showed up with a man who Henson introduced as Sergeant Peters.

Jeff was speaking so quickly, it was hard to follow. An email to Meghan from Kate that wasn’t really from Kate. The phone left at the pier. Meghan only called the lawyer because they were having a baby.

Detective Henson was unmoved. “We’re going to sort through all that once you have a chance to explain it at the station. But, right now, Jeff, we need to find your wife. It doesn’t look good that she’s missing. We have some questions that we need to ask her. Running off like this makes her look guilty.”

“Guilty? Wait, I was sure that you’d think I did something to her. You think Meghan-?”

“We just have questions,” Henson said, “which means we need to find her. Now, we can start by you turning over that phone.”

Jeff blinked in disbelief. “No.” He placed the phone in his front pocket.

“That’s a mistake, sir.”

“It’s called the Fourth Amendment. No searches without a warrant.”

“It’s going to look like the two of you killed Amanda together,” she said.

“No, it’s going to look like what it is. My wife is missing. Someone took her from that pier, and you clearly don’t believe me. So if she calls this number for any reason, I want to be the one who answers it.”

Laurie was about to try to intervene when she spotted Jeremy coming into the lobby, hurrying toward them. “Jeremy, please tell me you’ve seen Meghan.”