Caught

Wendy had seen that couch before.

Alone-just the photograph-it would have meant nothing to her. But now she remembered Phil Turnball's last words, about how he was offering her a "gift," that she wouldn't have to blame herself for setting up an i

So how come she still wasn't totally buying it?

The early intuition, the one that said she'd somehow wronged Dan Mercer, the one that had been nibbling at her subconscious from the moment he first opened that red door and walked into the sting house-she had let it go dormant over the past few days.

But it had never gone away.

CHAPTER 37

THE MOVING TRUCK was parked in front of the Wheeler home.

There was a little ramp ru

Wendy let the credenza pass and then she headed up the ramp, leaned her head in the doorway, and said, "Anyone home?"

"Hey."

Je

"Did you find a buyer?" Wendy asked.

"Not yet." Je

"Fast."

"Yes."

"Noel must have started looking for that job right away."

Je

"Because of the stigma of defending a pedophile?"

"That's right." Je

"Have you ever been to Freddy's Deluxe Luxury Suites in Newark?"

"Freddy's what?"

"It's a no-tell motel in the middle of Newark. Have you been?"

"No, of course not."

"Fu

This was, Wendy knew, a semi-bluff. The front desk manager had recognized Je

"He was mistaken," Je

"I don't think so. More important, when I tell the police, the police won't think so."

The two women stood there, toe-to-toe, staring each other down.

"You see, that was what Phil Turnball missed," Wendy said. "You heard about his suicide, I assume?"

"Yes."

"He thought Dan killed Haley because, in his mind, there were no other suspects. Dan was in hiding at the motel. No one knew where he was, ergo nobody could have planted Haley's iPhone. He forgot about you, Je

Je

"How about this then?"

Wendy handed her the photograph of Kirby Se

"Has your daughter told you what Red Bulling is?"

Je

"Sure it does. Because now we know the truth, don't we? Once I give this information to the police, they'll go after the kids harder. They'll get the untouched photographs. I know Kirby was here. He and Haley had a big fight and broke up. When I got him alone, he told me that there'd been a drinking party here, in your house, the night Haley vanished. He said only four kids showed. The police will pressure them now. They'll talk."

Again this was not exactly true. Walker and Tremont had gotten Kirby alone in a room. They threatened everything under the sun to get him to talk. It wasn't until his lawyer got a waiver of confidentiality, not just no prosecution, that he told them about the party.

Je

"Do you know what amazed me? None of the kids came forward after Haley went missing. But again there were only a few kids here. Kirby said he asked your stepdaughter, Amanda, about it. Amanda told him that Haley had left here fine right after he did. What with Principal Zecher's zero-tolerance policy, no one wanted to admit to drinking if they didn't have to. Kirby was worried about being thrown off the baseball team. He said another girl was on the wait-list to Boston College and she'd never get in once Zecher told them. So they kept quiet about it, the way kids can do. And really, it was no big deal since Amanda told them Haley had been fine when she left the party. Why would they have doubted that?"

"I think you should leave now."

"I plan to. I also plan to head straight to the police. You know they'll be able to reconstruct that night now. They'll give the other kids at the party immunity. They'll find out you were at the motel, maybe go through the nearby surveillance tapes. They'll realize you planted the phone. The medical examiner will take another look at Haley's corpse. Your web of lies will fall apart with ease."

Wendy turned to leave.

"Wait." Je

"The truth."

"Are you wearing a wire?"

"A wire? You watch too much TV."

"Are you wearing a wire?" she asked again.

"No." Wendy spread her arms. "Do you want to-what's the correct terminology?-pat me down?"

The two moving men came back into the house. One said, "It okay if we clear out the teenager's bedroom next, Mrs. Wheeler?"

"Fine," Je

Je

"It was an accident," Je

Wendy felt her heart sink.

"Amanda isn't a popular kid. Sometimes that's okay. You find other interests or you make friends with other unpopular kids. You know how it is. But Amanda wasn't like that. She got picked on a lot. No one ever invited her to parties. It became worse for her after I defended Dan, but really, I'm not sure that was much of a factor. Amanda was the type who cared too much. She sat up in her room and cried all the time. Noel and I didn't know what to do."

She stopped.

"So you decided to throw a party," Wendy said.

"Yes. I won't go into all the details, but it seemed the smart move for all involved. Did you know that all that week, the seniors had been driving to the Bronx because they found someplace that served underage teens? Ask Charlie, he'll tell you."

"Leave my son out of this."

Je