Chapter 31

On the television screen in the living room of Laurie’s Upper East Side apartment, the chief of the LAPD was dressing down a city politician for using a homicide case as campaign fodder. Laurie glanced over at her father, sitting in his favorite lounge chair next to the sofa. These were usually the types of scenes in a police procedural that could send him on a rant about the lack of realism. Instead, she saw him nodding along.

On her other side, Timmy was similarly enrapt from his spot on the couch. The three of them were catching up on the newest season of Bosch. Timmy had had a nightmare last night, as he had every night since Johnny was missing. She was trying to find ways to take his mind from his worries. A detective show might not be the typical ten-year-old’s comfort fare, but Timmy was not a typical child. This was his favorite program, and they only watched it together as a family. She hoped that watching justice in a fictional setting might somehow comfort him at a subconscious level.

Leo had dark circles under his eyes, and she knew she had a matching set. They both knew the gruesome statistics. More than 90 percent of abducted children survived and were eventually found, but with each passing day, the odds worsened. More than a third were recovered in the first twenty-four hours, another third within the next forty-eight. Those who were missing for more than a week were more likely to be dead than alive. It had been five days of volunteer searches, chasing down reported sightings of fair-haired boys, and the Coast Guard’s search of the ocean with boats and helicopters, and Johnny was still missing.

Perhaps the roughest moment since Johnny’s disappearance had come this morning, when Marcy and Andrew made the painful decision to return to Washington, D.C., with Johnny’s sisters. The mysterious vanishing of their son had become the hottest chatter on the east end of Long Island. Over margaritas and rosé wine, vacationers would speculate that the boy had drowned, or been killed by a predator, or been taken hostage because of some imagined wrongdoing of his parents. He had become a topic of conversation rather than a real person.

And every time Marcy and Andrew left their hotel room, they had to protect their daughters from the relentless gossip and the glare of the public eye. Finally, a family friend who was a therapist pleaded with them to go home and stay in touch with law enforcement from there. Laurie couldn’t imagine how gut-wrenching it must have been to drive away without Johnny.

So, for now, for just a little while, their favorite television show was a way to escape. The scene on the screen hit its climax just as her cell phone buzzed on the coffee table in front of her. The area code was 518, Upstate New York. She hit the pause button.

“Mo-oooom.” Timmy was not happy about the interruption.

“I’m sorry,” she called out as she ran to the kitchen. “I have to get this.”

She wasn’t surprised when Leo trailed behind her, listening to her side of the conversation expectantly.

“Absolutely, Warden… I understand.… We will definitely abide by all of those conditions. Thank you again for accommodating us. I know these are unusual circumstances.”

Arranging for media access to a prisoner was always tricky, but what Laurie had sought for Darren Gunther was probably unprecedented. This was going to be an in-custody interview of a convicted murderer, in the presence of his lawyer, conducted by a television show produced by the daughter of the detective in charge of the original investigation. She had needed the consent of not only Gunther and his lawyer, Tracy Mahoney, but also the NYPD, the District Attorney’s Office, and the Department of Corrections. Now that the prison warden was signing off, she finally had all of the pieces in place.

So far, only the NYPD commissioner and Detective Langland knew they suspected Gunther’s involvement in Johnny’s abduction. They didn’t want to run the risk of anyone tipping off Tracy Mahoney to their suspicions and depriving them of the element of surprise.

She flashed a thumbs-up to Leo as she hung up. “The warden is on board. We can do it tomorrow. We’re scheduled for two o’clock.” Gunther was serving his sentence at the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora. It was a five-hour drive from the city. “It’s rushed, but I’ve got the whole team ready. As I suspected, the warden’s only letting us bring one camera, so it will be a pretty basic setup.”

She and the entire team had been at the office all weekend.

“It’ll be fine,” Leo assured her. “I know you’re the one calling the shots—but Ryan knows the case cold now, as well as I do, in fact.”

They had been walking a fine line to keep her production’s decision-making separate from her father’s role in law enforcement. Laurie knew from past experience that if her show did manage to obtain any incriminating evidence against Gunther, his lawyer would argue that the show had been acting as a “stalking horse” for the police. That said, she and Ryan had already conducted a thorough informational interview with Leo as the investigating detective. Laurie made certain they could show a pattern of following the same procedures in other cases they had featured. In short, it was permissible for them to communicate with Leo as a witness to the story they were covering, but they could not let him dictate the course of their investigation or reporting.

She glanced at her watch. It was already 6:45. “Shoot. I better change before Alex picks me up.” She was wearing the jeans and Coldplay concert T-shirt she’d donned only a couple of hours ago to watch TV. “Maybe I should cancel—”

“Don’t you dare,” Leo scolded. “At the very least, you two deserve to have a little time alone tonight. I’ll stay here with Timmy as planned and then come back whenever you need me tomorrow so you can take off bright and early in the morning.”

