“No,” he said, even though he was certain that he had opened his eyes because of her. Sometimes he thought they shared a telepathic connection. Even in sleep, he knew when his wife was anxious. “How long have you been up?”
“Hours. I had that terrible nightmare again.” He knew which one she was talking about. She’d had it countless times since Virginia was killed, but she walked him through the familiar sequence anyway. “I saw her up on that roof, in her beautiful gown. She was looking out at the skyline over Central Park South, and snow was falling. And then she turned and looked over her shoulder, and said ‘Ivan?’ just the way I always picture it. But this time, it wasn’t Ivan standing behind her.”
She brushed a tear from her face and Peter pulled her closer. “Shhh, it was just a dream, sweetie.” He didn’t force her to finish her description of the nightmare. They had spent most of the previous night discussing her worries about her brother, Carter.
“What if it wasn’t just a dream? I pictured the entire scene. He followed her upstairs to harangue her about the will. You saw how obsessed he was. He wouldn’t let up on the subject, even at the gala. And in my dream, she was just as defiant to him as she was with me when I raised the subject the day before. But where I let the matter drop, Carter kept pushing and pushing and pushing until she told him that he hadn’t earned any right to that money the way his father had. And then Carter—he just snapped. In my dream, he was standing at the ledge, looking down at her on the ground below, and he fell to his knees and sobbed.”
“Except that was all your imagination, Anna. You didn’t really see it.”
“But I can picture it now. Should I call him before his interview?”
Carter was going to be filmed by the Under Suspicion crew at the Wakeling Development offices at noon.
“Let your brother take care of himself for once,” Peter said. “Three years ago, your mother told him he needed to grow up, and he hasn’t changed a bit. Look at how much Tom has matured in that time, while Carter continues to act like a child.”
“You’re absolutely right,” Anna said, sounding determined. “If he did hurt our mother, maybe this show will get to the bottom of it. And then at least I’ll finally know.”
54
Laurie looked at her watch. It was a quarter after noon, and the conference room at Wakeling Development was filled with lighting and cameras, ready for the arrival of their star witness.
Ryan stood when the door opened, but it was Jerry, returning from his venture to search for Carter Wakeling.
“Any sign of him?” Laurie asked.
They had spent the early hours of the morning gathering footage of the Long Island City neighborhood that originally put Robert Wakeling on the map as one of New York City’s most successful real estate developers. They had arrived at the Wakeling offices nearly two hours earlier to set up for the interview in this room with sweeping views of Manhattan and the East River. Carter’s secretary, Emma, had shown them into the conference room, but they hadn’t spotted any of the Wakeling family as of yet, and now Carter was ten minutes late for what Laurie had come to believe was the most important interview of the production. He was supposed to have arrived twenty minutes early for makeup.
Jerry shook his head. “I made a new friend in Emma, though. She says Carter was here earlier, when we first arrived, but then left to go into Manhattan to try to find his sister and Peter. Apparently Anna and Peter both called in, first thing this morning, to cancel their office meetings for the entire day. They hadn’t been answering their phones when Carter had tried calling.”
Laurie wasn’t at all surprised that Jerry had found a way to learn the inside details of Carter’s whereabouts. He had a knack for becoming gossip partners with perfect strangers.
“So he went all the way to their apartment to look for them?” Laurie asked. “That seems unusual.”
“Emma thought so, too,” Jerry said. “Apparently she tried reassuring him that their secretaries had just spoken to Anna and Peter personally a few hours ago, but she said she’d never seen Carter so concerned.”
“Concerned for himself,” Ryan said, swinging his chair to prop his feet at the edge of the conference table. “He’s probably eager to find out what Anna and Peter said yesterday during their interview in Greenwich.”
Laurie agreed. She had seen the flash of fear in Anna’s eyes yesterday afternoon when she realized that her brother had an objective reason to believe that their mother was going to reduce their inheritance soon. Laurie said, “In my opinion once Anna found out about what Penny Rawling had been communicating to Carter, she finally allowed herself to entertain the possibility that her older brother had killed their mother. If I had to guess, Anna and Peter canceled their meetings today to avoid seeing Carter before his interview.”
They were leaving him to fend for himself in front of the cameras.
Laurie paused, turned to the lead cameraman, and said, “Nick, go ahead and get us started with a shot of the door from that camera back there,” gesturing to the camera next to Nick at the far end of the room. “That should get most of the room, correct?”
He took a look at the digital screen and gave her a thumbs-up.
“Good. I want to be rolling from the second Carter shows up. This could get interesting.”
55
It was nearly one o’clock and Nick was complaining about a rumbly stomach by the time the conference room door opened without a knock. Carter Wakeling looked flustered, using his fingers to rake his tousled sandy blond hair from his eyes.
“Sorry, I got hung up in traffic on the bridge,” he explained. “I’m afraid we’re going to have to reschedule, Ms. Moran.”
Laurie clasped her hands together, trying her best to appear sympathetic. “Midday traffic’s the worst. Fortunately, I think we can be quick here, Carter. Why don’t you and Ryan get started and we’ll see if we can wrap it all up in a few minutes so you can get back to your work.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that. Peter and Anna are out of the office today, so I have a ton of stuff to do.”
Laurie looked to Jerry, who subtly shook his head. As she’d suspected, Jerry had become chummy enough with Emma the secretary to have a sense of Carter’s availability for the rest of the day.
“I’ve had my whole crew here for three hours, Carter. Please, just have a seat so we can check you off the list of witnesses we need on camera. We don’t even need to bother with makeup or anything. They can do wonders with editing these days,” she said, adding a reassuring smile.
“It’s not about my appearance,” he snapped. “I just can’t deal with this today. As I said, we’ll need to reschedule.”
Laurie pressed again. “Maybe your cousin, Tom, could help cover for a short while,” she suggested.
“That wouldn’t be appropriate. He’s not one of the corporate officers!”
His face was now flushed with anger. It reminded Laurie of the rare temper tantrums Timmy used to have as a toddler.