Lauren tried unsuccessfully again to link her phone to Kelsey’s car stereo. She finally gave up and scanned terrestrial radio until she landed on a Fleetwood Mac song. Stevie’s dreams were unwinding and love was just a state of mind by the time she spotted the train pulling into the East Hampton station.
She scanned the cars lining both sides of the street, people poised to greet their arriving guests. No one looked remotely like her except for one woman who exited the train platform, giving Lauren a friendly nod as she passed in front of her idling car to cross the street. Lauren returned the gesture.
Her phone buzzed in the console’s cupholder. It was a text from Thomas. Can I call?
He always did that even though she told him it wasn’t necessary. She assumed it was his way of showing respect for the fact that she had her own life.
I’m picking up May from the train station and she’s due any time.
I thought she left.
Girl had FOMO and came back.
Ha ha. You called it. Will try again later. Just had something weird to tell you.
Can you text it?
Remember that woman Tinsley Smith?
The name felt vaguely familiar, but she couldn’t bring it into focus. She typed three question marks and hit enter.
Big donor to Wildwood. Owns newspapers around the NE. Lives in Rhode Island.
She felt a surge of panic. Rhode Island. May had looked up the area code on that missing-person flyer. It was Rhode Island. What had May said when she first saw the flyer? “Even his name is generic.” David Smith.
Oh yeah…
She stared at her phone, willing the blinking dots to turn into words. Please, please, please. Please let it be a coincidence. Don’t let it be him.
Her son is apparently missing…from the Hamptons.
What? For how long? She was about to hit enter and realized her mistake. May had already told the police they had seen the flyer, so that had to become part of the lie. She erased and started over. OMG, I saw a flyer about someone missing. I never would have made the connection. It was actually the truth. She hit enter, then immediately sent a new message: How’d you hear?
Tinsley called Jessica, who described her as quote apoplectic. I think she’s calling everyone she knows.
Lauren had grown used to how effortlessly Thomas mentioned Jessica in their conversations. Now that she was trying to remember Tinsley Smith, she recalled that she’d gotten involved as a camp supporter because she had been in the same sorority as Jessica at SMU.
As she composed a reply, she tried to pretend she didn’t know the things she knew. That’s scary. Hopefully he’s okay. Enter.
Keep your eyes peeled. How ironic would it be if you found him?
I’m sure Jessica would be thrilled for me to be the hero of the story. After she hit send, she realized it sounded cattier than she had intended.
She saw moving dots but no new message, and then spotted May heading in her direction from the far end of the platform. May’s here. Gotta run!
Have fun.
May reached out her arms for a hug, but Lauren grabbed her bag, tossed it in the open hatchback, and rushed May into the passenger seat. Thomas had said it would be “ironic” if Lauren found David Smith because it had been his mother, Tinsley, who called her sorority sister, Jessica Welliver, to warn her that Marnie Mann’s family was talking about suing Wildwood and the Wellivers.
“Did you just rob a bank or something?”
She was already pulling away from the curb onto Cooper Lane when she responded. “We have a problem. That missing guy? That’s the kid who was dating Marnie Mann when she died.”