“That Frank did it, I covered up for him, and one or both of us drove her car back to campus afterward. But I am one of two people in the very unique position to know that didn’t happen. Susan’s car had been giving her trouble, so I’ve always wondered if she accepted a ride with somebody to avoid the risk of a breakdown.”
Laurie didn’t remember seeing anything in the police reports about car problems. “Was her car not working?”
“It was-what was the word she’d use? One of those SAT words for being moody. ‘Mercurial’! She loved that word.”
As Laurie thought through the possibilities, she realized that this tiny detail about Susan’s car could be significant. The reconstruction of Susan’s timeline on the day of her death had been built around the assumption that she would have driven herself from campus to Frank Parker’s for the audition. Based on that assumption, the likely killer was either Frank or someone she might have been with prior to her audition. But what if she had gotten into someone else’s car on her way to Frank’s?
As if reading her mind, Alex asked, “Do you think Susan would take a ride from a stranger?”
Madison shrugged. “I can’t see it, unless she was late and really desperate. But sometimes we don’t think of strangers as strangers, you know? Maybe someone she recognized from campus offered her a lift? And then she didn’t realize he was a creep until it was too late.”
Or, Laurie thought, the someone was her boyfriend, Keith Ratner, just as her mother thought from the very beginning.
Alex was shifting gears to another topic. “You mentioned being one of only two people who knew for certain where you and Frank Parker were that night,” he said. “How has it felt for you all of these years, to have people question your credibility?”
“Obviously, it’s horrible, and frustrating, and infuriating. It’s not that complicated: I got a call from a critically acclaimed director saying that another UCLA student stood him up and would I be willing to read on short notice. I knew the other student was Susan and figured she must have chickened out or something. So I thought, Her loss, my gain. I hopped in my car and went straight there. I stayed until close to midnight. You know the police checked his phone records, right? And we had pizza delivered around nine thirty, and that was confirmed too. And yet people who have never met me are essentially calling me a liar, based on absolutely no evidence.”
It was true that the police investigation confirmed the pizza delivery, but the delivery boy had no idea whether the man who paid for the pizza at the door was alone or with company. Phone records also confirmed the fact that Frank placed a call to the phone in Madison’s dorm room, but, as Madison had noted, only the two of them knew what was said during the call or what transpired afterward.
“You just happened to be home on a Saturday night?” Laurie interjected. She had thought from the very beginning that something was odd about Madison’s account of the evening. Just last week, Madison had made them wait on her porch while she freshened her lipstick. Would she really hop into her car on no notice for an audition?
But now that Laurie had a better sense of who Madison was, she saw the wrinkle that had bothered her. “I got the impression you had a busy social life back then. It’s hard to imagine that you’d be in your dorm, standing around, when the phone rang at seven forty-five on a Saturday night.”
“I wasn’t feeling well that night.”
“And yet you were well enough to get in your car for an audition? I can’t imagine you went to Frank Parker’s house wearing sweats and no makeup.”
Madison smiled, again directly at Alex even though Laurie was firing the questions. “Of course not. And I was never sitting around my dorm on Friday and Saturday nights. That particular Saturday? I was supposed to go to a Sigma Alpha Epsilon party, so, yes, I was looking my best. But then I wasn’t feeling well-as I said-so I thought I might stay home. Then Frank called, and I just happened to be dolled up and ready to go. I hopped in my car and got a fantastic role. I mean, I won a Spirit Award, but people still want to believe I only got that role because I vouched for Frank. But I earned it.”
“But the role might have gone to Susan if she hadn’t been killed.”
“You don’t think that put a huge cloud over the entire experience for me? Susan and I were competitors, but we were also friends. Everyone seems to forget that. How many times do I have to say this? I got Frank’s call at seven forty-five, I went straight to his place, I was with him from eight thirty to midnight, we got pizza around nine thirty, and then I came home. I had nothing to do with Susan’s death.”
45
Laurie let Grace do the driving back to Bel Air. She never got the chance to drive in New York City and was enjoying the experience, despite the hideous Los Angeles traffic.
“So what do you think?” Laurie asked once they were on the road. Alex had climbed into the SUV’s backseat before Laurie could protest.
Grace was the first to offer an opinion. “Uh-uh, I’m not buying it. That line about her and Susan being friends? Maybe so, but just as quickly, she was all, I won a Spirit Award, and I earned it. I’m sorry, but that’s cold.” She was waving one finger around in the air for emphasis, and Laurie felt the car swerve within the lane.
“Grace, two hands on the wheel, please.”
“Sorry, I just get a little worked up by that woman. And that timeline? Whoa, did that sound rehearsed. Seven forty-five, eight thirty, nine thirty, midnight, like a little wind-up doll.”
Laurie agreed on both points. Madison had stood by her alibi of Frank Parker, but it was almost too good. Every detail of her recollection of that night was absolutely consistent with the version she had given police twenty years ago. That was not how real memories worked. They evolved over time, some pieces deteriorating while others crystallized. Details got muddled and mutated. But Madison had nailed every line, as if she were acting.
“The one inconsistency I did catch,” Laurie noted, “was at first she said she was home because she was sick. Then when I asked how she could have left so quickly for the audition, she said she was going to a frat party but then thought she was sick, and then Frank happened to call when she was still prettied up. It sounds convoluted to me.”
“And a frat party?” Grace said skeptically. “Please. I may not have known Madison Meyer twenty years ago, but I can’t picture her hanging out with the campus Greeks. Something’s not right.”
Laurie’s thoughts were interrupted by her phone buzzing. Two new voice messages had come in while her cell was turned off during the shoot.
“Hi, this is Tammy from Advocates for God. You left a message last night for Reverend Collins about an old police investigation? The reverend apologizes that his schedule did not permit him to return your call personally, but he asked me to call you. He says police interviewed several of our members at the time, and in his recollection, they verified the whereabouts of the individual you mentioned in your message. He has nothing further to add but suggested that you could contact the police for details.”
Laurie skipped to the next message. “Ms. Moran, this is Keith Ratner. I wanted to apologize for losing it yesterday. It’s frustrating, to say the least, that people still question me after all these years. But I do want to help if the show will still have me. Give me a call when you have a chance.”
She hit the RETURN CALL button, and Keith picked up immediately. “You got my message?” he asked.
“I did, and I feel like I also need to apologize. My tone was sharper than I intended yesterday. And I want to assure you that our show will remain objective. In fact, since we saw you at the bookstore, I looked into your alibi for that night, and we’ve also been exploring every possible theory with the same amount of depth. For what it’s worth, I thought you might want to know that Susan’s mother and both of her roommates all said that Susan was much too devoted to have been involved with anyone but you.”