Page 42 of The Note

When Christine had mentioned the college girlfriend’s death, she said it took place at a camp. Now that Tinsley Smith was talking about a competitive music camp, something was tugging at the corner of Carter’s brain. He’d seen a referenceto a music camp recently, reminding him of his own childhood dreams of being able to afford sleepaway camp. The closest he ever got was the three-week half-day sports camp at the local Y.

“What was the name of the camp?” he asked.

“Wildwood.”

Ooh, baby, baby, it’s a wildwood.The same reaction he’d had when he first saw the camp name on May Hanover’s LinkedIn profile.

He assured Mrs. Smith he’d continue to keep her up-to-date on the investigation and offered to help her find a hotel if she was planning to stay in the area.

“I’m going to stay with a friend in Wainscott, but thank you so much, Detective. And I’m sorry if I’ve sounded pushy in my voicemail messages and at the front desk. Now that I’ve met you, I can see that you are working diligently. I’m just so scared.”

“I understand.”

He was surprised when she gave him a brief hug at the police station door.

Back at his desk, he scrolled through his text messages and found the photograph of the neatly handwritten note that the DA investigator in Manhattan had sent him. It had come from May Hanover. Her cell phone number, followed by numbers for two other names: Lauren Berry and Kelsey Ellis. He opened the browser on his laptop and searched for Lauren Berry first.

He was entering Kelsey Ellis’s name when Debra McFadden appeared, a bag of Skittles dangling from one hand. “A call just came in about a suspicious vehicle parked on Old Stone Highway. You better get out there.”

25

Lauren leaned forward to get a better look at May’s laptop screen. May was hunched over her keyboard at the dining table on the deck, with Kelsey tucked in the chair beside her. On the other side of the table, Nate was conducting his own searches on his phone. The house’s wireless speaker was still streaming, and a Jimmy Cliff song about a wonderful world with beautiful people made a ridiculous juxtaposition with the tension that had settled over the four of them.

They had all been trying to dig up as muchinformation as they could about David Smith—or “THAT David Smith,” as they now referred to him.

“I think I vaguely remember talking to him on Off-Campus Night,” May said. “I had been going out of my way to make peace with Marnie after you told me to stop feuding with her. And she told me about her boyfriend, and then he was there. It must have been him, but there’s no way I would have recognized him after all this time. I remember he let the name of his prep school drop, and I was jealous because I had been desperate to go there for high school but didn’t get a scholarship. It was Phillips Exeter!” She was already typing a new search into Google.

“Yep, here it is,” she announced. “He’s mentioned in an article inThe Exeter Bulletinabout his ten-year-reunion. Don’t all those prep-school kids kind of know each other?” May’s eyes searched Nate’s and Kelsey’s for answers. They had also attended private schools in the Northeast.

“Not a hundred percent,” Nate said, “but yeah, maybe. Like Boston kids from those circles will meet up at home during Christmas break. The New York kids do the same. That kind of thing.”

“Check and see if you have any mutual friends. Maybe we can find out more about David through them,” May suggested.

Nate was scrolling through his phone, butKelsey reminded May that she didn’t have any social media accounts.

“Not even a private one with a fake name?” May asked.

“Nope,” Kelsey said. “I’m now a blissful Luddite. No social media means no trolls.”

May’s phone rang on the table beside her laptop. “I better get this.”

“Wait, is it the police?” Lauren asked. As much as she had been opposed to calling the police voluntarily, she still wasn’t prepared to lie to them. There had to be a way for them to thread the needle.

“No, it’s Josh. I’ll be right back.”

Lauren noticed Kelsey watching May as she walked away. As soon as May pulled the screen door closed behind her, Kelsey said in a lowered voice, “Should we really be cyberstalking this guy and his friends? I thought the whole reason she came back was to get our stories straight in case the police called, but now we’re all getting pulled into the Scooby gang.”

Nate snickered. “I can’t wait until David Smith reappears after trying to embezzle half a billion dollars to the Cayman Islands—And I would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for those meddling kids.May!” he called out, a theatrical singsong flair in his voice. “Can you come back here? We need to talk to you!”

Kelsey shushed her brother, gently swatting athis arm, as Lauren took May’s chair. One of the open tabs on her laptop was for David Smith’s Instagram account. He had 412 followers. She clicked on the list. “See if you guys recognize any of these people,” she said, turning the screen toward Kelsey as Nate stood to look over her shoulder.

Lauren thought May looked stressed when she returned, but before she could ask if everything was all right, May was asking if they had found any mutual contacts yet. Kelsey had spotted three familiar names.

“So let’s DM them,” May said. “Or I can, since you don’t have an account.”

“I’m sorry,” Kelsey said, “but why are we even doing this?”

“To find out who David was here with.”

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