The Anniversary (19 page)

slowly.

9

It obviously wasn’t the first report, maybe not even the second.

10

It wasn’t until the end that the facts of the crime were recapped.

11

Diane had gone to the island for quiet, to finish work on a book.

12

It appeared that she’d been ambushed during her daily afternoon 13

run. As of yet, no suspects had been publicly identified. The 14

cause of death was blunt force trauma, and Diane had also been 15

strangled. When her body was discovered, a black nylon stocking 16

was twisted around her throat.

17

Callie’s eyes froze on the printed words.

18

A black nylon stocking.

19

In a haze, she lurched up from her chair and into Martha’s of-20

fice. She wasn’t feeling well, she said. Maybe a touch of the flu.

21

Martha’s expressions of concern seemed to come from far away.

22

At the same time, sensations in her own body seemed strangely 23

magnified. She could feel the blood flowing through her veins, 24

the skin clinging to bone. Every cell of her being seemed to vi-25

brate at lightning speed.

26

Callie walked the seven blocks home barely paying attention.

27

A Volkswagen bug screeched to a halt as she crossed against the 28

light. Through the windshield, she glimpsed the shaken driver, 29

her eyes two small moons. Vaguely, Callie realized that she could 30

have been hit, but this fact barely registered.
What am I going to
31

do?
she thought.
What am I going to do?
She couldn’t handle this 32

alone anymore, that much was clear. But where could she turn for 33

help? Whom could she talk to? It had to be someone who knew 34

her history. Someone she could trust.

S 35

Then, as Callie unlocked the front door, a face flashed from R 36

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the past. She ran quickly through her mental checklist. A match 2

on every score. Smart and incisive, knew the past, and one added 3

draw: For professional reasons she’d be bound to keep any secrets 4

she was told.

5

For the first time since she’d seen the paper, Callie’s mind 6

cleared a bit. Inside, she bounded up the stairs and went straight 7

to her room. She still had her old address books, stuffed in a jum-8

bled desk drawer. She dug out the black one with the vinyl cover 9

and flipped to the
W
’s.

10

“Ms. White is no longer employed with the firm.”

11

Callie’s heart sank. “Do you know where I could reach her?”

12

A pause. “I’ll transfer you.”

13

It took some time, but she finally got a forwarding phone num-14

ber. As soon as she hung up the phone, she picked up and dialed 15

again.

16

“Harwich and Young,” a voice said.

17

Callie’s heart was pounding. “I’m calling for Melanie White,”

18

she said.

19

A click and then a ringing.

20

“Melanie White’s office.” An impersonal female voice.

21

Callie clutched the phone. The moment seemed unreal. “I . . .

22

I need to . . . ,” she began. “May I speak with Melanie?”

23

Callie was sitting on the side of her bed, leaning slightly for-24

ward. She’d twisted one leg around the other, and they both felt 25

slightly numb.

26

“I’m sorry, but Ms. White is in a meeting now. Would you like 27

to leave a message?”

28

“Just . . . just that Callie Thayer called. It’s important that I 29

speak with her.”

30

Half an hour later, Callie tried again.

31

“Please,” she said. “This is urgent.”

32

“If I could tell Ms. White what this is about —”

33

Callie sensed an edge of annoyance.

34

“No,” she said. “I’m sorry. It’s . . . it’s personal.”

35 S

After she’d hung up again, Callie slumped back on her pillows.

36 R

She lay there for another twenty minutes, barely moving at all.

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She felt totally exhausted, as if she’d been up for days. She had an 1

urge to pull back the covers, to climb under them and sleep. But 2

another part of her was wide awake and knew what she had to do.

3

Still lying flat on her back, she picked up the phone. She didn’t 4

have to look at the number. She had it memorized.

5

“Ms. White’s office.” The same cool voice.

6

In an instant, the past flashed through Callie’s mind, the path 7

that had brought her here. It was like she was standing at the 8

edge of a cliff, poised, about to leap. She didn’t want to take that 9

step, but she didn’t have a choice. She took a deep breath, closed 10

her eyes.

11

“Please tell her this is Laura Seton.”

12

13

h

14

“Laura Seton?”

15

Melanie White looked up from the floor where, crouched amid 16

a sea of boxes and papers, she was spot-checking the production 17

work of a team of junior associates. Outside the sky was a brilliant 18

blue, but Melanie hardly noticed. The documents still had to be 19

photocopied and shipped out by midnight.

20

“It’s the same woman, I’m sure. The one who’s been calling all 21

morning.” Tina Dryer was small, just five foot one, and very, very 22

pregnant. Her pursed lips signaled disapproval of this waste of 23

Melanie’s time.

24

“I . . .” Melanie stared at Tina, caught totally off guard. The 25

facts of the Connor Pharmaceuticals case collided with the past, 26

thoughts of market share and dominance giving way to a sharp 27

nostalgia.

28

Far below, horns blared and tires screeched, but Melanie didn’t 29

hear them. She was back in Nashville in a rented Ford Escort, 30

driving out I-40 toward the prison. The Riverbend Maximum Se-31

curity Institution. Tennessee’s death row. A huge red sun was 32

beating down as she frantically talked on her cell phone.
How
33

much more time? Have you heard anything? Isn’t there one more, one
34

more, one more . . .

