“Should I get a tape recorder?” Jerry joked. “That might be a first.”
Ryan smiled, but Laurie could tell that the comment had irked him. “You said that Mr. Bennington was very clear that the conversation between Carter and Peter was heated, enough so that Anna told them to quiet down. And you all agreed that Anna and Peter seem like a couple in complete lockstep. If we interview them separately, neither one of them will budge from whatever statement they prepared in advance. But if they’re together when we tell them what we know, there’s a chance something new will break.”
“And Jerry, we’re all set for filming tomorrow?”
They only had access to the inside of the museum for one day, so the plan was to interview Ivan, Gerard Bennington, and Marco Nelson there, in addition to getting footage of the roof itself. Marco had agreed to participate on camera after Laurie assured him there was no need to mention the circumstances of his departure from the museum.
“A hundred percent,” Jerry said. “I worked with that wonderful curator, Cynthia Vance. A tiny corner of one little gallery is being painted this week. We’re going to stage it with Gerard’s dresses and then splice it together with footage taken of the exhibit before it opened. After some cut-and-paste magic, it will look like we were there for the real thing.”
“Amazing,” Laurie said.
As they were getting ready to leave, Grace offered to type up her notes and circulate them to the full team. Laurie thanked her for taking the initiative and then asked Ryan to stay behind for a second. Grace closed the door behind her. As always, she could read Laurie’s mind.
? ? ?
“I know you think Ivan’s innocent,” Laurie said.
“Because he is. I’ve spent time with the guy. He’s not a killer.”
“Okay, but we’re a news show. We have to be objective.”
“If I recall correctly, our last case involved a woman with a connection to one of your best friends.”
The show’s most recent special had questioned the evidence against Casey, who had already been convicted of killing her fiancé. Casey knew about the show because her cousin worked for Charlotte.
“True,” Laurie said, “but I told her—and everyone else—from the very beginning that I would go wherever the evidence led us. We put Casey through a grueling cross-examination, as you’ll recall.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” he said.
“Are you prepared to do the same with Ivan Gray? If you go easy on your boxing coach, the audience will see it. It could call our entire series into question.” Laurie had worked for years to earn a reputation as a credible producer with journalistic values, despite the “reality show” label used to describe Under Suspicion.
“I’m going to do my job, Laurie. Because you know what? When it all comes out that Carter Wakeling’s guilty, I want everyone to know that we were fair.”
She nodded. “Then we’re on the same page.” To herself she added, At least I hope so.
? ? ?
She had only been in her office alone for a few minutes when she found herself looking at the phone on her desk. She wanted to call Alex.
She reminded herself once again of the vow she had taken not to step back into the same cycle that had driven him away in November. He had pressed her to answer one simple question: “What am I to you?”
She stared at the phone, asking herself why she was so desperate to speak to him. It wasn’t about the case. In fact, today’s team meeting had probably been the longest she’d gone without once thinking of Alex since they first met. It wasn’t about an event with Leo or Timmy. It wasn’t a complaint about Brett or Ryan.
If I called, what would I want to say?
And then she realized that the topic of conversation wouldn’t even matter. They could talk about politics, music, television, the snow, or the color of the sweater she was wearing today. She just wanted to hear his voice. She wanted to see him. She would even settle for sharing a phone call with him. She missed him, for no reason other than that he had been a big part of her life, and now he was gone.
She was ready.
She picked up the phone and dialed his cell phone number from memory. With each ring, she felt her heart sink further. She pictured him staring at the screen, waiting for it to go to voice mail.
You’ve reached Alex Buckley. Please leave a message.
Her handset was halfway back to its base when she decided that, no, they had waited long enough. She was done hitting the pause button on this part of her life.
“Alex, or should I say, ‘Your Honor,’ this is Laurie. Please give me a call when you have a chance.”
As she hung up, she studied the framed photograph on her desk of Greg, Timmy, and her. I looked so happy then, she thought. I want to be happy that way again. Greg, you would want that for me. You would like this man. He is good and decent and he loves me—or at least, he did.
Please, don’t let it be too late.
48
Jerry had not been exaggerating when he said that he and the museum had come up with a plan to make a small corner of the museum look like the sprawling “Fashion of First Ladies” exhibit. Looking at the set with a naked eye, Laurie saw a couple of dresses on mannequins in front of a green screen, with two chairs for Ryan and Ivan. But when she looked at the scene on the screen next to the cameraman, the wall behind them appeared to be part of the original exhibit. “Camera magic,” as Jerry had described it.
Unlike the workout clothing she was accustomed to seeing Ivan wear, he had chosen a well-tailored dark gray suit and a conservative striped tie for his interview. For the first time, she could imagine how a cultivated woman like Virginia would find him attractive.
Ryan had already walked Ivan through the basic background of his relationship with Virginia and how they had met at an art exhibit. After just a few dinners together, they began dating regularly. When she bought him a Porsche for his birthday, they had been dating for only seven months. They picked out her engagement ring on the one-year anniversary of their first date. “I considered us engaged,” he said. “She just wasn’t ready to make the announcement yet.”
“What became of the ring?” Ryan asked.
The question caught Laurie by surprise. She hadn’t thought to ask before, and the question signaled that Ryan, as promised, was not going to go easy on his boxing coach.
“I took it back to the jeweler about a month after Virginia died. Seeing the box in my dresser drawer was a reminder of what I’d lost.”
“And the jeweler gave you a refund of some kind?”
“Yes, back on my credit card. They were very understanding about it.”