‘Sorry, do I know you?’
‘Rachel Miller, journalist. We spoke on the phone. I got your address from Pamela Kopek.’
‘Pamela didn’t have this address.’
Rachel didn’t want to go into how Ross had tracked her down. The charming phone call to her parents, who had told him that Laura was working in Chesapeake Beach for the summer.
‘Please, we need to talk,’ she said simply.
‘I don’t want to talk to you,’ Laura replied.
Rachel took hold of the handlebars of her bicycle. ‘We guessed that, but we only want to ask a couple of questions about Madison.’
‘Yeah, I guessed that,’ said Laura, throwing her chain into the basket and wheeling the bike away. ‘I have nothing to say.’
Rachel and Ross exchanged a look, then followed her.
‘I know you must be upset,’ said Rachel, trotting to keep up. ‘It must be hard to lose a friend so suddenly.’
The girl stopped and turned to face Rachel. ‘What do you want?’
She was sharper, shrewder than Pamela Kopek, that was for sure. But Rachel could tell that she was also a shy, gentle sort of girl – the sort that came to a quiet, relaxing town like Chesapeake Beach for the summer rather than the noisy student favourites like Ocean City – and that her truculence and annoyance was because she was scared and upset.
‘I want to find out about Madison’s relationship with my brother-in-law.’
‘Your brother-in-law? And who’s that?’
‘Julian Denver.’
Laura’s eyes widened and she shook her head.
‘I don’t want to talk about this,’ she said, moving away again. ‘I have to get home.’
‘Stop, please,’ said Rachel, jumping ahead and blocking the girl’s path. ‘This is important.’
‘Madison is dead. Leave me alone.’
‘Julian is dead too, Laura. Just talk to me, please.’
Laura’s expression was confused and fearful. ‘Dead?’
‘Two days after Madison.’
‘How?’ she whispered.
‘He commited suicide.’
‘Do you know why?’
Rachel shook her head. ‘It’s what we’re trying to work out. Please, help us make sense of it,’ she said slowly.
They retreated to a pizza restaurant across the road. Laura sat opposite them in a booth, out of earshot of the other diners. Her shoulders were hunched and she slowly sipped at the Coke that Ross had ordered for her.
‘You were one of Maddie’s best friends,’ stated Rachel carefully.
‘We were room-mates for a year at college. Stayed good friends ever since, yeah.’
‘I spoke to her mum yesterday. She told me Maddie was pregnant. Did you know that?’