S 35

Then she was in a smoke-filled hotel room with Mark Kelly R 36

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and Fred Irving. It was in watching the senior partners’ haggard 2

faces that she’d realized it was over. They were still drinking cof-3

fee, smoking cigarettes, talking strategy. But in the hard, clear 4

eyes of the older lawyers she’d recognized the truth.

5

“I tried to get her to tell me what’s so important, but . . .” Tina 6

made a helpless motion with her hands, then dropped them to 7

her tight round belly.

8

“Laura Seton,” Melanie said, lingering on the words. As if by 9

simply repeating the name, she could find an explanation.

10

Decisively, she got to her feet. “Okay, Tina, I’ll take it.”

11

A slight lift of plucked eyebrows, but Tina didn’t say anything.

12

She simply turned and left the room, closing the door behind her.

13

Melanie picked up on the phone’s first ring. “Melanie White,”

14

she said, sitting down behind her desk.

15

“Melanie? It’s . . . it’s Laura Seton. I know it’s been a long time.”

16

The voice caught Melanie by surprise. Husky and stronger 17

than expected. Not at all the voice that she recalled. Or imag-18

ined that she recalled. Not a voice that she’d ever have con-19

nected with the Laura Seton she’d known.

20

In her mind’s eye, Laura was a hazy image, fading out at the 21

edges. And it wasn’t just the passage of time; it had been that way 22

even then. Laura had always given the impression of being 23

slightly out of focus. As if she were being observed through a 24

camera in need of adjustment. Perhaps it was the waves of fawn-25

colored hair that tumbled over her face, the vague ineffectual 26

gesture she’d make to push it back. Even now Melanie remem-27

bered how the gesture had come to annoy her. She’d had to sup-28

press an impulse to grab hold of Laura’s hand.

29

“You remember me?” the Laura, not-Laura, voice said. The 30

words framed a question but it sounded more like a statement.

31

An awareness that the passage of time could never erase what 32

they’d shared.

33

“Yes,” said Melanie. “Of course.”

34

Another wave of memories flooded over her. The heady ex-35 S

citement of her early days as a lawyer at Watkins & Graham. She’d 36 R

just moved to Washington, D.C., after taking the bar exam. She 1 0 6

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had a tiny apartment in Dupont Circle, just two Metro stops from 1

the firm. The day she was called to Mark Kelly’s office began like 2

any other. She was working on a lengthy memorandum dealing 3

with choice of law. Kelly, harried and intense, eyed her apprais-4

ingly. “I’ve got a pro bono assignment for you. We’ll be handling 5

the appeal in Steven Gage’s case.”

6

At the time it had seemed like an incredible coup, but of 7

course, she’d been naive. Only years later did she understand 8

the reason she’d been picked. Like Dahlia, she’d been raised in 9

Nashville. Their families were even neighbors. It was almost as if 10

Dahlia herself had been fighting for his life. None of this mat-11

tered legally; it was a question of atmospherics. But faced with an 12

uphill battle on appeal, they’d decided it couldn’t hurt.

13

In the end, though, none of it had made a difference. They’d 14

killed him anyway. And there she’d been, a fifth-year associate, 15

all but useless to the law firm. An expensive item on a balance 16

sheet, hard to justify. She’d made countless courtroom appear-17

ances, many more than other lawyers her year. But death penalty 18

expertise was not a transferable skill, would be of scant use in the 19

commercial cases that she’d now be expected to manage.

20

In retrospect, she could see that she’d been partly to blame.

21

She at least could have made an effort to stay on a dual track, to 22

take some lucrative corporate cases along with her pro bono 23

work. But at the time, the bread-and-butter cases had seemed so 24

trivial, hardly weighing in the balance against her fight to save a 25

man’s life. That this man had perhaps killed a hundred-plus 26

women was something she didn’t dwell on. She’d tried to push 27

those thoughts aside, to focus on the principle. The death 28

penalty was barbaric. Regardless of what he’d done.

29

Still. More than a hundred women. The number weighed on 30

her. By most accounts, Steven Gage was the nation’s most prolific 31

serial killer. Ted Bundy, for all his notoriety, lagged far behind. He 32

was thought to have killed just thirty-some women before his 33

apprehension. Such statistics, of course, were debatable. No one 34

knew for sure. But whatever way you looked at it, Gage’s crimes S 35

were stunning.

R 36

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She reminded herself that Steven Gage was far from the world 2

record holder. There was British physician Harold Shipman, with 3

more than two hundred victims. And Pedro “Monster of the An-4

des” Lopez, linked to more than three hundred deaths. But the 5

specter of such atrocities hardly minimized Steven’s.
More than a
6

hundred women.
She’d struggled to comprehend it.

7

But all that was in the future. At the start, she’d just been 8

thrilled. One of the first things she’d done after getting the as-9

signment was to read Laura’s trial testimony. Laura, Steven’s 10

longtime girlfriend, had been a devastating witness. For months 11

she’d tracked his movements, copied phone and credit-card bills.

12

It was credit-card records that had linked Steven to the last place 13

Dahlia was seen. He’d been at Donovan’s on May 7, the day she 14

disappeared.

15

Melanie had pored over Laura’s words, preparing to interview 16

her. The goal was to find a discrepancy, something that didn’t add 17

up. She’d met with Laura a number of times, but they’d never 18

really connected. While they’d been the same age, twenty-five 19

when they met, they’d had little else in common.

20

Now, breaking out of her reverie, she realized that Laura was 21

waiting. “How are you?” she quickly asked.

22