No, I know Puffy, Brynn says impatiently, I see her around town. But that guy shes talking to who ?
Then all at once, recognition dawns and with it, shock.
Whats wrong?
Thats Rachels stepbrother. Isaac.
Excuse me! Quincy touches the arm of the round-faced woman who just finished talking to a handsome younger man, and is now on the verge of climbing the steps onto the waiting bus.
Yes?
Detective Quincy Hiles, B.P.D. He flashes his badge. Can I talk to you for a minute, maam?
Did you say Detective?
He nods. Can I ask you some questions?
Looking startled, the woman bobs her wobbling double chins and allows him to pull her aside. The chattering girls, boarding the bus, fail to notice. Quincy keeps a peripheral eye on them as he asks the woman her name.
Its Sarah Trovato, but n.o.body calls me that.
What do they call you?
Puffy.
You mean these girls?
I mean everybody. But yes. My girls call me Puffy.
Your girls?
Im their housemother.
Those sweaters your girls are wearing Do all of the sorority sisters have them?
Yes. Why?
Are they always the same, every year? The same colors, the same style Always exactly the same. Why? she asks again, frowning.
Can anyone off the street buy one of these sweaters?
Not these. Theyre one of a kind.
He shifts his line of questioning. And you knew Matilda Harrington ?
Puffys dark eyes dim. Of course. She was one of my girls. I shouldnt say was, though Once they move into the Zeta house, theyre mine, even after they move out and move on. I dont have any biological children, so the girls are my children.
And youve been regularly in touch with Matilda all these years, since she graduated? Stonebridge College, wasnt it? Quincy asks, trying to remember the biographical specifics gleaned from the victims family and friends.
Stonebridge. Right. And not regularly in touch, no But its not as though she lives around the corner from the house.
Did she ever come back to visit?
Not so much lately, but she used to. Matilda was the chapter president. She was always loyal to ZDK, and that group of sisters that graduated with her were tighter than ever because of what they went through together that year What did they go through?
One of the girls vanished into thin air.
Quincy looks up, stunned. What happened to her?
We still dont know. She was never found. Poor Rachel. It was her birthday, toojust like it was Matildas. Its such a strange coincidence.
A strange coincidence?Quincy thinks.Are you freaking kidding me?
He opens his mouth, but before he can say anything, Puffy adds, That was her brother I was talking to just now.
Adrenaline surging, he asks sharply, You mean that young guy who just walked away?
Yes. He has to catch a flight back to New York.
Quincy looks around for the man, but hes already disappeared into the crowd. Do you know where I can get in touch with him?
Why?
So that I can speak to him.
About Rachel?
Quincy shrugs. Hes here today. Was he a friend of Matilda Harringtons?
No. But he knew her, and she was a friend of his sisters, so Thoughts whirling with new possibilities, Quincy asks the housemother details about the decade-old Missing Persons case. He jots down information about the disappearance as the bus driver waits impatiently, parked, the engine idling.
Puffy! one of the girls finally calls out the window. A bunch of us have to get back to campus for field hockey.
The housemother looks up at him. Im sorry. I have to go.
All right, Ms. Trovato He looks over her contact information, making sure its complete. Ill be in touch.
She hesitates. Mind if I ask why?
Im investigating the murder of one of your girls. He chooses his words deliberately. I know you and the other girls will want to do anything you can to help. Especially considering that this isnt the first time one of the Zeta sisters has had a run-in with tragedy On her birthday.
Wait, what are you doing? Fiona grabs Brynn by the arm and pulls her back.
Isaac walked away. Im going to catch him.
Why?
So we can talk to him.
About ? Fionas heart is pounding. She cant let Brynn do this. Everything is hanging in the balance.
James Bingham is hanging in the balance.
We have to tell him what we suspect about Rachel, Brynn says hurriedly.
What you suspect.
So do you.
Fiona doesnt argue. Nor does she budge.
Come on, Fee, maybe he knows something.
If he does, do you honestly think hes going to tell us? After all these years? You think hes going to welcome questions about his dead stepsister?
