Piece of My Heart

by Mary Higgins Clark

  According to a law enforcement source, the missing boy was adopted by the Buckleys as a newborn. When asked whether his disappearance might be connected to the adoption, the source stated that police had quickly eliminated that theory and were working on the assumption of an abduction by a stranger.

  “Do you know what that word means, Danny? Adopted?”

  Johnny nodded silently. Greta Connors from school was adopted and knew all about the town in Florida where she was born.

  “Okay, then,” the man said. “You got used to living with the Buckleys once before, and now it seems you’re getting used to living here. It’s all about fresh starts, right?”

  He struggled to find words, but only came up with “yes.”

  “Yes, what?”

  “Yes, I’m getting used to living here. Sir.”

  The man glared at him momentarily, but then his face softened. “Not to worry. We’ll get there eventually.”

  Johnny managed not to cry until he was alone in his room, locked inside once again.

  Thursday, July 23

  Day Nine

  Chapter 51

  The next morning, Leo poured himself a cup of coffee in Laurie’s kitchen as she scrambled to get out the door. She wanted plenty of time to get settled in at her office before Lindsay Hart arrived.

  “I understand if you need to run, but I was thinking more about Samantha Finney recognizing Toby Carver on TV.” According to Lou Finney’s daughter, Summer Carver’s half brother had been aggressively pursuing Clarissa DeSanto at a party shortly before Clarissa’s fatal car crash. “He just happens to hit on a witness from the night of Lou Finney’s murder while he’s in the middle of trying to help Finney’s killer get out of prison? That’s too much of a coincidence.”

  “A hundred percent. We’re going to track it down for our show on Darren Gunther, Dad, I promise. Right now, we just need to focus on Johnny, which means meeting with Michelle Carpenter’s neighbor. I’m hoping she can tell us more about Michelle’s mom.”

  “Understood. But just so you know, I was up all night again, so I circled back to Toby Carver’s E-ZPass records.”

  Toby’s toll charges had been their first indication that Summer had driven to Long Island on the day of Johnny’s disappearance. Laurie recalled that his toll usage was relatively sparse. She could tell from the gleam in her father’s eye that he had found something of interest.

  “I looked for eighties dance party fundraisers for New York City animal shelters and found the listing right away,” Leo said.

  “Look at you, turning into a cybersleuth,” Laurie teased. Her father tended to shut down in the face of technology beyond basic emails.

  “Credit your son. He’s a very patient teacher. Anyway, the event in question was the last Friday in March. Sure enough, Toby Carver’s E-ZPass shows a round-trip in and out of Manhattan that night, the first toll activity in weeks. But here’s the kicker: he then went in and out of Manhattan every single day after that, ending three nights later. Then no toll charges until Summer went looking for you on Long Island.”

  Laurie gasped when she saw the connection. “Clarissa’s car crash.” Samantha Finney had told Laurie that Clarissa died three nights after the eighties party.

  Leo pointed a finger in her direction. “Bingo!”

  If they were right, Toby Carver had been stalking Clarissa DeSanto, looking for his chance to kill her. It was dark out with heavy rain on an isolated road when Clarissa’s car crashed. Toby could have caused the crash by running her off the road.

  “What about the license plate readers?” Laurie said. All of the city’s bridges and tunnels were equipped with automated cameras that captured dozens of license plates per minute, adding them to a searchable database. “Can you check those?”

  “Already on it,” Leo confirmed. “An analyst is searching for both Clarissa’s plates and Toby’s. Hopefully we’ll find a connection.”

  “But what’s the motive for killing Clarissa?” Laurie asked. “She told you what she knew about that night eighteen years ago.”

  “I’ve got a theory I’m working on. I just need to nail a few things down to prove it. Got a bunch of documents I asked for yesterday to sift through.” She could tell that her father was on the hunt and would follow the trail wherever it led. “Now, I believe you have an important meeting at your office.”

