‘Okay, fair enough, thanks.’ Noah turned on his heel, walked through the inmates, and strode to the staircase. He climbed to the second-tier stair in full view of the entire cellblock, heading to his cell. The inmates were beginning to look up, pausing their conversations and their card games.
Noah strode toward his cell, until his path was blocked by a big CO with a name tag that read KELLY. ‘Excuse me, Mr Kelly –’
‘Your cell isn’t ready yet.’
‘I know that, I want to see the bigwigs.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Whoever is the most important person in there, that’s who I want to see.’ Noah raised his voice, channeling the huffy doctor he used to be in his former life, the pediatric allergist who would be damned if he’d wait for a hotel room when he needed to prepare for his panel, which he was moderating.
‘You mean Deputy Superintendent DeMaria?’
‘Deputy Superintendent DeMaria is fine with me. I want to be transferred out of this prison.’
‘That’s not possible –’
‘It has to be possible,’ Noah said, raising his voice. ‘I’m in danger and I demand to be transferred immediately.’
‘Are you freaking kidding?’
‘If you don’t transfer me out and something happens to me, I’m going to make sure you’re held liable.’ Noah let his gaze fall pointedly to the name tag. ‘Mr Kelly, I’ll make sure you’re named as a defendant, individually and personally.’
‘Doc, hold on –’ CO Kelly put up his hands like a traffic cop.
‘I’m a target in this prison. And now that I said that, you’re on notice. You’re a witness to this statement. It’s on camera.’ Noah gestured at the security camera, mounted a few cells over. He could see over CO Kelly’s shoulder that two other COs were coming, with a frowning administrator in a gray suit and tie. ‘That video will be Exhibit A. Mr Kelly, you’re all going to be held liable if you don’t transfer me immediately.’
‘I’m Deputy Superintendent Bill DeMaria. What the hell’s going on here?’
‘I’m Noah Alderman, and I’m in danger as a result of the Jeremy Black murder. I was threatened at breakfast. I’m going to be attacked and I’m not about to sit on my thumbs. I’m requesting to be transferred out of the prison.’
Deputy Superintendent DeMaria scowled. ‘Not exactly, Dr Alderman.’
Chapter Seventy-six
Maggie, After
Maggie parked on Broom Lane, which turned out to be in a rural area. Snow covered the pastures like a white sheet, and there were no other houses except the Tenderlys’ dilapidated farmhouse. It was of grimy clapboard, and so small that it seemed engulfed by the snow drifting against its side wall and accumulating on its sagging porch roof. A TV flickered in the front window of the house, and there was no car parked in the driveway. If there was a walkway from the street to the front door, it hadn’t been shoveled.
‘Let’s go.’ Maggie turned to talk to Caleb, who’d plugged himself back into his video game, but Kathy stopped her, with a hand on her arm.
‘Maggie, wait. We need to talk before we go in. You ranted about PG all the way here.’
‘I can’t help it. She pretended to be my daughter. And worse, what did she do to Anna? Where’s Anna? I want to know. It drives me crazy, to think she could have done something to Anna.’
‘Well, she paid a price, didn’t she?’
‘That’s true. Sorry.’ Maggie dialed it back. ‘Why would she pretend to be Anna? It had to be because of the money, didn’t it?’
‘It seems like it would be a factor, doesn’t it? Let’s talk it over before we go off half-cocked.’
‘My mother used to say that.’
‘Mine did, too. That’s why we get along. Because we became them and now we are them and we are also each other.’
Maggie smiled. ‘Okay. So we agree the money had to be a factor. We learned PG played Powerball. She lived in a place like this. She had friends who went to a fancy private school. Maybe she wanted to be like them.’
‘And somehow she meets Anna, right?’
‘Yes, and Jamie, and maybe Connie, at Eddie’s. Or maybe Connie works at Eddie’s, too. And Anna is lonely, so maybe PG gets to know her while she waits on her and finds out that she’s a rich girl.’
