Page 62 of The Note

She had no idea the situation between Nate and his former stepfather was that estranged. “Hi, Bill. I’m so sorry to be speaking under such awful circumstances.”

She had not seen Kelsey’s father since the wedding. Even though Kelsey had mentioned that the prostate surgery and subsequent radiation had taken their toll, she was taken aback by how frail he sounded. “Well, at least you’re there with her,” he said. “I had no idea Nate was involved in this trip. She told me it was with you and May.”

“It was. Nate came out last minute when May left early. I was the one to suggest it, in fact, because I haven’t seen him in years.” It was a lie, but she found herself wanting to protect Nate from his former stepfather’s iciness.

“They really put her under arrest? Like actual handcuffs in a police car arrest?”

“Yes. She’s her father’s daughter, so she handled it like a boss, but I could tell she was afraid.”

“Couldn’t you have stopped it? I mean, we could have posted any amount of bail they needed for her to come back tomorrow for court.”

Lauren pressed her lips together and counted to five in her head to gather her patience. “That wasn’t an option, Bill.”

“Don’t be naive, Lauren. Everything’s an option if you find the right people.”

She shifted away from what sounded to her like a suggestion that she should have bribed the police, telling him what she knew about the timing for the arraignment the next morning.

“I’ll start making calls,” he said. “I’ll get her the best lawyer in the city. She’s such a good girl, Lauren. She’s had terrible misfortune in her life. I know not to speak ill of the dead—but for Luke to leave her after everything she went through with the surgery … I saw her inner light dim even from the separation. Then for her to be blamed for the shooting? It was ridiculous. I don’t know how any one person can be expected to bear the pain she’s gone through.”

She knew that in William Ellis’s eyes, Kelsey would forever be a child who lost her mother at the age of seven and needed his constant protection. Kelsey had complained that her father could be overly involved in her life, but Lauren hadn’t realized until now the extent to which heinfantilized his daughter. Kelsey had never been helpless, not even as a child. As he continued to rant about how unfairly she had been treated—by fate, by the media, by internet “looky-loos”—and how he was going to use his money and influence to protect her, she recalled the screenshot May had sent her from the true crime message board.

The police think there is a connection. And guess what the connection is? Kelsey Ellis!!

But Kelsey wasn’t the only connection. Luke Freedman broke the heart of William Ellis’s beloved daughter. And David Smith was a player who had misled William Ellis’s poor, heartbroken, vulnerable daughter into believing they might have a future together.

And William Ellis had money. A lot of money. Enough money to make extraordinary things happen—as long as you, in his words, could “find the right people.”

She lied and told Kelsey’s father that a call was coming in that might be one of the New York lawyers. When she hung up, she asked Nate why Bill had been so cold toward him.

“Aah, the question I’ve explored for countless hours with many, many therapists. One theory is that, despite all the words to the contrary, he never really saw me as a son. I was an extension of my mother, not an actual person. And when he left her, he left me.”

Lauren pictured younger Nate, who alwaysseemed so sweet and a little awestruck around her. She couldn’t imagine how Bill Ellis could treat him so cruelly. It was amazing he had turned out as well as he had under the circumstances. “I’m sorry. That’s … awful.”

“To be honest, I’ve got another theory. Mr. Ellis’s wives may have come and gone, but his one and only is his most beloved, Kelsey.”

The idea of it made Lauren feel queasy. She knew it happened, of course. Back in Louisiana in her childhood, they thought it was only in certain types of families, but that kind of abuse wasn’t confined by class. “You don’t mean like he ever—”

“No,” he said, shaking his head quickly. “She would have told me. But he’ll never accept her as an adult who can make her own decisions. He wants Kelsey to be his little girl, running off to Daddy for help, for as long as he’s on this earth. It’s like he gets off on coming to her rescue.”

She saw it so clearly now. “So much so that he might hurt other men for hurting her?”

The words felt like a weight that she had removed from herself and dropped onto him. He took a deep breath.

“I actually asked Kelsey if that was possible after Luke was killed. She got so mad, she didn’t talk to me for a month. She managed to convince me it was a ludicrous theory cooked up by those true crime vultures online. I can’t believe I didn’tthink of him again after all this stuff with Dave came up.”

“And now?” she asked.

Nate stood up silently and put his hands in his pockets, staring out toward the bay.

“I’m sorry. I’m sure this is digging up a lot of feelings about your father, but this is for Kelsey. Is it possible—”

He turned to face her abruptly. “Look, there’s something I’ve never told anyone, not even Kelsey.” He sat back down on the sofa, his voice low. “When everything first went down with Luke and people were questioning if Kelsey and her dad were involved, my mother told me she had a feeling he had something to do with it.”

“What?”

He nodded, and when he spoke again, he sounded more confident. “This was after she started struggling to find words here and there, but her memory was still spot-on. She said Kelsey’s grandfather had been wrapped up with the Boston mafia, just like the rumors said, and that Bill had taken the business legit for the most part, but still had contacts with people she described as dangerous. He had … How did she put it?The moral code of a lizard.That’s why she didn’t even try to challenge the prenup. She told me she was afraid he’d find a way todeal with her,as she put it. When I clarified to make sure she was talkingabout murder, she said he’d do it in a heartbeat if he thought someone deserved it.”

Lauren could almost hear Jeanie’s voice uttering the words. “She didn’t think to tell the police any of this?”

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