All Dressed in White (Under Suspicion #2)(3)

And then, two years ago, she had made a decision. She knew that she could no longer tolerate Walter’s extreme discomfort when she mentioned Amanda’s name. We had two ways of grieving, she thought, and there was too much grief for any house to hold under one roof.

She straightened the pin affixed to her lapel, Amanda’s STILL MISSING pin. She’d lost count of how many she’d had printed over the years. Oh, how Walter despised those pins in boxes all over their house. “I can’t stand looking at them,” he’d say. “I can’t have a single minute in my own home away from imagining what might have happened to Amanda.”

Had he really expected her to stop looking for their daughter? Impossible. Sandra remained devoted to her mission, and Walter went back to his regular life. No more partnership.

So now Walter was her “ex-husband,” as strange as the word still sounded to her. She had been in Seattle for nearly two years. She had moved there to be closer to Henry and his family. She now lived in a beautiful Dutch Colonial at the top of Queen Anne and her two grandchildren had their own bedrooms when they stayed overnight at Grandma’s house. Of course, Walter had remained in Raleigh. He’d said that he had to for the company’s sake, at least until he retired, which she knew he never would.

Sandra heard voices outside the office door, and quickly resumed her seat on the long, white leather sofa beneath the windows. Please, Laurie Moran, please be the one I’ve been praying for.





3





When Laurie walked into her office, the woman waiting for her immediately rose from the sofa to extend her hand.

“Ms. Moran, thank you so much for seeing me. My name is Sandra Pierce.” The handshake was firm, and was accompanied by direct eye contact, but Laurie could see that the woman was nervous. Her words sounded rehearsed, and her voice quivered when she spoke.

“Your assistant was very kind to let me wait here. I’m afraid I had a bit of a meltdown. I hope she’s not in trouble. She was very kind to me.”

Laurie placed one hand gently on the woman’s elbow. “Please, Grace already explained that you were quite upset. Is everything okay?”

In a quick scan of her office, Laurie was certain that the picture frame on her desk was at a slightly different angle. She wouldn’t have noticed the subtle movement of any other item, but that particular possession was especially important. For five years, her office had been devoid of any family photographs. She didn’t want her coworkers at the studio to be faced with a constant reminder that her husband had been murdered, and that the crime was still unsolved. But once the police had identified Greg’s killer, she had framed this picture—the last one she, Timmy, and Greg had taken as a family—and kept it on her desk.

The woman nodded, but still seemed as though she might break down at the slightest provocation. Laurie led her back to the sofa, where she might be able to calm down.

“I’m sorry, I’m not usually such a nervous person,” Sandra Pierce began. She folded her hands on her lap to keep them from shaking. “It’s just, I feel sometimes as though I’m running out of options. The local police, the state police, prosecutors, the FBI. I’ve lost track of the number of private investigators. I even hired a psychic. He told me Amanda would be reincarnated in South America in the near future. I never tried that again.”

The words were flowing so quickly that Laurie was having a hard time following, but she only needed to hear so much to know that Sandra Pierce was yet another person who thought that Under Suspicion could solve her problems. Now that the show was a hit, it seemed there was no limit to the number of people who were certain that a reality-based television show could fix every injustice. Every day, the show’s Facebook page was filled with intricate tales of woe, each of them claiming to be more tragic than the last—stolen cars, cheating husbands, nightmare landlords. There was no question that some of the people asking for help truly needed it, but few of them seemed to understand that Under Suspicion investigated unsolved major crimes, not minor offenses. Even when legitimate crime victims or their families contacted her, Laurie had been forced to turn cases down. She could only produce so many specials.


“Please, Mrs. Pierce, there’s no need to rush,” Laurie said, even though she was feeling the time before her meeting with Brett ticking away. She went to the door and asked Grace to bring them two coffees. She had been upset with Grace for allowing a random person into her office, but now she understood why she had. There was something about this woman that called for compassion.

When she turned to face Sandra Pierce again, she noticed that the woman was quite attractive. She had a long, narrow face and shoulder-length, ash-blonde hair. Her eyes were clear blue. Laurie might have guessed Sandra was not much older than her own thirty-six years if not for some telltale wrinkles on her neck.

“Grace said you’re from Seattle?” Laurie asked.

“Yes. I thought about writing or calling, but realized you hear from hundreds of people every day. I know it probably seems crazy to you to fly across the country uninvited and unannounced, but I had to do it this way. I had to make sure I didn’t waste the opportunity. I think you’re the one I’ve been waiting for—not you, I’m not a stalker or anything, but your show.”

Laurie was starting to regret the decision to hear this woman out. She needed time to finalize her presentation to Brett. What was it about Sandra Pierce that caused her to drop her guard and listen to her? She was on the verge of explaining she needed to prepare for a meeting when she noticed the button pinned to Sandra’s blazer.