Page 61 of The Note

Lauren could see that Nate was assessing his choices, but there were none. As soon as he’d inched the Audi forward the necessary distance, Decker rapped his knuckles two times on the patrol car’s passenger window and stepped away.

Lauren tried to give Kelsey one more reassuring look as the car backed up, but her head was slumped forward, her shoulders trembling. She watched as the patrol car got smaller and smaller until it reached the curve at the end of the road near the bay. And then Kelsey was gone.

Part Four

The People V. Kelsey Ellis

36

The detective gestured for Lauren and Nate to follow him to the front porch. He handed Nate a set of documents he had tucked beneath the cushion of one of the Adirondack chairs.

“I guess I’ll give this to you since you’re family—copies of the search warrant and arrest warrant.” Nate began skimming the papers while the detective continued. “What’s going to happen now is a thorough search of the house. To be honest, that’s not going to be done until early tomorrow morning. You have somewhere to go until then?”

Nate’s attention remained on the documents.He was not about to accept some token effort at kindness. “We’ll figure it out.”

“You won’t find a hotel room out here. Not this time of year. You might have a better chance in maybe Riverhead or Islip.”

Lauren folded her arms. This asshole was pretending to be helpful now? “Like Nate said, we’ll figure it out.”

He explained that they could go inside the beach rental with police supervision to retrieve their personal belongings, and could return to the house once the search was completed tomorrow. “And if you could hand over the keys to Kelsey’s Audi, that’ll make the search a little faster.”

Nate’s jaw was clenched as he handed Decker the car key.

“My phone’s in the backyard,” Lauren said. “Can we make some calls from there while you’re wasting your time searching the house?”

“That’s no problem.”

The first call Lauren made was to Suzanne Kim. Kelsey had given Nate and Lauren the lawyer’s number after Decker’s initial visit to the house just in case they needed it. Suzanne had represented Kelsey’s family after Luke’s murder. A call to her firm reached a voicemail saying that the office was closed but providing an after-hours number in the event of an emergency.

That number picked up after two rings. “Call center.”

Lauren put her phone on speaker as she explained who she was and why she was trying to reach Suzanne Kim. The three minutes that passed before she got a return call felt like days, but she spent the time organizing her thoughts so she was able to lay out the facts for the lawyer succinctly.

“Are there statutory provisions listed there with the names of the charges?” Suzanne asked. Lauren recited them from the section of the arrest warrant Nate was pointing to. “Okay, I’m going to have to look those up since it’s New York law, but it’s probably for lying to the police about the fact that she knew David Smith before that incident with the parking spot. I’d be surprised if it’s more serious than a misdemeanor, but they’re obviously looking at her for more serious offenses, both there and in Boston.”

Lauren still could not believe that what she had thought was a practical joke had turned into murder investigations of two men in different states. “They said she’s being arraigned tomorrow. Can you get here for that?”

“No, that’s not how this works. I’m not licensed in New York and don’t know anything about those offenses. I can reach out to some referrals, but it will be hard to find someone on short notice for a new client on what’s likely a misdemeanor. Worst-case scenario, she could ask for more time to locate counsel since she obviously won’t qualify for a public defender.”

Next to her, Nate was holding up his hand like a child asking permission from the teacher. Lauren nodded for him to go ahead.

“Hey, this is Kelsey’s brother, Nate,” he said. “I looked up the statutes. They’re both Class A misdemeanors.”

“Okay, could be worse. Let me make some calls and get back to you.”

So Kelsey was too rich to get a public lawyer, but apparently not rich enough to make a top-notch lawyer scramble out to Long Island.

“We should probably call her father,” Lauren suggested. “Well, your father too. Sorry.”

“An understandable mistake,” Nate said as he pulled up the number on his phone. She could hear one ring after another, followed by a recorded message and a beep. “Hey. It’s Nate. Can you please call me as soon as you get this. It’s about Kelsey. She’s in trouble.”

“Do you have another number for him? His office maybe?”

He shook his head. “He’s glued to his cell phone. I guarantee you he saw my name and just didn’t pick up. That message will light a fire—”

The phone rang in his hand. “Told you,” he said, extending the screen to show a single name—dad—before answering. “Hi. I’m not sure exactly how to say this, but we’re in the Hamptons, and Kelsey’s been arrested.” She listened as Nate explained the series of events that had led to hercharges. “She was out here with her girlfriends … Yes, May and Lauren … I only came out because May went back to the city early and there was an extra room … Okay, none of that is relevant right now, Dad … Fine, Bill. I can’t believe that’s what you’re focusing on, but all right … Yes, we’re trying to find her a lawyer now. Suzanne’s calling people in New York … I know about Suzanne because I know Kelsey and she tells me things … Fine. I’m really just trying to help.”

His eyes looked flat as he extended the phone to Lauren. “He apparently prefers to talk to you.”

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