Emily’s eyes roved about the coffee shop. The detective had shaken her. On the drive in, Emily had fretted aloud: Had the police talked to Ryan’s school and learned about the Facebook posts linking Ryan to Billy Brice? What if a traffic cam or school camera had caught Sean that night? Or, worse, what if someone had seen Ryan? These questions had consumed Sean since he’d learned of Brice’s demise. They couldn’t be sure that the police had Ryan in their sights, but the detective’s cover-up comment could mean little else.
A group of four young women wearing jeans and tight tops came into the shop. Sean followed Emily’s gaze. They were ready to take on the world, overconfident yet insecure at the same time, laughing, playing with their phones, and pretending not to notice that the guys were checking them out. Emily blinked back tears. Sean reached for her hand.
After the women ordered, they huddled near the pickup area for their five-shot soy hazelnut vanilla cinnamon white mochas, their Crunch Berry frappuccinos, and other concoctions. Amid the whine of blenders and coffee grinders, Sean saw one of the girls stealing looks at them. She whispered something to her friends and then approached their table.
“Mr. and Mrs. Serrat?” the young woman said. “I thought that was you.”
Emily stood and the two hugged. “It’s good to see you, Michelle,” Emily said. The woman, a Korean American with jet-black hair, gave a fleeting smile.
“Sean, you remember Michelle O’Leary.”
Sean nodded and shook her delicate hand.
Emily pulled out a chair. Michelle hesitated, but then waved to her friends, who ambled off, more subdued now. She slid her backpack from her shoulder and sat down.
Emily and Michelle shared an awkward silence, until Michelle blurted, “I miss her so much.” She cupped her hands around the cardboard sleeve of her drink and stared at the table.
Sean vaguely recalled meeting her once or twice—O’Leary isn’t exactly a common Korean name, so she’d made an impression. He remembered Abby saying that Michelle’s family owned a restaurant in Fairfax County, Virginia. She was a hard worker, and Abby had admired her study habits. They’d become fast friends their first year of law school.
“We have some questions,” Emily said. She took the girl’s hands in hers. “We’re trying to understand some things about Abby that may help the investigation.”
Michelle nodded, her gaze somewhere far away.
“Was Abby seeing anyone?” Emily had been obsessed with the question ever since Malik Montgomery had made the claim. Plus Billy Brice had said that a rich man in a suit paid him to get Abby’s necklace back.
Michelle cleared her throat and swept the room with her eyes. “There was someone,” she whispered. “But Abby wouldn’t tell me who.”
“Michelle, it’s okay to tell us, there’s nothing we can’t handle, there’s—”
“Really,” Michelle said. “She wouldn’t tell me. I noticed she was staying out late, sometimes overnight. I knew it wasn’t with Malik because he would call looking for her. I wish I would’ve known that Malik was so upset about it, I would have covered better for her. I would’ve—”
“There’s nothing you could have done, Michelle,” Emily said. “Do you know why Abby didn’t tell you who the man is?”
“It seemed weird, but she said it was for my own good. I thought it was someone married maybe. She asked me as a friend to leave it be, so I did.”
Sean felt like the wind had been knocked out of him. A married man?
Emily continued, undeterred. “Did she have any problems—things she’d probably share with a friend, but not her mom and dad?”
Michelle’s eyes fell to the table. Without looking up she said, “The officer from the Supreme Court asked me the same thing. Looking back on it, that last week, Abby was super stressed out. She said everything was crashing in on her all at once.”
“Do you know what she meant? What was crashing in on her?”
“At first I thought it was just about the man she was seeing. She said she was gonna break up with Malik, but she was afraid.”
“Afraid of what?”
“Of what he might do. But it was more than Malik.” Michelle took a slow drink of her latte. “She said her little brother got into some mess. And she said something about going to a jail out in Virginia. After she went, she said a man approached her and warned her to back off.”
“Did she say who that was?” Emily asked.
“She didn’t tell me,” Michelle answered. “She just called him ‘Mole Face,’ like he was a rat or something.”
Sean and Emily shared a glance. Ryan had seen a man with a mole on his face following Sean the night on the football field. But Kenny Baldwin didn’t have a mole. Neither did Senator James.
Michelle continued, “But she seemed most freaked out about some research she’d been doing. She asked me if I knew anyone who could translate some newspapers.”
“Translate?” Emily said.
“Yeah, she had Japanese newspapers and she needed them translated.”