Rena sat and didn’t waste any time. “Why did you lie about knowing Dover, Wisconsin? Your sister lives there. You’ve visited there multiple times.”
“I don’t know why I lied. You said you’d been to Dover—it caught me off guard, and suddenly, I didn’t want there to be anything that tied me to the area or to Corrine Antler. I swear to you, I didn’t even think of Corrine Antler until I called my sister on Thursday to tell her what had happened. I didn’t want her to hear it on the news. She was the one who reminded me about Corrine.”
“Wasn’t there discussion at your sister’s Fourth of July party about the Corrine Antler Foundation?” Rena asked.
“If there was, I wasn’t paying attention. I spent the night at my sister’s so I wasn’t driving. As a result, I was hitting the margaritas pretty hard.”
“Still, once your sister reminds you, you don’t think that you should have picked up the phone and called us? You had no way of knowing that we were going to stumble upon the connection,” A.L. said.
“You’re right,” Alice said. “I think I got scared. It really dawned on me when Brenda Owen called and told me this thing was going to hang over my head for the rest of my life. People were going to blame me.” She paused. “I got freaked out. I’m not proud of that and I’m sorry I lied.”
“Did you lie about Emma Whitman being in your backyard?” Rena asked.
“She has never been in my backyard,” Alice said.
They were at a stalemate.
“Your sister seemed to believe that you might not consider the Whitmans to be very good parents,” Rena said. “What can you tell us about that?”
“It was months ago. Maybe even six months ago. Leah and Troy both ended up at the day care late one afternoon to pick up Emma. There’d been some miscommunication about who was doing what. I’ve seen it happen before with many parents. They usually laugh about it and that’s the end of it.”
“But it was different with the Whitmans?” Rena asked.
“Yes. Leah had arrived first and she and Emma were just about to walk out. Then Troy arrived. And Leah got so angry. Said that she’d had to leave work in the middle of an important meeting and that Troy was inconsiderate as usual in not calling her to tell her that he was going to be free to get Emma. It was ugly. They were flinging accusations back and forth. It actually reminded me of how my sister used to fight with her husband. I think that’s why I told her. I shouldn’t have. It was bad enough that I saw it.”
“Nobody else around?” A.L. asked.
“I don’t think so. I think I might have mentioned that Emma is generally one of the last to be picked up. It’s possible that a couple of the teachers might have seen it. I remember that we were having a staff meeting that night. We do that once a quarter. But we didn’t talk about it. It’s very uncomfortable to witness someone fighting like that. I think the saddest part for me is that Emma didn’t seem all that bothered by it. It made me think that she’d heard similar arguments in the past. And she really is a very sweet little girl.”
“You didn’t say anything about this before,” A.L. said.
“If I had any reason to believe that the Whitmans mistreated Emma in any way, I would have said something. But I don’t think that’s the case. I think they both love Emma very much. I’m just not certain how much they love each other.”
A.L. could relate. It had been that way with him and Jacqui. Both had loved Traci fiercely but knew the marriage wasn’t going to make it.
“It’s been more than three days,” Alice said, sounding hopeless. “They’re not going to find her, are they?”
“Nobody is giving up,” A.L. said.
“At some point, we’ll have to, though,” Alice said.
“That point is a long ways away,” A.L. said. “I think we’re done here now.”
Alice stood. “I appreciate everything you’re doing to find out who is responsible for this. I really do. And I’m sorry if I impeded that effort.”
A.L. could almost see the wheels churning in Rena’s head. Is Alice truly sorry? Or is she simply acting contrite but continuing to be less than forthcoming with the whole truth?
“Thank you, Alice,” he said.
When they were back in the car, Rena sighed. Loudly. “Every time I’m ready to be really pissed at her, she claws her way back.”
“Into your heart?” A.L. asked.
“Not my heart. But into some quasi acceptance zone.”
“You accept her explanations?”
“I accept her logic.”
A.L. nodded. “Yeah. Me, too. We need to keep looking. Who haven’t we talked to yet? Let’s go through the list one more time.”
“Can I do that with a cup of coffee in my hand?” Rena asked.
“Christ, Morgan. Do you do everything with a cup of coffee in your hand?”
“Just about. Some things are more awkward, though.”
That got her a quick smile. And he did drive directly to one of her favorite coffee shops. Which was surprisingly busy even though it was early evening. “Guess this proves that lots of people drink coffee at all times of the day,” she said as they stood in line.
A.L. looked around at the relatively young crowd. “Most of these people were having Bloody Marys for breakfast with beer chasers.”
“It is Wisconsin and lots of them are probably students.”
“That reminds me, how is Gabe doing with his classes? Is he happy to be a student again?”
“I think he loves it,” she said. “I heard him say the other day that everybody should go back to school in their forties, that our minds are so much more open to learning.”
A.L. thanked the young man who handed him two coffees. He carried the cups to a small table in the corner. At the next table were two men, both wearing light blue scrubs. He suspected they were from the hospital three blocks east.
“You know, we never actually talked to Kara Wiese’s husband,” he said.
“Right. We did get verification that he was working on Wednesday.”
“We did. But I think I’d feel better if we actually spoke to him,” A.L. said. “If he’s working today, he’d be just finishing up his shift. Want to take a quick run down to the hospital, see if we can get lucky?”
“We desperately need to get lucky,” Rena said. “Emma needs us to get lucky.”
A.L. shoved his chair back, so fast that it scraped the floor and made a noise. “Sometimes you got to make your own luck.”