Page 67 of The Note

“I’m a dusty old law prof now. If this turns into a murder trial, she’s going to need a whole team. Just take the bird in hand, okay? You guys must be exhausted. Carter said you’re free to go now, so call an Uber and come to the city.”

“Carter? Is that the detective? He’s Carter now?”

May hadn’t even realized she’d used his first name. “Nate has his place, and you can stay with us.”

“Oof. Forty-six years old on a pool raft, and then we’ll have to turn around and come back tomorrow. No bueno.”

“It’s one of the good ones with the platform on the bottom. And trust me, you’re going to have to drive mid-island to a fleabag motel and you’ll spend an hour making calls to lock even that down. Just head here and we can use the car time tomorrow to strategize.”

Having convinced Lauren of her plan, she hopped onto Westlaw and searched for reported cases interpreting the two statutes under which Kelsey was charged. The search warrant covered Kelsey’s phone, and her calls with Smith would prove that she had lied to Carter—Decker,she thought, correcting her internal monologue. But it wasn’t obvious that the lie fell within the scope of the statutes charged.

Gomez rose from his spot on her feet andwalked to the office door, nudging at it with his flat face. “Josh, I think Gomez needs to go out,” she called, sliding open the door. “Josh?”

When she didn’t see him in the living room either, she checked the bedroom, bathroom, and terrace.

That’s when she saw the note on the kitchen island. “I didn’t realize we’d have a houseguest too. I’m going to my brother’s to get out of your way. Good luck with your hearing tomorrow.” His car key was next to the note.

Four rings to his phone. No answer.

“Josh, I’m sorry. I should have asked you about Lauren. It’s just one night. I want to make sure I know everything that happened at the house before court. Just come home, okay?”

Two minutes later, he sent her a text.Busy day at work tomorrow, and you guys will be up late talking. It’s fine. Good night. I love you.

OK, thanks. Love you too.

It all made perfect, logical sense. He gets his sleep. She and Lauren get the apartment to themselves. But she knew there was so much more he wasn’t saying. She was losing him.

38

May hadn’t worn heels—like, actual, real, non-wedge, non-platform, expected-to-stand-on-the-balls-of-your-toes high heels since March 13, 2020. Her toes were scrunched at the front of her shoes as she clomped, Lauren at her side, toward the criminal arraignments courtroom of the East Hampton Town justice center. She was counting down the steps before she’d get to sit down when she spotted a man, familiar but so much older than she remembered, as they turned the hallway corner.

“Finally.” William Ellis had lost his physically imposing frame, but still carried himself like aman in power, wearing a perfectly tailored suit and Ferragamo tie, hands on hips, waiting for someone to yell at. “What is happening? Nate hasn’t been returning my calls. I chased down your number from a friend,” he said, looking directly at Lauren, “and have left a million messages. And I left messages foryouat the law school. Suzanne Kim told me that she couldn’t reach you either. I got up at four in the morning to make it down here. Does my daughter have a fucking lawyer or not?”

May took a deep breath. She knew Kelsey’s father wouldn’t be happy about her handling this court hearing, which is why they’d decided not to tell him, but she didn’t predict that he’d drive down in person. Now that he was here, his presence seemed inevitable. His perfect baby girl’s freedom was at stake, and—if their theory was right—perhaps his, too. What else could be more important?

“Mr. Ellis—Bill—I understand your concern.” May placed a reassuring hand on one of his adamant elbows, and he at least dropped his hands to his sides. It was possibly the second time in her life that she had touched a murderer, the first being a defendant who made it a condition of his guilty plea that she look him in the eye and shake his hand. “I couldn’t call you because I was preparing for the hearing and also driving here, but I assure you, I’ve got this. Nate is here, too. He’s parking the car. But you causing a scene would bethe worst possible situation for your daughter, and the judge will be calling the case at any minute. I need you to calm down before we go into the courtroom, okay?”

Ellis’s eyes narrowed, but he followed her lead, taking a seat next to them in the third row, his displeasure still etched across his face. A young female lawyer probably a year out of law school was at the prosecution table, a stack of files in front of her. May recognized the more senior attorney next to her as Mike Nunzio, the Suffolk County DA’s Office go-to ADA for major trials.

A couple of years before she left the DA’s Office, May had coordinated trial strategy with Nunzio for a defendant who’d kidnapped his ex-wife in Manhattan and then taken her to his house in Babylon. Nunzio’s attendance at a misdemeanor arraignment in a town court only confirmed that this hearing was the beginning of what they expected to lead to a murder charge.

While William Ellis had been bombing May’s phone all morning, the man whose voice she wanted to hear still had her on mute. She’d called Josh twice, but he had responded with terse texts, saying he was tied up in meetings and wishing her luck with the hearing. She could accept that he was mad at her in the moment, but this felt bigger. Not anger, but disappointment. Worse yet—disillusionment.

His feelings mattered to her. Of course theydid. She cared. She loved him. But she was also angry. What was a marriage if she wasn’t allowed to make choices he might not agree with?

She turned her head at the sound of Nate’s approaching footsteps echoing in the nearly empty room. She and Lauren scooted down to make room for him, but Kelsey’s father remained planted in place. May noticed William Ellis’s lips purse when Nate took a seat in the row behind them.

After arraigning two other defendants on charges of domestic assault and reckless driving, the court clerk called the next case, his voice reverberating in the cavernous space. “People versus Kelsey Ellis.”

Only as May stepped toward the defense counsel table did she realize that the lone person sitting in the front row was Detective Carter Decker. They exchanged a glance before she took her seat. There was a time when May could have handled something as simple as an arraignment and detention hearing after downing two martinis. But it had been well over three years since she’d physically appeared in a courtroom, and almost a year and a half since her last virtual hearing. She kept mentally replaying the words she’d been rehearsing since last night. She couldn’t mess this up.

She felt the weight of the situation all over again as she saw Kelsey being walked in by the correctional officers. Kelsey—hilarious, irreverent, shining, beautiful Kelsey—was haggard and disheveled in yesterday’s clothes, a stark reminder ofthe night spent in custody. Her eyes searched the courtroom and a glint of her usual spark appeared as they landed on Lauren, her brother, and her father. When she saw May at counsel’s table, her lips parted with a gasp of gratitude. May fought back the urge to break into tears.

As soon as Kelsey’s handcuffs were removed, she turned to give May a hug, but May shook her head subtly. This wasn’t the time.

“Your Honor, May Hanover, appearing for Kelsey Ellis.”

“I’m not familiar with you, Ms. Hanover.” May had looked up the two East Hampton town justices and recognized this one as Dennis Knoll, described in his online bio as “a lifetime East Ender.” He’d had a brief stint as a prosecutor for Suffolk County, followed by fifteen years as a solo practitioner before being elected to the bench.

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