All Dressed in White (Under Suspicion #2)(22)

It was no surprise to anyone when after Nick applied to and chose to attend Colby College, I had done the same, Austin thought. Nick, naturally popular wherever he was, made sure to include me in his activities. The friends Nick made became my friends.

He did not realize that Nick was eyeing him with some envy.

? ? ?

He looks like a bookkeeper, Nick thought, with those frameless glasses and thinning hair. Where they’d call a woman a “plain Jane,” he’s a “plain Joe.”


While he used to aspire to be like me, in some ways he’s gone further than I have. I’ve done pretty well financially, but he’s outpaced me. Austin is the one already managing one of the hedge fund industry’s largest biotech-focused portfolios. He has homes in Manhattan, East Hampton, and Colorado. He even flies by private jet. Then Nick comforted himself by thinking, But I’m a lot better looking than he is. I’ll catch up to him. Better yet, I’ll surpass him.

Maybe when the check came, he’d let Austin pick it up.

They were halfway through the steak before they began to discuss the phone call they had each received from Jeff.

“I got the impression that Jeff’s mind was made up,” Nick said, his tone grim.

“Me, too.”

“I love him like a brother, but I don’t get that guy. Working like a dog for no money at all. Living in that tiny place in Brooklyn. Knowing a lot of people think he murdered Amanda, why would he stick his neck out like this?”

“He wanted my assurances that I’d sign on to the show if the producer contacted me,” Austin said.

“Should we try to talk him out of it?”

Austin shrugged. “You know Jeff better than I do. You said yourself, his decision sounded final.”

Nick certainly did know Jeff well. We became close friends when we were assigned as roommates our freshman year at Colby, he thought. We were both smart and confident; the girls loved us. But it ended there. Where Jeff was laid back and studious, Nick thought, I never missed a beer bash in four years. After graduation, we went in different directions. While Jeff became a public defender, I went for the money on Wall Street. After law school Jeff started dating the incredibly beautiful Amanda, the girl every guy on campus had been after. Amanda and I had a few dates in college, but it didn’t go anywhere. Nick tried to suppress a smile when he recalled Austin telling him during senior year that he planned to ask Amanda for a date. “Don’t bother, my friend, it’s a lost cause.”

To this day, Nick thought, I am still constantly playing the game of conquests; once I have her, right away I begin to lose interest.

But somehow, different as Jeff and I were and are, our friendship has always worked.

He looked over at Austin. “So are you going to do the show?”

“Sure, if you are. I mean, do we really have a choice? If there was one lesson to be learned from Jeff’s experience, it’s that people will suspect anyone who appears to be looking out for himself.”

“You’re the one who told Jeff to lawyer up,” Nick reminded his friend.

“I was trying to help him. He was so out of his mind worried about Amanda that he didn’t even notice the insinuations coming from the media. Amanda was from an extremely wealthy family, and he was the working-class fiancé. It was only natural that the police were going to suspect him,” Austin said heatedly.

“Hey, don’t get defensive. I know you were looking out for him.”

Austin’s intentions were good, Nick thought, but in many ways he was so hard to read. He has always been that way. Still waters run deep.

Although many had speculated that Jeff had something to do with Amanda’s disappearance, no one had ever suggested the involvement of either of his college friends.

“You know,” Austin said, “the show’s going to ask us some questions that Jeff might not want us to answer.”

“You mean what he said that night after a little too much wine.”

“We never told the police.”

“They never asked us the right question,” Nick said coyly. “It’s not up to us to do their job for them.”

When it became clear that Jeff might be a suspect, he had followed Austin’s advice and hired a lawyer. As his friends, both Nick and Austin decided that they would not lie on Jeff’s behalf, but they also weren’t going to volunteer anything that wasn’t specifically asked of them.

A national television show would probably do a better job than the police had five years earlier. As they knew from when they were questioned, the police investigation could have been much more thorough.

“So if the producers ask the right question,” Austin was saying, “are we going to tell them the truth?”

“It’s up to you what you say. I can’t make that decision for you.”

“Well, we can’t contradict each other.”

“Are you saying you’ll lie for Jeff if I ask you to?” Nick said.

“We’ve got a lot at stake, Nick. Investors don’t want to be associated with someone caught lying in an investigation of a missing woman.”

Nick ate in silence, weighing their options. “It’s really not a big deal. Lots of people have cold feet a few days before they get married. It’s normal. Jeff had every intention of going through with the wedding.”