  Laurie hadn’t even noticed that he had gathered together her cell phone, briefcase, and house keys while they were talking. “Amazing. Oh, and would you mind—”

  “Taking a video of Timmy when he’s batting today. I’ve got it.” Leo was going to drop Timmy off at Chelsea Piers for his half-day golf camp, then practice in the batting cages with him before heading home.

  She had no idea how she and her son would have gotten through the last seven years without her father.

  Chapter 52

  Lindsay Hart arrived exactly two minutes before her scheduled appointment. She wore an impeccably tailored white dress with sleek, nude pumps. Her vibrant red hair bounced in loose waves as she walked into Laurie’s office. She had the kind of look that made Laurie wonder if perhaps she herself should put in a bit more effort in the glamour department.

  “Lindsay Hart,” her guest announced with a confident handshake. “Thank you so much for meeting me, Ms. Moran.”

  Laurie insisted on first names as she escorted Lindsay to the sofa, and then positioned herself in the adjacent gray swivel chair.

  “Your office is beautiful. If I’d known that a career in media might lead to a sleek suite sitting above the Rock Center ice skating rink, I might have skipped law school altogether.”

  “So you’re a lawyer?” After everything she had heard about Michelle Carpenter from her mother, this was not what she had been expecting of Michelle’s friend and neighbor.

  “Oh, I’m sorry. I assumed you knew. I know your fiancé, Alex! Oh, and congratulations, by the way. Your engagement was quite the buzz on the legal gossip circuit when it was announced. We all thought he’d remain a bachelor for life. I was so sorry to hear about his nephew. That poor little boy. I hope they bring him home safely.”

  Laurie thanked her for her thoughts. She’d had no reason to mention Lindsay’s name when she told Alex about her meeting this morning. The sound of her fiancé’s name from this alluring lawyer’s lips immediately evoked memories of Alex’s former reputation as a man about town, spotted on Page Six and the society pages at various high-profile functions, in the company of similarly well-known women. She reminded herself, though, that she was the one he had fallen in love with. He had chased her, not the other way around.

  “How do you and Alex know each other?”

  “I’m a white-collar defense lawyer in Philadelphia, but my firm has an office here. We’ve had a couple of cases that overlapped.”

  “And you were Michelle Carpenter’s neighbor?” Laurie asked. “I apologize, but I got the impression from her mother that Michelle was living in… difficult circumstances.”

  Lindsay barely disguised a roll of her perfectly mascaraed eyes. “Of course you did. Michelle’s mother didn’t even know her own daughter anymore. She probably pictured a rat-infested tenement. Michelle wasn’t rich by any means, but she rented a very well-appointed garage apartment behind the house next to mine. The homeowners are an older couple, snowbirds who spend most of the year in Florida. Michelle and I became fast friends when she moved in. She was one of the best-hearted people I ever met, but she told me her mother was convinced she was a failure and a loser.”

  “And why was that?”

  She shrugged. “Because Michelle didn’t live up to the big dreams she had as a younger woman. Life threw her a curveball with an unplanned pregnancy, and she made the painful decision to place that baby with a loving family. She said it was the hardest thing she ever did, but also the act that made her most proud. But to her mother, it was like Michelle was marked by a scarlet A for the rest of time.”

  “But did Michelle e
ver suggest her mother could be violent… or erratic? Or if she ever indicated any resentment over her grandson’s adoption?” It was becoming clear that Sandra hadn’t been the most supportive mother, but Laurie was trying to figure out if the woman was capable of kidnapping Johnny.

  Lindsay shook her head. “As judgmental as her mother was, I got the impression the adoption was the one decision of Michelle’s that Sandra actually supported.”

  “My understanding is that Sandra believed that drugs killed Michelle long before she actually died.”

  Lindsay’s eyes sparked with anger. “That’s so unfair. Michelle had been clean for nearly two years. That was the whole reason she moved to Philly. She wanted to get away from old influences and bad habits. Sandra refused to believe she’d turned her life around. Too much disappointment after so many failed attempts in the past, I suppose. So, of course, when the police told her that Michelle died of an overdose, she immediately believed them. The case was open and shut without a second glance.”

