All Dressed in White (13 page)

“So was it in fact Meghan’s idea?”

“Only if you call two college girls saying they wished their phones didn’t bounce off the treadmills at the gym an
idea
. The real work is the execution. We actually hired an engineer with NASA experience to find the exact right way to keep everything snug and safe but still accessible. If Meghan played any role at all, it was simply identifying the need for the product—something thousands of people had probably done by then.”

“So was Meghan still angry at Amanda by the time you were down in Florida?”

“She certainly wasn’t
acting
like it, but anyone can compose themselves for a few days. All I know is that Amanda only quieted Meghan down by telling her no one would ever believe her. She even went so far as to warn her that as a young lawyer, she could ruin her career by filing frivolous litigation.”

“Wow,” Laurie said. “I didn’t know your sister, but that sounds pretty cutthroat, especially toward her best friend. And just before the wedding.”

“As I said, by the time she disappeared, Amanda was no pushover. Sometimes I wonder how well I really knew her.”

26

L
aurie found herself whispering as though she were in a library. “Your office is never this quiet,” she said to Alex, who was seated next to her.

Alex shared office space with five other attorneys each of whom had his own administrative assistant and shared with them a pool of eight paralegals and six investigators. “And I would never leave someone waiting this long.”

Laurie looked over to the gum-chewing receptionist to make sure she hadn’t heard the comment. “Don’t forget that we’re here, hat in hand, begging for help he’s not obligated to provide. We don’t want to offend the man.”

The man in question was Mitchell Lands, Esq. Laurie was enjoying the absolute silence of the sole practitioner’s office, and she was savoring the excuse to read the trashy celebrity magazine she’d found on the coffee table.

Alex was not so patient. “If I were a paying client, I would have walked out ten minutes ago.”

“Be careful, Alex. Stress is bad for you. I might tell Ramon that you need some more yoga in your life.”

Ramon was Alex’s butler. Alex had made numerous attempts to find an alternative title: assistant, house manager, scheduler. But Ramon had finally won the battle. He was a butler. In addition to
running errands and preparing meals, Alex’s live-in helper also had come to care for Alex like a son. When he learned recently that Alex’s blood pressure was on the borderline of high, he had reduced the sodium and red meat in Alex’s diet. But when Ramon had tried to enroll Alex for weekly “stress-reduction” yoga sessions, Alex had put his foot down.

“Just in the knick of time,” Alex muttered, as they saw a door open.

•  •  •

“My girl said that you’re here about Amanda Pierce’s will.” Mitchell Lands was a short man with unruly gray hair and glasses that were much too large for his face. Laurie felt herself blinking in shock that anyone still referred to his assistant as “my girl.”

Alex jumped in before she could say anything to start an argument. She, after all, had been the one to warn him that they were here asking for a favor. “We already have considerable information from Amanda’s family,” Alex said, “but we can still use your help.”

They had a copy of both the will and the prenuptial agreement between Amanda and Jeff. According to Alex, the prenuptial agreement was one of the least generous among standard terms for such documents. According to Sandra, Walter Pierce insisted on it to ensure that Jeff could not possibly assert any claims to the family company.

But the will was another question. Amanda had left her modest personal belongings and checking and savings accounts to her one niece at the time—Henry’s daughter, Sandra—but bequeathed the entirety of her trust fund to Jeff.

“Did it strike you as unusual,” Laurie asked, “that she’d leave so much money to her fiancé before they were actually married?”

Lands smiled. “I want to help you. Amanda was a lovely woman. But I’ve got attorney-client privilege to worry about.”

“Of course,” Laurie said, realizing she probably should have left the questioning of another lawyer to Alex. “Not as to Amanda specifically, but is it unusual for an unmarried person to name a fiancé in the will?”

“Good job presenting the question,” Lands said. “No, at least not where the individual’s other family members have significant assets, and where the couple is about to be married and have no children yet. I think I can safely add that it’s especially common for fiancés to revise their wills as a way to make up for a prenuptial agreement that their family is insisting upon. Parents tend to care about prenups, but never imagine that their children will ever predecease them. If you know all the terms of Amanda’s will and prenup, I’m not sure how much more I can add.”

“What we really want to know,” Laurie said, “is whether Jeff knew about the terms of Amanda’s will prior to her disappearance.”

Obviously Jeff knew about the prenuptial agreement, Laurie thought, as he was a party to it and had signed off on it. But it was possible that he had no idea until after he returned from the Grand Victoria that Amanda had also written a will, naming him as the primary beneficiary. The inheritance wasn’t a motive for murder if he didn’t know about it.

Alex had been the one to notice that Amanda’s will was signed on the same date as the couple had signed the prenuptial agreement. Now Alex pointed out that fact to Lands.

