Page 54 of The Note

Perhaps she had been blind to the warning signs, too wrapped up in the allure of a friendship that had felt so complete and unconditional. According to Josh, it was like the three of them had become obsessed with pleasing each other. He thought it was weird that neither Kelsey nor Lauren had a real relationship and always seemed to have time to text and do puzzles with her all day.

He said it was clear she needed to make a clean break. May couldn’t imagine how silent her days would feel without them, but that choice had likely already been made for her.

Josh’s other request was trickier. He wanted her to call back the detective on Long Island and tell him everything she knew about Kelsey andher connection to David Smith. It would mean admitting that she had initially misled both him and Danny, which could get her disbarred and fired. But Josh said it would be better for her to raise the issue first before the detective could eventually prove she was dishonest on his own. More importantly, there was a homicide investigation at stake.

She sought solace, as she so often had in the past few years, on the internet. She opened the Spelling Bee on her computer, searching for the final two words that had eluded the three of them that morning. By the time she found the wordganglia,she had already lost interest.

She typedLucas Freedman murder Bostoninto her browser’s search window. The first two hits were an article fromThe Boston Globeand a Wikipedia entry, followed by YouTube videos uploaded by different true crime vloggers. She scrolled down until she found what she was looking for—a page dedicated to Luke’s murder on KillerInsights, one of the more respectable true crime message boards. The pinned post at the top outlined the basics of the case, including the wedding photo from theGlobewhen Kelsey and Lucas still seemed like giddy newlyweds.

Kelsey’s blue eyes gazed right through the camera, while Luke wore the knowing smile of a man with a secret. The top comment read,Why does she look so sinister in her own weddingpicture? Like she’s about to unhinge her jaw and swallow the photographer whole.

But the couple’s facial expressions made perfect sense to May. She had noticed the critical detail the first time she saw the picture after searching for news of the wedding she declined to attend—the groom’s fingertips placed confidently on his bride’s side, right at the top of her rib cage. A light tickle. It was Kelsey’s “spot,” the move that had earned Matt Lenox a dry hump in the eighth grade. Kelsey was smiling because she was thrilled in all the best ways.

May couldn’t believe she was entertaining the idea that Kelsey may have been involved in the murders of two men.My former BFF the serial killer?But either Kelsey was the unluckiest woman in the world or it wasn’t a coincidence that first her husband and now a boyfriend had been shot to death in their cars.

What could bring Kelsey to the point of wanting to end the lives of two men she supposedly loved? Luke had wanted out of their marriage. David Smith had ended things against Kelsey’s wishes. Could it be as basic an explanation as rejection?

May remembered Kelsey boasting in college that she had never been dumped.I’m the dumper, not the dumpee.May could definitely not say the same. Rejection sucked. It wasn’t only the loss of the relationship. It was the sting of putting yourself out there, allowing yourself to be vulnerable,and the inability to force a person to want you back. But was that really enough to bring Kelsey to wish a man dead?

May couldn’t claim to be an expert on what Kelsey was like five years ago when Luke was killed, but she knew both younger Kelsey and present-day Kelsey pretty darn well. She knew the things that really mattered to her—earning the right and the skills to run her father’s business at some point, being a good friend and sister, and eventually having children of her own. It all boiled down to family.

And for her to have biological children, she would need to use the fertilized eggs she and Luke had created before her surgery. That’s why she had supposedly been crying to Nate on the phone that Friday night: David Smith wanted to father his own kids, which meant Kelsey wouldn’t be their biological mother.

It was as if a switch suddenly flipped in her brain. The chaos in her mind was replaced by clarity.

All Luke had wanted was to make a clean break from Kelsey’s overbearing family. Having children with Kelsey didn’t fit into that plan.

She opened Westlaw, clicked on a database of Massachusetts law, and entered “disposition of frozen embryos after a divorce.” It was a legal issue she had offered to research for Kelsey, but Kelsey assured her she had lawyers all over it. Within ten minutes, May had the answer: Kelsey would nothave had unilateral control over the embryos if the divorce had been finalized. Courts were reluctant to permit one party to force the other to become a biological parent against their will. Instead, both parties would have to consent to any future use of the embryos.

She searched next for the disposition of frozen embryos in the event of one parent’s death.Unlike the situation of a dissolution of marriage, if one member of the couple passes away, control usually goes to the surviving spouse.

She jumped at the sound of the office door sliding open. Josh popped his head in. “You okay in here?”

“Yeah, just figuring some things out.”

“Got to say, I’m getting a little worried. I’m used to you being on the same side as cops. This is so out of character for you.”

“I get it. Things are feeling a lot clearer already.”

He peeked at her screen, the Westlaw heading clearly visible. “Are you working on your article?”

“No, I’m actually reading about Kelsey’s husband’s murder.”

“Detective Hanover down the rabbit hole again?”

“Very.”

“In a good way, or in a we-might-need-to-step-away-from-the-internet way?”

“In a good way.”

“Let me know if you need anything?”

She handed him her empty wineglass. “Refill? A big one?”

Gomez followed him out, apparently satisfied that she no longer needed his emotional support services.

Halfway through her bucket of wine, she had completed a read of every last message-board post about the shooting of Lucas Freedman.

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