MARY CLARK - Piece of My Heart

“What would you like to call me?”

Johnny shrugged. “Your name, I guess.”

The man’s smile sent a chill up Johnny’s spine. “Well, let’s see: What did you call the man who gave you meals and put a roof over your head at the place where you used to live?”

Johnny felt like he’d been given a riddle without an answer. Looking down at his coloring book, he muttered. “I called him Daddy.”

“Fine then. Why don’t we try that then?”

Johnny pressed his eyes shut to stop tears from coming out. The man’s hand on his shoulder was surprisingly gentle.

“They didn’t tell you, did they?” he asked.

Johnny could not see how wide and innocent his own eyes were when he looked up at the man.

“Andrew and Marcy Buckley aren’t your parents. Not really. You were adopted.” The man removed a folded sheet of paper from the back of his pocket and handed it to Johnny.

The name of the website was New York Crime Beat. The man had highlighted one paragraph in yellow marker. Johnny wasn’t the fastest reader in his class, but he managed to read all the words, silently to himself, without moving his lips, the way they practiced in school.

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.