Page 54 of Find Me

“Because he was turning himself in. He said that something happened recently that made him realize he was still living in limbo, and he had forced others to do so as well.”

“What others?”

“I asked him the same thing. All he said was that he had to make it right. I kept pressing him to see if he was sure, and he finally said he was, and that he was going to hang up before he changed his mind. Then he was gone. Days went by with no news, so I thought maybe he came to his senses.”

The other line was beeping again, coupled now by a knock on the front door. “Linds, we really need to go if you’re going to make the court hearing. Is everything okay?”

On the phone, Emilia was asking if Lindsay needed to take the incoming call. Lindsay repeated how sorry she was for Emilia’s loss, but she knew the words sounded hollow. “Would it give you any comfort to know that you weren’t the only girl that Mullaney targeted?”

“I mean, I don’t want anyone else to have gone through what I did, but I guess I’d at least feel validated.”

“There’s a woman named Katy Barnes.” Lindsay told her about Katy’s deleted Facebook posts alluding to other children being abused at the Edgemoor Park camp. “She won’t talk to me, but she might open up to you. I’m pretty sure she got paid off with a nondisclosure clause, probably by LockeHome.”

“And whoever covered up for Hitch’s abuse might not have wanted my brother coming forward, given everything he knew. Especially if she was about to launch a Senate bid.”

Neither of them mentioned Melanie Locke’s name aloud, but they were clearly on the same page. The exposure of her husband’s crimes would overshadow her entire life’s work. “Do you think you could look into that?”

“I told you: I’m gonna be a lawyer. I got this.”

32

Wednesday, June 23, 10:15 a.m.

The East Hampton Town Justice Court, tucked behind City Hall, one turn before the bagel shop, looked more like a suburban post office than a courthouse. Lindsay jumped out of the car at the curb and rushed past two news teams with camera crews.

On the door to the main courtroom hung a piece of paper listing the docket for the morning. It was a single case:People v. Tara King, with a Judge Catherine Harper presiding. Lindsay could hear voices inside. She cracked the door open.

A man stood in the front row behind the courtroom bar, addressing the court. “That’s correct, Judge. I personally notified Ms. King’s lawyer last night as to the time and location of the hearing this morning.”

Lindsay recognized the lawyer at the prosecution table as Mike Nunzio. She had tried a felony assault case against him two years earlier, when he was still considered an up-and-comer. Now he was Suffolk County’s go-to ADA for major trials. She was about to let the door close when the man who had been speaking turned his head slightly. She recognized him as Carter Decker. Her eyes moved to the defense table.Sitting there alone was a woman in dark blue scrubs, her hair pulled into a knot. It was Hope.

“I’m here, Your Honor,” she said, rushing to the front of the courtroom. “Lindsay Kelly on behalf of the defendant, who’s known as Hope Miller. We do not stipulate that she has ever used the name Tara King.”

“We called this case fifteen minutes ago, Counselor. Your client, whatever name she is using, was in discernible distress at the lack of representation.”

Lindsay had never appeared before this judge, and she knew she was making a terrible first impression. “I was working to lock down the details of important evidence that I hope you’ll be open to hearing this morning, Your Honor. This entire situation has been a rush to judgment on the part of law enforcement.”

Judge Harper’s expression made it clear that she was unimpressed. Nunzio was on his feet before Lindsay could speak again. “That actually brings us back to the threshold issue we opened with, Your Honor, which you were reluctant to take up prior to Ms. Kelly’s belated arrival. As stated previously, the People move to disqualify Ms. Kelly as defense counsel in light of a conflict of interest that we believe could jeopardize any conviction we might obtain against Tara King, aka Hope Miller, were she to proceed with Ms. Kelly as her representation.”

“There’s no conflict of interest, Your Honor. This is a blatant attempt to interfere with my client’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel, which the police already violated yesterday by refusing to permit me access to my client while she was in their custody.”

“Despite the fact that Ms. Kelly knew that police were actively searching for the defendant as a material witness, police happened to locate the defendant in the very same room as Ms. Kelly when they were in the process of executing a search warrant.”

“My client sought me out for legal advice as soon as she learned that police were interested in contacting her. That does not create aconflict of interest. In fact, it evidences the existence of a meaningful attorney-client relationship, which the state is actively attempting to undermine.”

Nunzio shook his head and asked the judge for permission to approach the bench, which she granted. In one hand, he held a thin notebook with a dark-green cover. In the other, he held two sheets of paper, which he handed to Lindsay before stepping toward Judge Harper.

The photocopy of the journal entry confirmed Lindsay’s suspicions. She objected immediately. “Your Honor, this is outrageous. The police removed years of my client’s diaries from her home—private journal entries that have absolutely nothing to do with the crimes police were supposedly investigating. A search warrant is not blanket permission for a fishing expedition. The law requires that the evidentiary nature of property must be ‘readily apparent’ for it to be seizable.”

Nunzio was prepared for the argument. “Your Honor, the search warrant expressly authorized police to search for and seize any evidence, including documents and writings, that pertained to the defendant’s true identity or to any prior contact between her and Alex Lopez. Journals authored by the defendant would be an obvious place to look in light of the unusual circumstances of this case. It was only in the course of scanning those journals for evidence that we came upon this.”

Once Judge Harper opened the journal to a page that Nunzio had marked with a neon-yellow Post-it, her gaze lowered as she silently read the words Lindsay had confronted at the cottage herself only a day ago.She kissed me. Or maybe I kissed her. But she definitely kissed me back. Finally, after all these years, it happened. And it was good. Really, really good. Gentle at first...

The judge was suddenly looking directly at her. “Is this true, Counselor? You had a romantic encounter with this client within the last year?”

Lindsay’s face grew hot. In her periphery, she saw Carter Deckercover his eyes with one hand. Even he was disgusted with the prosecutor’s argument.

“This is completely improper, Your Honor. If Mr. Nunzio had concerns about my ability to provide representation in this case—or my client’s wishes with respect to her choice of counsel—he could have asked for a conference in chambers instead of dropping these salacious accusations in open court in front of the press. He’s doing this to demonize my client, deprive her of the right to counsel, and distract from the fact that he has absolutely no evidence upon which to charge Hope Miller of any crime whatsoever.”

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