‘And they both notice the similarity in their appearance.’
‘Then, as luck would have it, Florian dies in the plane crash.’ Maggie could visualize basically how it had happened. ‘Suddenly Anna stands to inherit millions of dollars, and like we said, PG must’ve been close enough to the real Anna to know she was thinking about reaching out to me.’
‘Yes, or Jamie could’ve been the one to tell PG. You know how girls talk.’
‘Like us.’
‘Right. And then Spring Break comes up, and there’s no therapist and no classes, so Anna’s not seen by anybody. She doesn’t officially exist for a week. Most of the Parkers are away, and it’s the perfect time for PG to strike.’
‘So what do you think PG did?’
‘I don’t know, but it scares the crap out of me.’ Maggie felt her gut twist. ‘Worst-case scenario, PG kidnaps or hurts Anna, then gets ahold of me, and like a fool, I come running, taking her in while my own daughter is God-knows-where.’
‘You weren’t a fool. Anna was planning to reconnect with you or it wouldn’t have worked so well.’
‘Do you think Anna’s alive?’ Maggie almost couldn’t bear to give it voice, but she had to. It was the only question in her heart. ‘She has to be alive, doesn’t she?’
‘Yes, I believe that.’
‘I don’t think PG killed her, do you? Not a seventeen-year-old girl.’ Maggie thought aloud, reassuring herself. ‘It doesn’t sound like PG. PG is a girl who brings her tip money home to her grandmother. Who bakes cakes for people. She’s a girl with dreams. She’s not a murderer.’
‘Right, and maybe she even got Anna’s approval. Anything could have happened.’ Kathy shrugged. ‘Maybe Anna wanted to take a break, figure things out after her father died. My Aunt Michelle traveled for six months after my uncle died. Partly it was an escape and partly it was clarifying.’
‘Really.’
‘Yep.’ Kathy shifted up in her seat. ‘Anna could’ve done that. She had the money. Maybe she and PG planned it together. She could have had it squirreled away. The lawyer and the therapist thought Anna was coming home with you. They wouldn’t have questioned anything. And PG was smart enough to tell the housemates that she was cleaning out Anna’s room on the lawyer’s instruction. It’s really the perfect escape. Like the prince and the pauper, they switch identities.’
‘But why?’ Maggie didn’t think it made sense.
‘Maybe Anna just wanted to live on her own for a while, to see who she was. To get away from Congreve, which she hated anyway.’
‘What about Jamie? What does this have to do with Jamie?’
Kathy shrugged. ‘Possibly, nothing. You heard the FBI. They said Jamie was a runaway. Everyone is telling us she’s a runaway.’
‘And what about Samantha, from Lower Merion?’
‘Same thing. Her mother said she runs away. These are troubled kids. Borderline, lonely, vulnerable. It’s sad. I feel for them.’ Kathy sighed heavily. ‘We live in a complex time, and kids keep secrets. Boys, too. I’m close to mine, but I know they keep things from me. I know they sneak a drink. Probably experiment with pot, or worse. I want to be all over it but you can’t get in their face or they’ll back away forever. Then they’re lost for good.’
‘Lost for good,’ Maggie repeated, turning to the house. ‘I hope I haven’t lost Anna for good.’
‘Let me put it this way, honey. We’re not giving up without a fight.’
‘Agree,’ Maggie said, setting her jaw. ‘Do we tell the grandmother that PG is dead?’
‘No, it’s not our place. If she’s alone, she might want her family around.’
Maggie flashed on going to the morgue, seeing Anna. Rather, PG. She didn’t wish that pain on anybody. ‘If I told her PG was dead, I’d have to tell her that Noah was convicted of her murder, whether he did it or not.’
‘Honey, he did it,’ Kathy said, keeping her voice low.
Maggie didn’t reply. ‘Let’s go. Caleb?’
Chapter Seventy-seven