Page 32 of The Note

“Does she know that?”

“Um … knowing Dave? Maybe not explicitly.”

“His mom didn’t seem to know anything about her.”

“If your mom is Tinsley Smith, you don’t introduce her to a girlfriend unless you’re ready to get married.”

“Because?”

“She’s, I don’t know … clingy. Dave’s dad was already geriatric when he was born, and Tinsley really leans into the idea that it’s up to Dave to keep the legacy going, or whatever. She wants Dave to be locked down with kids already, but she also doesn’t really approve of anyone. Like no one would be good enough for Dave unless they were the equivalent of the royal family. She thinks the kind of girls Dave dates are twit gold diggers.”

“And are they?” Carter asked.

“Sometimes, but he doesn’t always see it if they hide it well enough.”

“How about Christine?”

“Definitely not a twit, but she’s definitely got a side to her that falls within Dave’s blind spot.”

“Such as?”

“Honestly? I get the impression she’s almost playing the part of someone you’d want to marry. A super-fun girl around the guys, super-doting toward Dave. Almost too good to be true. But she’s the kind of person who yells at the waiter when she thinks no one’s listening. Does that make sense?”

“Definitely paints a picture, yeah. You said it wasn’t exclusive. Was he still dating around? If he was using any dating apps, we could get into his accounts—”

“No, man. Apps are lame. Just say hey to a girl in her DMs. It’s, like, less formal that way.”

Carter had just been swiping—more left than right—that morning. “And these women he’d talk to online, were they friends? Acquaintances? Strangers?”

“A little of all of that, I guess. Like mutual follows, or people you met a long time ago and reconnect with. I don’t know how old you are, but probably how Facebook used to be.”

Carter was only forty-two, not much older than Dave Smith, but this guy was one step away from calling him a boomer.

“And you think Christine didn’t know about these contacts with other women?”

“I seriously doubt it. Here’s the thing: Dave was originally going on this Hamptons trip with another girl. I never met her, but I got the impression he was really into her. We’d be out for drinks and he’d be all distracted, texting with her constantly. He said it sucked that she lived like an hour or two away—maybe he said Hartford? So they couldn’t see each other that often. I think that’s what was keeping him from breaking things off entirely with Christine, but it seemed like he was thinking about it. He’d let things go cold with her for weeks, telling her he was slammed with projects or had work trips, when it was really because of this other woman. And then, like, three weeks ago, he tells me she turned out to be a total crackpot, and that was the end of that.”

“A crackpot how?”

“I don’t know. He said he didn’t want to talk about it, but I got the impression he was pretty hurt about the whole situation. Like he might have really loved her and was disappointed when it didn’t work out.”

“And you don’t know anything else about this woman?”

“Nope.”

“But you’re sure the woman here with him this weekend was Christine?” Once he got access to Smith’s Instagram, he would presumably find a connection to an account for someone named Christine who attended Colby.

“Yeah, at least as of Thursday night. I don’t have her number, but I sent out a text blast to a bunch of people hoping word gets to her. Hopefully one of them can call home base and Tinsley can stop calling everyone under the sun about Dave.”

“You don’t sound especially worried about your friend.”

“I mean, not really. Maybe because I don’t want to be worried?”

“You’re close?”

“Yeah, man. Real close. I’ve known him since sixth grade.” Simon’s voice had softened. Gone was thebro-vado. “I don’t even want to think that anything … yeah, no. He’s just out there partying, is my guess. Lost his phone or something. That’s got to be it.”

Carter had heard this kind of wishful thinking from witnesses before, trying to convince themselves that the worst case couldn’t possibly be the truth. “And what does partying involve for Dave?” he asked.

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