“My guess is that they came here together to sign,” Alex said. “If you went over the terms of Amanda’s will in front of Mr. Hunter, then attorney-client privilege wouldn’t apply. Amanda was the client, not Jeff.”

“Very clever,” Lands said. “And, yes, that’s precisely what happened. Amanda was quite comfortable speaking about these matters in front of Jeff. Not that I’m an expert in such things, but they seemed very much in love. You don’t really think he killed her, do you?”

“We haven’t committed ourselves to any one theory,” Laurie said.
“But working with families on their legal matters, you must understand why we’d at least want to consider Jeff as a possible suspect, and why the terms of Amanda’s will might be relevant.”

Lands smiled knowingly. “Oh, I certainly do understand, but I also knew my client. I think you’re overlooking another possibility.”

He kept looking at them, waiting for them to follow his train of thought. He seemed amused at their befuddlement. “When Amanda first disappeared, many of the news outlets called her the Runaway Bride. Cold feet, etcetera. My guess is that your show will assume that five years with no word makes a voluntary disappearance less likely.”

Laurie nodded. “That’s a good assumption.”

The knowing smile returned. “Unless it’s not.” He added another hint. “Maybe the will is relevant in a way you haven’t considered.”

As she often did when it came to legal issues, Laurie found herself looking to Alex for guidance. But on this one, she had more knowledge than he did of the personalities involved. It wasn’t a legal puzzle. It was a puzzle about human motivations.

“Both Jeff and Sandra say that Amanda would have never just walked away without a trace. But if she wanted to start over again, and felt like she owed something to Jeff—”

Alex finished her thought. “Naming Jeff in her will and then disappearing was a way to eventually give some of her family’s wealth to him, despite her father’s insistence that he sign a prenup.”

Lands was nodding in agreement, pleased that he was being given the opportunity to share his thoughts. “I’ve said as much as I probably can about my own dealings with Amanda, but I can say that in general, sometimes when people have been very sick and could have died, they become keenly aware of their mortality. They want to make the most of every day. Maybe breaking your family’s hearts is worth it if you can spend the rest of your days living on the other side of the world, doing exactly what you want.”

27

T
hat night at seven-thirty, Alex was thrilled to hear the sound of keys in the front door. His brother, Andrew, had made it to New York with time to spare before dinner.

He was about to pull the door open when he felt it being pushed.

“Glad to have the better-looking Buckley on the premises,” Alex said with a laugh.

“Younger
and
better-looking!” Andrew said as he embraced his brother.

Ramon was hustling away his suitcase.

As much as Alex enjoyed his life, so busy with work, he felt most at home when Andrew was here. One of the reasons Alex had bought this large apartment on Beekman Place—six rooms, plus housekeeper’s quarters—was so his younger brother could always have his own room and there would be plenty of space when he brought his family up for a weekend. Andrew was a corporate lawyer in D.C. who came up to New York frequently on business.

There was a reason it felt natural for Alex to have his brother under the same roof with him. For a long time, it had been only the two of them. Their parents had died within two years of each other. At only twenty-one years of age, Alex became Andrew’s legal guardian. He sold their parents’ home in Oyster Bay, and the two of them moved to an apartment on the Upper East Side, where they
lived together until Andrew graduated from Columbia Law School. At commencement, Alex thought he probably cheered louder than any of the graduates’ parents.

Alex walked over to the bar to make cocktails while Ramon continued to prepare dinner in the kitchen. Measuring shots of gin into a martini shaker, Alex asked Andrew about Marcy and the kids. He and Marcy now had a six-year-old son and three-year-old twin daughters.

“I love coming back to the city,” Andrew said, “but, man, it’s getting harder and harder to leave them, even for a few days. Marcy tells me I’m lucky to have a break, but I miss them like crazy when I’m here.”

Alex smiled, wondering what that was like. He handed Andrew a martini, and the two of them clinked glasses.

“So what’s your story, Alex? I thought I might finally meet Laurie tonight. She couldn’t join us?”

Alex regretted mentioning the possibility when Andrew had phoned yesterday. “I invited her, but she’s lining up a new case. When she jumps in, it’s not just with both feet. She gets in all the way up to her ears. She didn’t want to ruin dinner by being distracted.”

Andrew was nodding. “Sure, I understand.”

It was obvious to Alex that his brother, in fact, did not understand. When Laurie said she didn’t want to meet Andrew until she could give him her full attention, Alex accepted the explanation at face value. Now he was seeing it as yet another wall standing between them. “Hopefully, next time.”

Alex found himself relieved when Ramon appeared with a small plate of hors d’oeuvres. He had not realized until that moment how much he wanted Andrew to meet Laurie. Andrew was the only real family member he had. Would there ever be a time when Laurie would become part of this family, too?

28

“A
re you sure you don’t want my help, Dad?” Laurie called out to the kitchen.