  “But not for you. You think she was murdered.”

  “The night I found her, we were supposed to do takeout and TV at my house. We’d get together every couple of weeks to keep up with shows we both liked, but mostly to gab. I texted a couple of times when she was unusually late. I could see her car parked in the driveway, so I finally went over to see what was going on. I knocked at first, but then opened the door to check on her.”

  “It was unlocked?”

  Lindsay nodded. “That was her usual, though, at least at that hour. We live—lived, I suppose—in a very safe neighborhood. I knew immediately something was wrong. Her apartment was usually so tidy, but not that day. The place was a wreck.”

  “Like someone had ransacked it?”

  She shook her head. “No, more just… really messy. There was an open bottle of vodka on the nightstand with a glass tipped over. A bag of chips was left out on the coffee table. Dirty dishes scattered around. Little odds and ends she would normally have tucked away were sprawled all over the place. It just wasn’t like her at all. I found her in the bedroom. The needle was still next to her on the bed, a thick rubber band around her arm.”

  Laurie could tell that Lindsay was still haunted by the discovery. “When was the last time you had seen her?”

  “Only three days earlier. I had run next door to borrow some red pepper. And I’m telling you, she was clean and healthy, and her apartment was spick-and-span, just like normal. I told the police that I thought someone had staged the scene to make her seem like a drug addict or something, but they didn’t want to listen. It was easier to write her off as yet another junkie.”

  “According to Sandra, Michelle struggled for years after her pregnancy. Isn’t it possible she had another relapse and hid the warning signs from you?” Laurie knew that the chances of an overdose were often highest when addicts relapsed after a period of abstinence, because of a decrease in their tolerance for the drug.

  “I don’t buy it, not for a second. Michelle was on such a good track. She was actually starting to make a decent living selling her jewelry online. She was trying to sell her designs to one of the big department stores. One of my law partners helped her draw up business plans.”

  “Sandra made the jewelry sound like a pipe dream.”

  “Of course she did. Michelle had a real talent. She made this bracelet, in fact.” Lindsay held up her right wrist to display a cuff bracelet made of hammered metal. “She was totally committed to her new life. She practiced yoga almost every day, kept a healthy diet, the works. She was trying to make amends, going so far as to track down people from her past to apologize for any grief she caused them. At one point, she was even thinking about apologizing to that jerk who got her pregnant. I told her she didn’t owe him a single thing, but, like I said, she was hell-bent on atoning for every possible sin.”

  “Wait a second. Sandra said—”

  “Ugh. Enough with Sandra said!” Lindsay recomposed herself after a flash of impatience. “Sorry, she’s not exactly a reliable narrator when it comes to Michelle.”

  “Okay, but apparently Michelle told her that she didn’t even know the identity of the baby’s biological father. It was a one-night stand.”

  Lindsay scoffed. “Michelle? A one-night stand—with a stranger? Um… no. That would never happen.”

  “Then why would she tell her mother that?”

  “Because the guy turned out to be married with a kid of his own. When Michelle realized they weren’t going to be raising the baby together, she decided to go through with an adoption. To avoid any complications, she said she didn’t know who the father was.”

  “She couldn’t tell her own mother the truth?”

  Lindsay shrugged. “Michelle was worried that her mom would cause a major scene with the married man who sullied her daughter. All Michelle wanted was to do the right thing and move on. She managed to avoid the public drama she feared, but didn’t realize her mom would put all the blame on her instead. To be clear, Michelle had no idea the guy was married. They met at yoga, where he’d look for any opportunity to strike up a conversation with her. She was reluctant to date him at first. I think he was a little older? Maybe he was thirty, and she was twenty-two? When he finally convinced her to go out for one dinner, it became a whirlwind romance. She said he was smart and sophisticated and had a good sense of humor. Even all these years later, I could see her eyes light up when she recounted their time together. They were only together one summer, but they were already talking about getting married and having children once Michelle went back to school and graduated from college. The pregnancy was unplanned, but initially she was excited about it. Thrilled, in fact.”

