After Anna(95)

‘So the girl you had dinner with was the imposter, right?’

‘Yes, but she must have known the real Anna pretty well. She knew a lot about her, like that I was her mother and I had been writing to her, and she knew that Anna wanted to reach out to me. The real Anna had told her therapist that, too. So the imposter must have been a friend of Anna’s.’

Kathy frowned in thought. ‘Hmm, a lookalike friend. But I guess they didn’t have to look that much alike.’

‘Right.’ Maggie took a left, heading toward the expressway.

‘Do you think the imposter went to Congreve?’

‘It seems the most likely.’ Maggie accelerated into the fast lane.

‘You know what else I was thinking? Remember those notes between Anna and Jamie that we found in Anna’s textbooks, way back when, before the murder?’

‘Yes.’ Maggie had forgotten about Jamie, after Anna died.

‘I was thinking, it’s really strange that Jamie disappeared, isn’t it? I wonder if that has something to do with it?’

‘What though?’ Maggie turned left, hitting the expressway in record time. The windshield wipers flapped madly, and the defroster blew on max. The sky was pewter-gray, pouring rain. She’d checked online, and they’d be racing to Congreve ahead of the snowstorm.

‘I don’t know. Jamie’s last name was Covington, right?’

‘Yes,’ Maggie answered, and it was all coming back to her. ‘And PG and Connie were going to get her a bus ticket.’

‘Right,’ Kathy said, urgently. ‘We have to tell the people at Congreve about that. We have to find Jamie, PG, and Connie and see what they know. Maybe it’s connected to Anna’s disappearance.’

‘Yes, how can two girls go missing and nobody worry about it?’ Maggie accelerated, struck by a sudden memory. Anna’s funeral was over seven months ago, but a thought was coming back to her. ‘Oh my God, do you remember at Anna’s funeral? That woman who came up to me at the end?’

‘No, who?’

‘Anna – the imposter Anna, that is – made a friend at Lower Merion named Samantha Silas. Her mother spoke to me at the end of the funeral.’ Maggie tried to think back. ‘She told me that Samantha ran away after Anna was murdered because she was so upset, and that she had run away before.’

‘For real?’

‘Yes.’ Maggie felt her chest tighten, making a connection. ‘Anna’s only friend at high school, Samantha, runs away? And before that, Anna’s only friend at Congreve, Jamie, runs away? And now Anna, the real Anna, my daughter, is missing? Doesn’t that seem coincidental to you?’

‘It does. I mean, what are the odds?’ Kathy’s eyes rounded.

‘I think that’s definitely something we should tell them. Ellen said they called the police, and we should lay it all out for them.’

‘Yes, it gives them a place to start their investigation.’

‘Yep.’ Maggie bore down, steering through the rain. ‘It worries me though. I hate to think that Anna is missing. What’s happening with these girls?’

‘We’re not cops.’

‘No, but we’re moms on a mission.’ Maggie looked over with a tense smile, and Kathy smiled back, equally tense.

‘What happens to Noah, if this is true? He was convicted of killing Anna, but Anna isn’t dead.’

‘I was wondering about that too. I don’t know what it means, legally. They don’t just let him go. I mean, that girl was murdered.’ Maggie gripped the steering wheel. She glanced in the backseat to make sure Caleb wasn’t listening, and he was still ear-plugged into the video game. ‘Kathy, do me a favor, get my phone out of my purse, look up Neil Seligman, and call him? He’s one of the criminal lawyers I know from work. He might have the answer.’

‘I’ll do it, you drive.’ Kathy started digging in her purse, found the phone, and pressed in Neil’s number. ‘Got it.’

‘Put him on speaker, okay?’ Maggie drove while Kathy switched the phone to speaker, and it rang twice.

Neil picked up. ‘Hello?’

‘Neil, this is Maggie Ippoliti. Got a minute?’

‘Of course. I was thinking of you, reading about your husband’s conviction. This must be a very difficult time for you.’

‘Yes it is, thank you. Do you have a minute to talk?’

‘Of course.’

‘Neil, I’m in a car with my best friend Kathy, and I have a question for you about my husband. Can I speak to you confidentially, as an attorney?’

‘Certainly.’

‘There’s been a surprising development in his case, and I’d like to get your opinion.’ Maggie launched into the story about the phone call from Congreve and learning that the girl whom Noah had been convicted of killing wasn’t Anna. Caleb kept playing his video game, and they sped past billboards on the way to the airport. Trucks and vans sprayed water and road salt.

‘So what do you think, Neil?’ Maggie asked, when she was finished.

‘Noah doesn’t get out of jail free. The fact that he was convicted of killing someone – let’s call her Jane Doe, but she was in reality, Susan Smith – is not relevant to his conviction, if the only new fact is just a mistaken identity.’