He had called her twice in the last week. She had deleted both messages.
She stepped aside so he could enter. The house suddenly felt smaller and in even more need of the TLC that Angela kept offering to pay for. Ginny immediately remembered the way Hendricks had scanned their home fifteen years earlier, when Angela first went missing. She could feel him judging them, like he already knew the full story from the look of their house and a two-year-old police report from a single-car accident with Trisha Faulkner and their daughter in the car.
“What do you know about the accusations against your son-in-law?” Hendricks asked.
“Not sure why that’s your business.” Other than passing him a couple times at the grocery store, Ginny’s last contact with Hendricks had been a note he’d written almost a decade ago, stuck in their screen door. He said that the biggest mistake he had ever made as a police officer was not trying harder to find their daughter. The note had ended with, “All I can say is that I’m sorry.” Ginny had never shown the note to Danny. Danny was dealing with enough guilt of his own. She always wondered if it contributed to the stroke that killed him five years ago.
“Even an old guy like me can reach out when necessary.”
“Reach out to who? Jason? Doubt he’s in a mood to talk to police right now.”
“No, I meant to the NYPD. Let them know there’s another side to the story—assuming there is, of course. Police get a gut feel on a case and fill in the blanks from there. If they think Jason looks wrong for this, I can present his version. Be his advocate, so to speak.”
Ginny resisted the urge to remind him that he had formed a gut instinct about Angela when she first disappeared and then filled in the blanks as he saw fit. The car crash. A stop on the beach for a minor in possession of alcohol. The friendship with Trisha, who ran away the way other girls changed lipsticks. Ginny had made so many visits to the police station that the staff started heading for the bathroom when they saw her walking toward the entrance.
When Trisha left town for good shortly after her eighteenth birthday, it seemed to validate Hendricks’s version of the facts: Angela had run away for a life somewhere away from Springs, and then her fucked-up BFF Trisha followed suit as soon as she was legal.
“Why are you offering?” Ginny asked.
“You know why. When I got that phone call from Pittsburgh PD, saying that one of the girls in that house was Angela—well, I felt my heart stop. I still can’t sleep some nights, knowing what she was going through, and the way I ignored all your worries. I know Danny died without ever forgiving me—”
“He blamed that animal who took her. And he blamed the Faulkner family for getting her involved in trouble. He didn’t blame you,” she said. Everything she said was true. She didn’t add that Danny also blamed himself. “Anyone ever hear from Trisha again?”
Ginny had spent three years playing a bizarre game of whack-a-mole, chasing down every oddball rumor that popped up as to Angela’s whereabouts. She joined a cult of aspiring yoga fiends. Ginny found the cult, but no sign of her daughter. She met a rich, older man and moved to a state where it was legal to get married without parental consent. Turned out, there was no such state. When Trisha disappeared, the word in town was that she had gone down to Rincón to join her friend Angela. Ginny had spent half their savings account on flying a private investigator all the way down to Puerto Rico. Nothing.
“Not that I know of.”
“I like to think that maybe as much as she was a bad influence on Angela, Angela was a good influence on her. She always told Angela all she wanted to do was get away from her family as soon as she was eighteen, so maybe she’s got a nice life.”
“And I thought Angela had a nice life too, once I heard she got married and moved to the city. It gave me some peace about my role in all of what happened. But now this. I mean, let’s say hypothetically that the NYPD reaches out to me about Angela. What do you want me to say? I know you’re touchy about her privacy, but I could vouch for her husband, say he’s a good man.”
“I don’t know, Steve. I’m not sure how Angela’s going to react to that.”
“Ask her, okay? It helps to have a cop in your corner, even if it’s a dumb guy like me.”
Ginny was surprised when Angela picked up on the second ring.
“Hi, Mom.”
Normally, her daughter tried to hide her annoyance at being disrupted. Ginny didn’t take it personally. She knew that Angela hated the slightest bit of surprise. Her routine made her feel safe.
But on this day her daughter actually sounded happy to hear from her.
“Are you okay, Gellie?”
“Trying to be.”
Her thirty-one-year-old daughter, already mother to a thirteen-year-old, sounded so tired.
Ginny told Angela about the visit from Steve Hendricks and his offer to act as a kind of advocate for Jason to the NYPD.
“I can’t believe you let that guy in the house.”
“I think he really does blame himself for not finding you sooner.”
“Finding me? He couldn’t bother to look for me. Why are you defending him?”
Angela knew that not only Hendricks, but most of the town, had assumed that she ran away when she went missing. She had also learned how many people had come to pity Ginny for insisting that someone had kidnapped her daughter. But to this day, Angela had no idea that Danny had essentially given the town permission to feel that way. He was convinced Angela had left them. He even apologized to Hendricks for Ginny’s “pestering.”
“I’m not defending him,” Ginny said. “But he’s offering to help, and maybe you need it. I’m simply relaying the message.”
“Too little, too late,” Angela said. “He tried calling me last week, and I hung up on him. Felt kind of good, actually.”
“You’re right,” Ginny said, deciding to drop the matter for now. “Fuck that guy. I learned that from your son, by the way. Kid cusses worse than I do.”
26
Memo
To: Powell File
From: Olivia Randall
Re: Client Interview Notes
Date: May 26
Long interview and mock cross of Client yesterday. Full audio saved digitally. Highlights and takeaways:
Client says Lynch was initiator. Kissed him after walking him to car after dinner (Morton’s) on Long Island. Stopped, said she had too much wine and “why are the good ones always married.” First sexual encounter was two weeks later at her house after she asked him over for a drink after end-of-day meeting at company (eight months ago).
Three months ago, Client became aware of irregularities at business (Oasis Inc.). Unexplained payments not aligned with work performed on-site. He disclosed concerns to Lynch. She hinted that company engaged in kickbacks and doctored financial statements to cover up. She led him to believe she was looking for proof internally, but he never saw evidence.
Lynch began asking Client to leave wife about four months ago. He never promised, but didn’t say no either. Said he stayed for son (no formal adoption; therefore, Client has no parental rights if divorces wife). Says he felt “trapped.” Didn’t want to lose Lynch. Didn’t want to leave family. Plus stress of needing her to help prove concerns against company so he could extract himself professionally with clean hands.
No e-mails, texts, phone messages to confirm ongoing affair. Per him, Lynch was caught in yearlong affair with CEO of Oasis (Tom Fisher). Fisher’s wife was suspicious and read texts. Lynch was humiliated. Almost fired except she threatened to sue.
Still on outs with company. Per Client, Lynch paranoid that company was looking for dirt on her, would fire her if they knew of affair with consultant—that’s why no texts, etc.
He told no one of affair. Colleague Zack Hawkins noticed Lynch would be in Client’s office with him alone, once tried to walk in and found door locked.
Client was defensive, arrogant on cross. Try to keep him off stand unless substantial improvement in future mocks.