  “Was he?”

  “She never even told him. She went to his office to surprise him with the good news, and there he was, walking out with a family of his own. He was wearing a wedding band she’d never seen before. She watched him strap their kid into her safety seat and kiss his wife before she took the wheel. When the wife left, Michelle did, too. She simply drove away.”

  “And then what?”

  “Nothing. She stopped all contact with him. Found a different yoga studio. She saw no reason to blow up another woman’s family, so she removed herself from the picture. It was simply over. So you can understand why I told Michelle she didn’t owe him an apology. She felt so much guilt for never telling him about the baby, but he was the one who lied about being married. I was probably a little too vocal with my opinion, because she changed the subject and never raised it again.”

  “Do you know whether she ever contacted the guy?”

  “I have no idea. Oh my goodness, do you think he might be the one who killed her? Why would he do that?”

  “Alex’s nephew, Johnny… the one who is missing? He’s Michelle’s baby.” Lindsay’s eyes widened as she realized the implications. “Did Michelle ever tell you the father’s name?”

  Her brow furrowed, Lindsay shook her head. “No, but the weird thing is that she actually recognized his wife when he was kissing her in the parking lot. She was in charge of the marketing campaign for the restaurant Michelle was managing in Rehoboth Beach and had become good friends with the owners. In hindsight, Michelle realized it should have been a red flag that her boyfriend never dropped in on her at work. Once she saw him with his wife, she understood why.”

  Laurie was deep in thought, wishing they had looked further into Michelle’s death when Johnny first disappeared. Sandra would surely remember the name of Michelle’s former employer. Hopefully, the restaurant owners could link them to their marketing consultant. From there, they could locate Johnny’s biological father, and hopefully find Johnny.

  “Oh wait!” Lindsay exclaimed. “She also told me that he was an architect.”

  Laurie thanked her for her time and walked her to the elevator.

  * * *

  As soon as Laurie was alone again in her office, she called Marcy and Andrew. Andrew answered and quickly brought in Marcy on
the speakerphone.

  “Do you have Sandra’s contact information?” Laurie asked.

  “She left us a phone number and email,” Andrew said.

  “Do you think she’s the one who took Johnny?” Marcy asked. “I assume the police can pull up her address. I’ll go there myself right now if I have to. Beg her—mother to mother.”

  Laurie laid out what she had learned from Lindsay Hart. Even over the phone, she could tell it was a lot for Marcy and Andrew to digest. From the very beginning, Michelle had known the identity of Johnny’s biological father but never told him about the child they had conceived. Now it looked like a belated change of heart may have led to both her murder and Johnny’s abduction.

  Marcy’s voice cracked on the other end of the line. “My god. That poor woman. It was already so heartbreaking to learn she’d fallen on hard times and a drug overdose, but murder? Because she told that man about Johnny’s birth? But bless that neighbor for getting at the truth. I think this is finally the breakthrough we’ve been praying for. I feel it in my bones.”

  “Me too,” Andrew said. “It all clicks. We’ll call Sandra right now, Laurie, and get the name of that restaurant.”

  Chapter 53

  Nearly three thousand miles from the nation’s capital, in Portland, Oregon, a woman who now went by the name of Alicia Nelson wiggled into a pair of body-hugging Spanx as she called out to her nine-year-old daughter in the next room. “Bella, I hope you’re brushing your teeth and getting dressed. I can’t be late for this presentation today.”

  She managed to tug the zipper at the back of her dress to the very top on her own, and then inspected herself in the mirror. Ah, the magic of shapewear. She considered this peacock-colored sheath dress her lucky charm when it came to landing new clients. Two weeks ago, she could have slipped it on effortlessly, but that getaway to San Francisco with Ben the previous weekend had been a nonstop culinary adventure. A few pounds were a small price to pay for the first trip she had taken with a man since her divorce from Daniel.