Chapter 27

Diana,Amy, and Kristy jump up from their chairs and hug each other when Maisy delivers the news about the pager surfacing in Quebec City. Maisy’s savoring the delicious feeling of giving these people hope, when Rich says in a flat voice, “It’s a scam.”

The mood in the conference room shifts and the celebration fades. The sisters return to their seats.

“What’s a scam, Rich?” Maisy asks, adding a little extra sugar to her voice to cancel out the utter rage she feels.

He looks around the table in disbelief before answering. “The whole thing’s a scam. None of you realize that? You really think Heather’s pager happened to turned up in Canada thirty years after she went missing? Really? This weirdo listened to the podcast and went out and got a pink pager.”

Amy shifts in her seat to give her husband a baffled look. “Why would anyone do that? And even if he wanted, where would he find a thirty-year-old pink pager with a rhinestone C sticker on it?”

“I don’t know. The internet? And as for why, that’s easy. People are evil. They do all sorts of demented things. Maybe he gets off on seeing people like you getting your hopes up and then dashed. Maybe he thinks he’s going to get some money out of us, string us along so you’ll pay him for more information. It’s very convenient that his wife has no memory of how she got the pager. I’ll bet a couple thousand dollars will bring back her memory.”

Amy is shaking—with rage, Maisy thinks. She needs to nip this in the bud before it blooms.

“Rich, obviously Jordana and I will vet the Tremblays’ story. But this is a lead, the first lead you’ve had in three decades. It’s worth celebrating. And I disagree that people are evil. People are complicated, but everyone is the hero of their own story. So it’s quite possible this man just wants to do the right thing.”

“Oh, come on,” Rich scoffs.

Maisy cocks her head. “You don’t think anyone ever has pure intentions?”

That slows him down but doesn’t shut him up. “Sometimes, sure. But why assume the best of this guy you don’t even know?”

“Why assume the worst?” Kristy counters in her soft voice.

Maisy points at her. “Exactly!” She turns to Rich, “You’re free to assume that Bastian Tremblay is a maniacal monster. I’m gonna assume he’s a well-intentioned man. And even then, he might be wrong. This might not be Heather’s pager. But it might be. And if it is, it’s another piece of information we can use. It brings us one step closer to finding out what happened to her.”

Kristy glances down at the picture in her hands one more time. “It’s hers. I’m sure of it.”

Tears shine in Amy’s eyes. “So what do we do now?”

“We go to Canada,” Diana interjects. Then she looks at Maisy. “I mean right?”

“I go to Canada,” Maisy corrects her. “While I don’t think Rich’s worldview is necessarily the right one, I don’t want to expose you to the Tremblays until I’ve sized them up myself. I’m going to fly to Quebec City tomorrow and meet with them. Jordana will stay here and continue on with the interviews.”

“She’s interviewing me?” Amy asks.

Jordana shakes her head. “No. I’m focusing on Andre Newport. We’re still not certain there’s a connection, but I’ll run it down.”

“Who?” Diana asks.

Maisy turns her head and gives Amy a long look. “You haven’t told your sisters?”

Amy lowers her head and bites down on her lip. Maisy realizes she’s never mentioned the guy that Heather was dancing with to anybody, including Kristy and Diana. Well, it’s long past time to let that wriggling kitty out of the bag.

“They need to hear it from you before they hear it on the air.”

Amy clears her throat. The sound seems unreasonably loud in the suddenly silent room. “Heather was flirting with a boy from another school that night. I didn’t think anything of it. But, I guess Maisy got a tip. And maybe it’s important, after all.”

She throws Maisy a pleading look as if to say please take it from here.

Maisy obliges. As she recounts the email about the fight and the boy, she watches their faces. Rich is staring out the window at the street traffic below, but then he’s already heard this story, or at least part of it. Amy’s returned her gaze to the table. Maisy notes that Diana and Kristy both cast sidelong glances, first at their sister, and then at Rich. Diana’s mouth is a thin, flat line of disapproval. Kristy’s expression is sad, but unsurprised.

“When I mentioned the tip to Amy, she remembered the boy. Of course, she didn’t know who he was. But since the tip specified that the fight was with Allderdice students, we started there.”

“There were kids from Allderdice there that night?” Diana asks.

“Yes, although that fact didn’t make it into the police report. We knew there were kids from other schools in the woods, but everyone interviewed claimed not know who they were or where they came from.”

“How is that possible?” Kristy wonders.

Maisy pauses to give Rich a look. He doesn’t speak up, so she continues, “Jordana is an Allderdice alum, so she reached out to some contacts and got her hands on a copy of the 1994 yearbook. She showed it to Amy, who identified the boy Heather was talking to as Andre Newport.”

Jordana pulls up some photographs of Andre on her laptop screen, and the sisters lean in for a closer look.

“Have you found him?” Diana asks. “Does he know anything about what happened that night?”

“No,” Maisy tells them. “Andre went missing that same weekend.”

