Page 57 of The Note

“He was also shot in his car—like David Smith.He owned a restaurant and was on his way to make a bank deposit—”

“I already know the basics.”

“The glove box in his car was found open. The assumption was that either the cash for the bank drop was in there or the killer left it open after searching for valuables.”

He remembered coming to that conclusion himself but could already tell that Hanover knew far more about the details of the murder of Kelsey Ellis’s husband than he did. He had been hoping May would take the bait he had planted earlier to convince her to cooperate, but he had been expecting her to spill what she knew about whatever relationship Kelsey had with David Smith. Instead they were talking about Lucas Freedman. The car. The glove box.

Why hadn’t he seen it earlier?Before he realized it, he was speaking his thoughts aloud. “It was a traffic stop.”

“Or at least he thought it was a traffic stop,” May said. “David Smith’s killer didn’t intentionally leave the driver’s license on David’s lap.”

“David had it out for the police officer he thought had pulled him over,” Carter said. He had already run Smith’s license and rental car tag. He’d had no law enforcement contacts at all except for reporting a car accident six years earlier and the San Francisco robbery his mother had mentioned. “From the shell casings, Smith’s killerused a nine-millimeter. Luke Freedman was shot with a thirty-eight. But the MO’s still the same.”

“There’s something else,” May said.

This woman was whip-smart. By the time she was finished, he felt like he could give a tutorial about the legal and ethical complications of in vitro fertilization and the handling of genetic materials.

Carter himself really didn’t understand the appeal of parenthood, but he did know from multiple failed relationships that for some people, it felt as vital to their existence as air or water.You only get one life,as one woman had told him after breaking things off because of his disinterest in having a child.I want to spend mine as a mother.

“So just to make sure I understand,” Carter said, “under the law, Luke could have forced Kelsey to destroy the embryos once they were divorced. But with him deceased, she gets to make the call on whether to implant them or not? His parents can’t stop her?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying. You should be able to subpoena the records from the fertility clinic they used. Whatever documents they signed will provide the exact terms of any legal agreement they had about the disposition of their embryos in the event of either divorce or death, but apparently the scenario I’ve laid out is pretty much the standard.”

He had no other follow-up questions, so heended the call as he usually did. “Is there anything else you can think of that might be helpful for me to know?”

“Marnie Mann,” she said. “The girl from the Wildwood Camp who dated David Smith in college.”

“What about her?”

“Kelsey really couldn’t stand her. Frankly, I couldn’t either. But I had been making an effort to get to know her better and stop bickering with her the way we did when we were all kids.”

He didn’t understand why they were now talking about the girl who drowned at camp fifteen years ago, but kept his confusion to himself.

“The night she drowned,” May continued, “Kelsey said she saw Marnie and me off whispering to each other. She said it looked almost like we were conspiring. And that seeing the two of us together like that, she felt jealous. Left out.”

“And you think she drowned her because of it?”

“We keep calling it a drowning, but it was due to a head injury. The coroner’s theory was that she dove into the lake from an elevated spot and hit her head and that’s why she drowned. But there are other ways of getting head injuries.”

“Like from another camp counselor who doesn’t want to share her best friend.”

“Trust me, Detective. I’m having a hard time believing that I’m even entertaining the possibility, but female friendships are no joke. Losing afriend can break you far worse than losing a man. And three dead bodies in one person’s path—it’s just weird. She’s either the unluckiest woman in the world, or—”

“They’re somehow linked, and your friend’s the common connection.”

“My former friend.” He couldn’t tell if the edge in her voice was anger or sadness. “That ship has sailed.”

34

May opened her eyes, aware of something cold and damp against her ear. It was Gomez sniffing at her. She gave him some neck scratches and then fumbled for her phone in the bed, searching for it in the blankets twisted around her legs.

It was almost ten in the morning. She didn’t realize she had fallen back asleep after waking up while it was still dark outside. She must have nodded off while she’d been toiling away on the Spelling Bee.

She had three new message alerts and felt a glimmer of hope when she saw Lauren’s name. The day and a half that had passed since Laurentold her to go back to the city had felt so quiet. Last night, she found herself rereading messages in the endless Canceled Crew group text thread. She had grown accustomed to days where they would exchange hundreds of messages. Now the most recent text was nearly two days old.

She had started to delete the entire thread, but stopped herself when her phone asked for final confirmation. Instead, she had sent a new text to Lauren.I understand if you never forgive me, but I do want you to know how deeply sorry I am. I never meant to hurt you. I thought you were being taken advantage of and was trying to help. I should have gone to you instead to see if you were okay.

She held her phone in front of her face to unlock the screen, skipping over new messages from Josh to read Lauren’s response.It’s a lot to get my head around and right now I’m focused on Kelsey. I hope you are well.

---