All Dressed in White by Mary Higgins Clark, Alafair Burke Page A

doubt every choice she’d ever made, like maybe she’d taken the easy route. Job in Daddy’s company. Sweet, devoted fiancé. She was only twenty-seven years old, and her entire future was already mapped out for her.”
    “Did she say anything to you about wanting to back out of the wedding?”
    “No, but I got the sense she was looking for reasons.”
    “Any examples?” Laurie asked.
    “Like she said she was worried Jeff only proposed because she was sick. And then she said Jeff was more excited to have children right away than she was. I got the impression she didn’t want to be the one to call it off, but was sort of hoping Jeff might.”
    “Would she really let you all worry about her for all these years?” Laurie couldn’t imagine anything more selfish.
    “Not the old Amanda. But the cancer treatment changed her. She was colder. Less patient, more demanding.”
    “Tougher?” Laurie asked. That’s what Jeff had said.
    “Exactly. But still, as much as I’d like to think she’s out there somewhere, doing her thing, I can’t fathom her putting our parents through this much pain. Our mother still wears those yellow-ribbon buttons everywhere.”
    “I spent a long time talking to your mom. She seems to think that Jeff killed your sister so he could inherit her trust fund.”
    “Then why hasn’t he tried to inherit?”
    “Maybe he intended for the body to be found.”
    “I don’t know. Jeff’s a sweet guy. I actually feel pretty bad for him.”
    “So if someone hurt your sister, who else would it be?”
    She didn’t even pause. “Meghan White.”
    “Because she wanted Jeff for herself?” Laurie asked.
    Charlotte shook her head. “I think that happened after the fact, or maybe it was an added benefit. If Meghan did it, it was because of Ladyform.”
    Laurie was confused. “I thought Meghan was already a lawyer by then. She was working for your family’s company?”
    “No, but the two of them had a major blowup right before we allflew down for the wedding. We were still in the transition then, trying to convince Dad that we could be more than the tried-and-true granny-panty company. Amanda launched a breakthrough workout line called X-Dream: high-end exercise clothing with room for cell phones, iPods, all the gadgets we want with us but don’t want to hold while we’re exercising. Until then, the best you could get was a loose pocket, where your phone bounced around as you ran.”
    “I remember that!” Laurie exclaimed. Greg had bought a sports top for her right before he died. It was her favorite running shirt because she couldn’t even feel her iPod zipped into the fabric. “What does it have to do with Meghan?”
    “When she saw the clothing in stores, she showed up here, screaming at Amanda for stealing her idea. It was so loud that people could hear it all the way down the hall.”
    “That seems bizarre,” Laurie said. “Meghan’s an immigration lawyer. What was she going to do with an idea about workout clothes?”
    “Nothing, of course, but that didn’t keep her from wanting a piece of the pie. The X-Dream line was huge for us. I could go back and show you the spike in our sales and you’ll see: we literally made millions. Amanda was nervous enough that she asked our corporate counsel to prepare for a potential lawsuit.”
    “So was it in fact Meghan’s idea?”
    “Only if you call two college girls saying they wished their phones didn’t bounce off the treadmills at the gym an idea . The real work is the execution. We actually hired an engineer with NASA experience to find the exact right way to keep everything snug and safe but still accessible. If Meghan played any role at all, it was simply identifying the need for the product—something thousands of people had probably done by then.”
    “So was Meghan still angry at Amanda by the time you were down in Florida?”
    “She certainly wasn’t acting like it, but anyone can compose themselves for a few days. All I