Exposed: Laid Bare (Laid Bare #1)(27)

I took one look at her face and wished I’d kept my mouth shut. “You don’t know? You’ve never heard?” She eyed me skeptically. “Surely, your father told you.”

I shook my head and looked away. A slender, pale girl with dark hair was messing with some ropes aboard the ferry, so I pretended to be focused on her.

But when I tried to keep on walking, Ami stopped and grabbed my arm. I couldn’t meet her gaze, certain she’d catch on to my deception. “Madeleine! You have to know Adam Ward lives on the island. It’s no secret he moved out there after…” She lowered her voice. “Well, after what happened.”

She was right; it was no secret. Back when Adam lived in Harbour Falls, he had everything, the world at his feet. A brilliant mind, he excelled in all things academic. But software engineering was his specialty. He coded and developed elaborate software systems that had every college and university with a computer engineering program vying for his commitment to study at their institution. And since his academic abilities were rivaled only by his athletic prowess, those schools with a football program offered Adam everything they could without attracting the attention of the NCAA. In the end, though, he gave up football and enrolled at MIT.

All those things were impressive, but what had caught my attention back then were his striking good looks. He was tall and had an amazing body, gorgeous jet-black hair, and stunning blue eyes. Yeah, it had been hard not to notice him. And notice him I did. But, sadly, he never seemed to look my way.

“Maddyyyy! Earth to Maddy.” Ami waved her hand in front of my face.

“Oh, sorry. I was just…I was just remembering,” I stammered, “um, high school.”

Ami had once been one of my best friends, and surely she recalled my unrequited interest in Mr. Ward. As if on cue, she smiled knowingly and said, “In case you were maybe wondering, he is still single.”

I barked out a nervous laugh. “We’re not in high school, Ami. I think my crushing days are behind me. Besides…” I trailed off.

She knew why. After all, everyone had heard the rumors.

“They’re just unfounded accusations and idle gossip,” Ami said in a hushed voice, her defense of Adam surprisingly fervent. “You know that, right?”

“It’s really not that.” And it wasn’t, but I didn’t want to explain myself to Ami. “It’s just…” I fumbled for an explanation. “I didn’t come here to start something with Adam Ward, OK?” Small lie.

Ami cast a doubtful glance my way, but before she could persist in her matchmaking attempt, I pointed to the ferry and said, “It’s after two. We’d better get going.”

The half-hour ride through the choppy waters to Fade Island was mostly silent, Ami and I lost in our own thoughts. Jennifer Weston, the slender, pale girl who’d been messing with the ropes, didn’t say anything more to us than she absolutely had to. A number of times when I glanced over at the ferry pilot’s house, I caught her glaring at me. But I had no idea why.

Before today I’d never had contact with her. She’d gone to school at Harbour Falls High but graduated a few years before me. Still, I knew who she was. How could I not? Jennifer had been married for two years to my other best friend back in high school, J.T. O’Brien. I hadn’t kept in touch with J.T. after leaving Harbour Falls, but I heard a lot about him from my dad. And what he told me wasn’t good.

A few years back, J.T. had gotten into trouble with the law—some kind of drug and alcohol charge. After a stint in rehab, he surprised everyone by marrying Jennifer. She’d always had a thing for J.T., but he’d never shown any interest in her. So when they ran off to Vegas for a quickie wedding, nobody could figure out why. My father said there was speculation that she’d gotten knocked up. But nine months came…and went…with no baby.

All of this occurred during the spring and summer before my final year at Yale. At the time I was interning at a publishing house in New York, so I didn’t pay too much attention to the updates from home. When I returned to college that fall, I met Julian. And once we were together, I hardly kept up with the Harbour Falls gossip. Following a quick visit back for Ami and Sean’s wedding the following summer, Julian and I moved to Los Angeles. I embarked on my writing career, and soon my life was too busy to worry about people from my past. Except for the occasional, short holiday visit home, this whole area had fallen off my radar completely.

Well, maybe not completely.

There was one huge Harbour Falls Mystery—as the press had dubbed it—I could not avoid hearing about. The story even dominated the national news for a time. And inevitably, mostly on book tours and during interviews, I was asked for my thoughts regarding the case. I imagined people were curious for two reasons. One, I was from Harbour Falls, a primary location involved in the mystery. And two, I was a crime and mystery novelist, and the facts of the case mirrored the kinds of things I wrote about.

Only my cases were purely fictional, so my standard response had always been the same: I have no interest in real-life cases. And that had been true. But it no longer was; things were about to change.

The Harbour Falls Mystery was the real reason I was here. I had every intention of basing my next novel on the facts of the case. I was tired of fiction; I wanted to write a true crime novel. Plus there was a little part of me—the detective that lurks in all of us—that dreamed of solving this case.