That had to have been a damn ugly conversation for them to have.
“Hard to know, of course, whether that was the truth or not,” Leah added.
And like before, A.L. was struck by the fact that the Whitmans did not seem to be drawing strength from one another. Hard time to be alone. “Have Troy’s parents arrived?”
Leah shook her head. “They’ve called. Several times. Said they would come but that they didn’t want to be a bother.”
If this had happened to him and Jacqui when Traci was five, nothing would have kept his dad or Jacqui’s parents from being there. But everybody coped differently. Neither he nor Rena said anything.
“If you need to talk to Troy, my guess is that he’ll be home soon,” Leah said. “They won’t search too long after dark.”
“Actually, we had a question for you. We were reviewing our notes from our initial conversation,” A.L. said. “You left the house early on Wednesday because you had a meeting in Madison. Who were you meeting?”
Leah stared at him. “Why does that matter?”
“Just making sure that we’ve got full information.” He was getting a bad feeling.
“It’s very difficult for me to think about anything but Emma,” she said. “My head is swimming.”
A.L. said nothing.
After an awkward pause, Leah said, “I met a prospective client.”
“What was his or her name?” Rena asked, pen in hand. “And contact number?”
“I... I don’t have it,” Leah said.
“But there would be someplace you could check,” Rena said, her tone still gentle. “An email setting up the meeting? With an assistant?”
Leah turned her head and stared out the living room window. A.L. followed her gaze. The outside lights were on, making it easy to see the mums in nice-looking concrete planters. Reds. Yellows.
A.L. and Rena exchanged a quick glance but neither spoke. Finally, Leah turned back to them. “There wasn’t any client or any meeting.”
A.L. thought about the Whitmans’ relationship and figured Leah’s next sentence was going to be that she’d met a man. That she was having an affair.
“What were you doing, Leah, that you needed to leave the house early?” Rena asked. Her tone was still polite but less gentle than before. It was time to cut the bullshit.
“I drove to the Wildwind’s Casino. I...expected my mother to be there. She’s a gambler. She has a problem.”
Neither A.L. nor Rena acknowledged that this was old news.
“You were meeting your mother?” A.L. said. Elaine had said nothing about this.
Leah pursed her lips. “No. I wanted to be there, in place, before my mother arrived.”
In place. What the hell? “For what purpose?” A.L. asked, careful to keep his tone neutral.
“Well, if you must know, I was videoing her. She has a favorite spot and I wanted...a good angle.”
A.L. considered his next question. “What were you going to do with the video?”
“I don’t know,” she said.
She was lying. A.L. was pretty confident. “So you got up early to video your mother, without having any express purpose for the video?”
“I don’t like how my mother spends her time and money,” Leah said. “I don’t expect you to understand. It’s hard for other people to...get it.”
“Maybe not as hard for us as for others. We know about your mom’s criminal conviction,” Rena said. “We know that you spent some time in a foster home.”
“I don’t like to talk about that. It was a long time ago,” Leah said.
But not forgotten. Or forgiven? A.L. leaned forward. “So you left your house before 6:30. And you drove directly to the casino?”
“Well, I stopped for coffee on the way. But, essentially, yes,” Leah said.
They’d be able to verify her time of arrival. “Did you talk to your mother at the casino?” A.L. asked.
“No. After she left, I waited another five minutes and I left. I drove straight to work. You can ask my boss about that.”
We will, A.L. thought. But he was pretty confident that they were getting the truth this time. “Have you shared the video with anyone?” he asked.
Again, Leah took her time in answering. “With my attorney. That same morning.”
“I thought you said that you didn’t know what you were going to do with the video?” Rena asked.
“I don’t. But I know that I went to a lot of trouble to get it and I wanted to make sure that there was a safe copy.”
“You work at a law firm,” A.L. said. “Are you using an attorney from your own firm?”
“No. I certainly don’t need anyone there knowing my business.” Leah stood up, her hands on her hips. “All of this happened before Emma. And if you don’t mind, I really don’t think it’s a good use of my time right now talking about it. My child is missing. Could we keep our focus on what’s really important?”
Leah and Elaine were playing some kind of weird cat-and-mouse mother-daughter game. God knew that Traci could go round and round with Jacqui sometimes. He tried never to get in the middle of their deal and he wasn’t too interested in getting sideways between Leah and Elaine, either. But there was one thing that needed to be hashed out. “You were in the room when your mom told us that she’d gone to work immediately after dropping off Emma. You knew that was a lie but you never said anything.”
“My mother is a lot of things but one thing I know is that she loves Emma. She would never do anything to hurt her.”
It was probably time to be blunt. “Your mom said that she handed Emma off to Kara Wiese. And then she signed in on the clipboard hanging by the office. Her signature isn’t on that paper,” he said. “So it looks as if she’s mistaken. Is it possible that she’s also mistaken about handing off Emma to Kara?”
“No. She would never, never, not make sure that Emma was safe before leaving. I can’t explain the sign-in sheet. Maybe she didn’t do that. It doesn’t matter.”
“I know it seems like a little detail but it’s actually a pretty big thing. If she didn’t sign it, then it’s possible that Emma wandered off. If she did, then that’s pretty much off the table because it means that somebody switched out that sheet before the next person signed in at almost nine o’clock.”
“If she says that she did it, I believe her,” Leah said.