Dead stepsister who might be alive.
Stop saying that, Brynn! I swear to G.o.d I dont want to hear it anymore.
Because youre afraid its true. So am I. And so is Ca.s.sie.
The only thing Im afraid of is being dragged into a scandal or worse, and thats exactly what will happen if we drag all this out to the police. Itll wind up all over the papers, on television Not necessarily.
Are you kidding? Look at that. Fiona gestures at the horde of reporters and satellite news trucks surrounding the church. Tildys murder is huge news. Thats not going to die down anytime soon. Rachels disappearance was big news, too, ten years ago, and if the media can manage to link it to this So itll be in the papers. Well just have to deal with Are you ready to go to jail, Brynn? Fiona cuts in, wanting to grab her and shake her. Think about it. Are you prepared to leave your two kids and your husband to serve time in prison? Because unless you are, you need to stop talking about going to the police.
Brynn is silent for a moment.
Then she says, I just want to talk to Isaac, then. Before he leaves. Come on.
Youre on your own, Fiona snaps, and turns toward her BMW, parked against the curb a block away. Im going home.
Parked in full sun in the church parking lot, the car is unbearably stuffy when Ca.s.sie climbs into it. She rolls down the drivers side window and inhales fresh air, grateful that this mornings ordeal is over at last.
Now on to the next,she thinks grimly, and shifts intoREVERSE .
She spots Brynn striding purposefully toward the parking lot and her heart sinks. Brynn is going to try to stop her, try to talk her into going out to lunch again. Or into coming home with her.
But Brynn doesnt even seem to see Ca.s.sie; shes going in the opposite direction, probably toward her own car.
I guess Fiona didnt want to hang around for lunch, either.
At the exit to the street, she tries to remember which way she came in. She has no idea.
You could always go back and ask someone for directions.
Or, you could just take your chances.
Right or left?
Its a c.r.a.pshoot.
She goes left.
Isaac is halfway to his rental car in the far reaches of the church parking lot when, incredibly, he hears a voice calling his name.
A female voice.
But it isnt Rachels.
It never is.
He turns to see Brynn CostelloBrynn Saddler, nowhurrying toward him.
She was the sweet one, he remembers. At least, that was Rachels a.s.sessment. His stepsister filled him in on all of her friends whenever he visited her at Stonebridge.
Brynn, he recalls, is the one who had lost her mom the year before she started college, and craved the female companionship she found in the Zeta Delta Kappa house. Rachel found it ironic that she wasnt particularly close to Matilda Harrington, who was also motherless.
Shes the only one who could possiblyget what Brynn is going through, Rachel commented once. Too bad Tildy is about as nurturing as a rattlesnake.
Isaac saw for himself that Matilda Harrington had an edge, and he now suspects that it hadnt exactly been softened over the years.
Yes, the church was packed just now for her memorial service, but the only person who truly seemed distraught was her father. Jason Harringtons choking sobs echoed heartbreakingly over the crowded pews.
Isaac hated himself for thinkingat least you get closure .
The Lorents never even had a memorial service for Rachel. How could they? They didnt have a body. No, they were holding out hope that Rachel was still alive, that shed come home one day.
But whereis home?
Isaac likes to think she might come to his apartment off Gramercy Park. He moved in the summer before she disappeared; she loved the high ceilings and the hardwood floors.
He told her she could move in with him the following summer if she wanted.
She said shed think about it.
So hes kept it, for ten years, just in case. Just so sh.e.l.l know where to find him.
Where else would she go, if she came back?
Her mothers now-vacated former brownstone on West Eighty-Third Street, or her late fathers old co-op on Central Park South; perhaps even to Isaacs fathers floor-through in the East Village, or her sorority house in Cedar Crest There were a lot of places Rachel might consider home.
Or maybe she considered none of them home.
Maybe thats why she never came back.
Or maybe she really is dead.
Now, watching her old friend Brynn heading his way, knowing that shes married with two children and a real home, Isaac feels a flicker of resentment.