This news lands with a punch. Diana gasps, and Kristy’s eyes go wide.

“That can’t be a coincidence,” Kristy says.

“It could be a coincidence,” Maisy pushes back, “but it would be a very strange one. While I’m in Canada, Jordana’s going to continue to run down information about Andre Newport’s disappearance. But now that you all know students from Allderdice were there, is there anything that didn’t seem important back then, that you want to tell me now?”

Kristy says, “I told you everything I know when you interviewed me.”

Amy shakes her head, still not looking up from the table.

“You should talk to Brett Schulman,” Diana says.

“Who?”

“He’s a friend of Rich’s.”

Rich’s eyes flick toward the table and then back to the window.

Diana continues, “Brett has a cousin about their age. She went to Allderdice. I knew her through friends of friends. I can’t remember her name or where she lives now, but Brett could put you in touch with her. She might know who the kids were in the woods that night.”

“That’s solid information, Diana. Thank you,” Jordana says. She’s already searching the database of contacts they have collected from the Ryans and names they’ve gathered from the witness statements, looking for Brett’s information.

“It doesn’t matter,” Rich says.

Maisy turns to him. “What doesn’t matter?”

“Talking to Stacey, Brett’s cousin. She’s not going to know anything. If she did, she’d have come forward thirty years ago.” He gives a fatalistic shrug.

Maisy’s had just about enough of Rich. “Maybe someone told them to keep quiet the same way someone told the kids from your school to keep their mouths shut.”

He gives her a thunderous look. She smiles back sweetly.

“I’m coming with you.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“To Canada. I’m coming. Someone from the family should be there.”

“Great,” Maisy chirps.

He looks at her in surprise. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. You’re right—someone from the family should be there, and it shouldn’t be one of Heather’s sisters. So, it’s either you or Kristy’s husband, and he didn’t come into the picture until almost fifteen years after Heather disappeared. So, looks like it’s you and me.”

What she doesn’t tell him is she welcomes the chance to get him alone for a full day.

“In the meantime,” Jordana pipes up, “I’ll talk to Brett Schulman and keep working the Andre Newport angle. Amy, you?—”

“I’m on it,” Amy says quickly, cutting her off and giving her head a subtle, almost imperceptible, nod.

She hasn’t told Rich she’s reached out to Michelle and Lynn. Maisy wonders just how many secrets this couple is keeping.

“Great,” Maisy chirps. “Looks like we all have our marching orders. Rich, I’ll forward you flight information when I have it.”

Jordana stays behind in the conference room to pack up their materials while Maisy walks the Ryan sisters and Rich to the elevators. She’s on her way back to the conference room when Naya Andrews pops out of her office.

“Got a minute?”

“For you? Always.” The transactional lawyer is also one of her closest friends.

“Heard about the big break in your case. Nice going, girl.”

“Thanks. I’m flying out in the morning to meet the couple who has the pager.”

“You think they’re legit?”

“I’m reserving judgment.”

“Good call. Listen, Sasha asked me to let you know the graduation party is taken care of.”

“Where is she?”

“She’s in court. But she got Ellie started on it.”

“Eleanor Prescott?” Maisy arches an eyebrow. She doesn’t know the firm’s newest associate well, but from what she does know, the woman would chafe at being pressed into service as a party planner.

“Ellie’s happy to do. She and Jordana hit it off when Ellie was transitioning in and Jordana was on her way out. I think Ellie knows she owes her for the crash course in handling Sasha.”

“Crash course? That oughta be a graduate-level seminar.”

They share a laugh at their mutual friend’s quirks. “No kidding. Anyway, Ellie worked out the details with Leo. The current plan is something simple for close friends and Jordana’s family at Sasha and Leo’s house. And then Ellie arranged an afterparty at some underground club in Lawrenceville for anyone who can stay up that late. So, count me out.”

“You said family. Both of Jordana’s parents are invited?”

“Mmm-hmm, Sasha handled that.”

“Handled it how?”

“She spoke to each of them individually, and then she called them into the office and talked to them together.”

“So she asked them to play nice?”

“No,” Naya scoffs. “She told them to play nice, and then she made them sign a contract to that effect.”

“They signed a contract not to fight?”

“I said what I said. You don’t have to worry about Jordana’s parents. You do need to worry about her Bubbie.”

“Excuse me?”

“Jordana’s grandmother’s coming up from Maryland for the dinner. She’s making noises about attending the afterparty, too. But apparently, she holds you responsible for the fact that Jordana decided not to go to law school and instead did the extra year to get her master’s degree and work for you.”

“I’m responsible?”

“That’s right.”

“Is Sasha going to talk to her, too?” Maisy says hopefully.

“You’re on your own with Bubbie.”

Maisy groans.

“Maybe you should hurry up and solve the Ryan disappearance. Make it seem like her granddaughter hasn’t thrown her life away.”

Maisy gives her the stink eye. “Thanks, I was thinking that I really need more pressure, so that’s helpful.”

Naya grins. “Any time. I’m here to serve.”