All Dressed in White (Under Suspicion #2)(16)

“And where did you find this one?” Jerry asked.

“You say that like there have been thousands,” Grace objected. “And to be clear, it’s all just flirting, nothing serious. I met Mark—this one, as you called him—at the driving range at Chelsea Piers.”

“You? Playing golf?”

“I’m a woman of many talents. The clothes are adorable, and so are the other players; what’s not to like? Speaking of surprising attributes, is that a tan I see?”

Laurie found herself paying more attention to their chatter than the memo she was drafting to the studio’s marketing team. She had also noticed some color on Jerry’s usually pale skin.

“I visited friends on Fire Island. And it’s not a tan. Unlike you, I have two settings: pasty or sunburned.”

Laurie found herself smiling as she hit the save key on her computer and rose from her desk. “Okay, are we ready for our meeting?”

Once they were settled into their usual spots—Grace and Jerry on the sofa, Laurie in the gray swivel chair—she asked which of them wanted to start.

She was eager to hear their reports. Normally, she was the one calling the shots in the office, but when it came to social media, she was almost oblivious. She barely understood the difference between a Tweet and a status, a like and a follow. But Jerry and Grace, just a decade younger, seemed perfectly at home in the virtual world.

As a convenient way to split the work in half, Laurie had asked Jerry to see what he could find about Jeff and his half of the wedding party, while Grace researched Amanda’s friends.

Jerry seemed more than happy to go first. “Jeff has a fairly small social media imprint, just a LinkedIn profile—that’s for professional networking,” he added for Laurie’s benefit—“and a relatively quiet Facebook page. But I have been able to confirm that he is still in close contact with both Nick Young and Austin Pratt, who are both more active online, and still very much BFFs.”

Best friends forever. Between Jerry, Grace, and her son, Laurie was fluent in slang.

“Austin and Nick are still happy bachelors on the prowl, while Jeff has settled down in Brooklyn with his wife, Meghan.”

Grace looked at Jerry as if surely he must have more to say. “Is that it? I wish my job had been that simple.”

“I also called the Grand Victoria. Want me to start in on that?” Jerry interrupted.

“One at a time, guys. Grace?”

“Well, since my people are more complicated,” she said with a pleased smile, “I’ll take them one by one. Meghan White, as mentioned, is married to Jeff. She has no Facebook, Twitter, nothing. Private. The other college girlfriend was Kate Fulton. She has four kids and lives in Atlanta. Her husband is the store manager at a Home Depot. There are some old pictures on her Facebook page with Meghan and Amanda, but, as far as I can tell, she has no current contact with any of the old gang. We’ve got Charlotte, Amanda’s sister, working at Ladyform here in New York. And her brother, Henry, is in Seattle. He’s co-owner of a winery, married with two girls, at least according to his online posts.”

Laurie was nodding. The three Colby men, all still in contact. Meghan now married to Jeff. Amanda’s family, scattered across the country. Kate the college friend, married with four children in Atlanta.

“Jerry, you heard back from the Grand Victoria?” she asked. Her biggest worry was that the resort might not let them film on the property.

“I spoke to their corporate office today. They’re eager to cooperate. Amanda’s disappearance was a public relations fiasco, so my impression is that they want to help however they can. They even maintained backups of all the security camera footage they provided to police.”

“Really? Is there a way we can see it?”

“They agreed to send it this week.”

The pieces were all falling into place. Jeff was still close to two of his groomsmen, and obviously couldn’t be any closer to Meghan. If she could just get him on board, they’d be all set. And if he didn’t say yes to Sandra, she had a plan to persuade him. Alex.





19





When Laurie walked out of her building at six o’clock, Alex was standing at the curb next to his black Mercedes. Right on time, she thought. I should have known it.

“I’ve been waiting an hour.”

“Sure you have!”

Laurie had known Alex for over a year now but could still feel herself react every time she saw him. A former college basketball player standing six-four, he still had an athlete’s build. He had dark, wavy hair, a strong jaw, and blue-green eyes that shone even behind his black-rimmed glasses. There was a reason Alex Buckley had become one of television’s most sought-after trial commentators, and it wasn’t merely because of his celebrated success in the courtroom.

She gave him a quick kiss. “I can’t believe my luck that you could join me.”

Alex’s official role on Under Suspicion was as its host. The skills he had gained at interrogation in courtroom cross-examinations were perfect for the show’s format. In previous episodes, his participation had not begun until shortly before the cameras began to roll. But since the show’s last production, three months ago, the lines between official and unofficial had become blurred where Laurie and Alex were concerned.