After Anna(98)
‘Hello, I’m Morris Whitaker, the Head of School.’ Whitaker smiled as he entered the room from an attached office. He was tall and thin, maybe sixty-something, with a lined face behind horn-rimmed glasses. He had on a dark three-piece suit with a Congreve-blue bowtie, plus heavy Sorel snowboots. He extended his hand. ‘You must be Maggie Ippoliti. I saw you drive in.’
‘Yes, hi, I’m Maggie,’ she said, shaking his hand, and introducing Caleb, who shook Whitaker’s hand, and Kathy, who introduced herself.
‘Ladies, come into my office and meet some folks. I put on a pot of fresh coffee.’
‘Thank you. Caleb’s going to wait here.’ Maggie gestured Caleb into a chair, and he sat down.
‘Fine.’ Whitaker led them into an office where there were two other middle-aged men in dark suits and rep ties. They both wore wire-rimmed glasses, but one was short and one was tall. Ellen Salvich, Anna’s therapist, wasn’t present, which surprised Maggie.
‘I thought Ellen would be here.’
Whitaker smiled politely. ‘There was no need. She gave us the information we need.’
‘I was hoping the police would be here, too. Ellen told me you were calling them.’
‘Chief Vogel of the Congreve Police was here, but he was called away. It’s a small police force, and the storm is placing a heavy demand on its manpower and resources.’ Whitaker gestured to the other two men. ‘Please, meet Jack and Roger.’
‘Welcome, I’m Jack Amundsen,’ said the tall one, shaking Maggie’s hand. ‘Assistant Head of School. I’ll be sitting in tonight.’
‘Roger Baxter,’ said the short one. ‘General Counsel and a member of the board.’
‘Great to meet you,’ Maggie said, and they shook hands, introduced themselves to Kathy, then settled in chairs with coffee around a circular cherrywood table, which was nestled among bookshelves filled with reference books, awards and citations, and a group of family photos. A large matching desk was on the far side of the office.
‘Well, Maggie.’ Whitaker cleared his throat, his hooded hazel eyes meeting hers with concern. ‘First, let me say that I’m so sorry about this situation. We commenced an investigation as soon as Ellen brought it to our attention.’
‘Thank you.’ Maggie sipped her coffee, served in a blue Congreve mug. ‘I’ve been racking my brain myself and I think I have some things figured out.’
‘Really, what would that be?’ Whitaker cocked his head, and Maggie launched into an explanation, including the notes with Jamie they had found in Anna’s textbook, about PG and Connie buying the bus ticket for Jamie, and even about Samantha’s disappearance at Lower Merion.
‘Of course,’ Maggie finished by saying, ‘my main concern is that Anna’s missing and has been missing since April.’
‘That’s our primary concern as well.’ Whitaker nodded quickly.
‘Did you know Anna?’
‘Somewhat. She was on the quiet side, so perhaps I didn’t know her as well as some of the more extroverted students.’
‘Do you know anybody in the student body who looks like Anna?’
‘Not offhand.’ Whitaker nodded, this time in the direction of the lawyer. ‘Roger, why don’t you take the reins?’
‘Of course. Maggie, thank you so much for this information.’ Roger flipped a page of a legal pad on which he had been taking notes with a gleaming Mont Blanc pen. ‘Here is the chronology we have, from Ellen.’
Maggie got her phone to take notes, and so did Kathy.
‘As you know, your ex-husband Florian Desroches was killed in a plane crash on March 8. Ellen saw Anna for her weekly appointments, on Mondays, except for Monday, March 13 because Anna was at her father’s funeral in France. The last time Ellen saw Anna was April 3, because of Passover and Easter Monday. So we don’t know when Anna went missing exactly, but we know that it had to be after April 3. I strongly suspect it was during Spring Break.’
Maggie tapped it into her phone. ‘Okay, and just so you know, the imposter called me on Easter Sunday, April 16, and I met her for dinner on Friday, April 21, and brought her home on April 22.’
‘Thank you, I’ll make a note of that.’
Maggie blinked. ‘Maybe you can fill in some other dates for me. When did Anna return from the funeral in France?’
‘We received a call on Thursday morning, March 9, from a French lawyer representing your ex-husband, notifying us of his death.’ Roger flipped back through his notes, then consulted a page. ‘We summoned Anna out of class and notified her. She left school the same day, on Thursday, March 9, and she returned to campus on March 15.’
‘And she went to class as usual at least until Spring Break, which was April 10 through April 18?’ Maggie had looked up the school calendar on the website.
‘Yes, though during Spring Break, she doesn’t go to any regular classes.’
‘But she boarded here, so she was still here. Have you asked the other students who board?’ Maggie thought for a minute. ‘The imposter told me that the boarders live in Parker Hall and that they’re made fun of, because they’re parked there. So I wonder if any of them stayed during Spring Break. Maybe they’d remember seeing Anna that week. They must’ve. Did you speak with them?’