Alex had called earlier, announcing that he had a surprise and would be picking her up at seven o’clock “for a date.”

“Okay, but you have to promise that you’re going to make time to see Maureen soon.” Her father had met Chief Judge Maureen Russell at Alex’s induction three months earlier. He had been tight-lipped about their ongoing interactions, but she could tell from the way he smiled as he read his texts on occasion that he enjoyed her company. “I’m not the only one with a love life.”

“And I have no plans to discuss any of that with my daughter. Now, really, there’s nothing more you can do before you get in the room with Gunther—for either your show or for Johnny. Get out of here.”

Knowing her father was right, Laurie made her way to her bedroom closet and selected a black cap-sleeved A-line dress for the evening. She’d dress it up with strappy sandals and a statement necklace. She tried not to look at the white garment bag consuming a good percentage of her hanging space as she closed the closet doors.

In it was her wedding gown. In another world—one where Johnny had stayed safely on the beach with the rest of the family—today was the day she was supposed to have worn it. As she tinkered with the clasp of her necklace in the mirror, she realized that the cap sleeves, V-neckline, and princess waist of her outfit all matched the unworn dress left hanging in the closet and wondered if that was why she had opted for it. Her necklace in place, she took one last look in the mirror and wiped away a tear.

---

When she stepped outside, Ramon was waiting and opened the back door of Alex’s black Mercedes. Alex was seated inside, wearing a tuxedo.

“You look amazing,” he said.

“Seriously? I changed out of a T-shirt, but I had no idea this was black tie. I have such an early morning, Alex.”

He grabbed her hand and clasped it. “For a few minutes, let’s pretend the world is normal.”

Normal. It had only been five days, but she couldn’t remember what normal felt like. The unimaginable had happened, and now, day after day, they were left to wonder how to go on.

Ramon took a left turn on 86th Street, then continued past Third Avenue and took a right turn on Second, heading south again.

“Ramon, I hate to be that typical New Yorker to question the route, but where are we heading?”

Alex gave her knee a gentle squeeze. “Surely you must realize where we are.”

It became obvious to her as Ramon took the next turn on 85th Street. They were right around the corner from their new apartment. Ramon pulled in front of the building and stopped.

Seeing her confused expression, Alex said, “We just need to approve a couple of final touches with the designer. It will only take a second, then we’ll have our date.”

She recognized the doorman on duty as Luis. She already knew that he was from Puerto Rico and had a daughter who was Timmy’s age. He gave them a friendly wave as they made their way to the elevator. “You’re certainly upping the wardrobe game around here. When are you officially moving in?”

“Ask the contractors,” Alex said. Most of the new furniture they had ordered for the apartment had already been delivered, but the bathrooms and kitchen still needed some finishing work.

“Maybe we’ll see you next year then,” Luis said dryly.

Laurie felt a tiny ripple in her stomach as Alex slipped a key into the front lock. For so many years, it had been just her and Timmy. Now they were adding Alex to their family, and their move to this apartment was a big part of that. They were so close to the finish line.

When the door opened, she was struck by the smell of something fresh and natural, a mix of sweet fruit and musk. Alex hit a light switch in the front hall. The entire apartment was filled with flowers. Roses, lilies, orchids, tulips, daffodils. White, yellow, red, pink, purple.

She spun in a circle in the living room, taking in the sight of what had to be at least fifteen flower arrangements. “Are we running a floral shop on the side now?”

Alex’s shoulders shook with his chuckle. “Remember how we split up all the phone calls we needed to make?”

“How could I forget?” The choice to call off the wedding had been obvious, but every phone call had been a reminder of how excited they had been to start a new life together and how dire Johnny’s situation was to require them to cancel the ceremony.

“So… I was the one who called the Four Seasons to cancel our suite.” After their wedding and a small reception, they had planned to spend the night in the penthouse suite. “But I sort of forgot that I had made a separate florist order to surprise you in the room. So… here they are, in our new home instead.”

“Alex, this is crazy. How many flowers are here?”

“One for every single day since I first met you.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck. “You’re a crazy person, but you’re my crazy person.”

“Have I told you how lucky I am to have you?” he asked.

She looked up at the ceiling, feigning a search for the answer. “Not for at least an hour. Seriously, I can’t believe you did all this.”

He tucked her hair behind one ear and dropped a kiss on the nape of her neck. “Will you, Laurie Moran, take me to be your completely charmed and enchanted husband?”

“I will. A hundred thousand percent.”