Chapter 15: Ladies and Gentlemen

The Kingsbury Foundation gala was held in the same Garland ballroom where I had once sat outside in my car.

I walked in through the front doors this time.

Douglas was at my side in a black suit, and Philip was on my other side in a darker one.

My mother had lent me a green dress from a closet that still held my size.

Polly was home with the housekeeper and a bowl of popcorn.

"Smile or don't," my mother had said at the door. "But do not look at the floor."

I did not look at the floor.

Three hundred people turned to see who had come in, and then the whispering started.

A woman I had once handed a canape to said, "Isn't that the dead girl?"

"Keep walking," Douglas said, low.

"I am walking."

"I know. You're doing it well."

Philip leaned toward me.

"The server room needs one more hour," he said. "I have a man pulling every file from the old house cameras."

"The cameras never worked."

"They recorded to a drive nobody checked. I checked it this morning."

I stared at him.

"If it's there," he said, "you will have your answer tonight. If it isn't, we do this the slow way."

"Philip."

"Yes."

"You should have looked four years ago."

"Yes," he said. "I know."

A waiter put a glass in my hand and I held it without drinking.

The band stopped at nine.

The host, an older man from the board, tapped the microphone and thanked the guests.

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