All Dressed in White (Under Suspicion #2)(30)
She looked at her watch. It was just past seven-thirty, not too late to call someone in Atlanta. She picked up her phone again and called Kate Fulton.
Laurie introduced herself and asked if Kate had time to review some basic information. Kate confirmed that she was a homemaker in Atlanta, a mother to four children, and wife to her high school sweetheart, Bill. Laurie found comfort that Kate’s bio lined up with the information they’d gathered so far in their research. Preparations had been moving so quickly, she was worried they would overlook something important. Not to mention that several of the participants were spread out across the country, so she was forced to question some people by phone.
“How did you feel when you realized that Amanda was missing?” Laurie asked.
“Terrified. I don’t even know how to describe it. It was like time stopped, and everything went blank. I just knew in the pit of my stomach that something had gone horribly wrong. I couldn’t stop crying. In retrospect, I’m sure I only made things worse for Amanda’s poor family.”
“What about Meghan? Did she react the same way?”
“Oh, God no. Meghan? She’s the exact opposite. Her way of dealing with bad news is to try to fix it. In college, we called her TCB—always Taking Care of Business. She’s a planner and thinker, but Amanda’s disappearance was something that even Meghan couldn’t fix. She was at a loss for what to do, but no, she’s not a crier.”
“Did you find it strange when she began a relationship with Jeff?”
Kate paused for a moment. “Of course we were all surprised. I didn’t even know they were dating. Meghan called me after the wedding—or what she referred to as their non-wedding. Just vows exchanged at the courthouse.”
“Is it possible they might have been seeing each other before Amanda disappeared?”
This time she didn’t need to reflect before answering. “No way. Jeff was head over heels for Amanda. Meghan had tried getting his attention before, and they just didn’t click. I think it was actually their mutual love for Amanda that helped to bring them together later.”
Laurie heard her father tell Timmy to be careful of the heat from the oven, and resisted the temptation to walk to the kitchen to supervise. “What do you mean, she had tried getting his attention?”
“They’d gone on a couple of dates. Meghan was always interested in Jeff, even in college. If you’ve seen him, you know he’s very attractive, and they were both drawn to public interest work. They’re a good match, but for whatever reason, they didn’t hit it off at first. I think Meghan was sort of disappointed.”
“So Meghan played matchmaker for Amanda? That was thoughtful.”
“Not really. Jeff bumped into Meghan in the neighborhood, and Amanda happened to be there.”
That was interesting. Laurie had gotten the impression that Meghan had intentionally set up Amanda with Jeff. She was about to ask for more details when Kate shifted the conversation back to Amanda’s disappearance. “More so than anyone except maybe Mr. Pierce, Meghan really wanted to believe that Amanda left on her own. I always thought it was her way of coping.”
Laurie shook her head in frustration. She still had no sense of Meghan as a person. After she and Alex met with Jeff, she had called Meghan twice to try to schedule a meeting, but got voice mail both times. Meghan had replied only by email, saying that she was busy at work but “looked forward” to talking “soon.”
“That’s what we keep struggling with on our end,” Laurie said. “To us, it seems far more likely that something bad happened to Amanda. Why would anyone possibly disappear for all these years?”
“They wouldn’t, or at least Amanda wouldn’t. But at the time, it hadn’t been a matter of years. And we were all trying to convince ourselves there was some explanation. It was the day before the wedding, and Amanda was having doubts.”
“She was?” Charlotte said she sensed her sister was having second thoughts, but this was the first time anyone had claimed to have heard Amanda express them.
“Doubts might be too strong of a word. But when we were alone, she was asking me if I was happy. If I wished I had met Bill later in life. Whether I’d had enough adventure before settling down. But if I thought she was really going to back out of the wedding, I wouldn’t have been so terrified when she was missing. I can’t bring myself to say this to Sandra, but I’m convinced my friend is dead. I know for a fact she wouldn’t put her family through this.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Back when we were at Colby, a girl named Carly Romano disappeared. It was nearly two weeks before they found her body in Messalonskee Lake. Actually, this will give you some idea of how Meghan and Amanda were so different. We didn’t really know Carly, but the entire college was affected. Amanda was the one who organized the prayer sessions and candlelight vigils; Meghan was the one who helped organize the on-campus search teams and handed out flashlights and safety whistles. Amanda was a caretaker. Meghan was a pragmatist. Anyway, one night, while everyone was still searching, Amanda told me that she nearly broke down when she met Carly’s parents. She said she almost hoped they’d find a body, because she couldn’t imagine anything worse for a parent than not knowing.”
Laurie thought she was living in hell those five years when Greg’s murder was unsolved. She couldn’t imagine how she would have felt if he had simply failed to come home one night. How do people go on?