“That’s not what it sounded like to me. Shit, Lindsay, I gotta go. I saw the story in the break room, but they’re yelling at me to get back to the conference room for this closing. I’m really sorry though, okay?”

“Sorry about what?

“Just find the press conference online.”

She opened her laptop browser on the coffee table, typed in “Hope Miller East Hampton,” and hit enter. There was a video posted by the Long Island ABC affiliate twelve minutes earlier. Lindsay clicked on the link, and a young male correspondent standing outside the Suffolk County Police Department appeared on the screen.

“At a press conference held in Islip this afternoon, Suffolk County’s Homicide Squad, working with East Hampton Town Police, announced that a death that had been widely rumored to be an accidental drowning has, in fact, been ruled a homicide. Thirty-six-year-old Alex Lopez’s body was pulled from the water near Star Island at the eastern end of Suffolk County early yesterday morning. His pickup truck was found in a public parking lot in Montauk, not far from the docks where Lopez operated a fishing tour operation. Though investigators released no official statement regarding Mr. Lopez’s cause of death until today, news of the discovery of his body spread quickly in the bustling Hamptons. On the heels of two other drownings already in this very early summer, it appeared likely that Mr. Lopez’s death was yet another warning about the potential dangers of unusually rough ocean waves this year.

“However, in a press conference that just ended moments ago, Marcia, police officials made a shocking announcement: Alex Lopez died of a gunshot wound. No other details about his injuries were provided, but police made clear that they are investigating this case as a homicide. They also announced, Marcia, that they are looking for this woman, who has been known for years as Hope Miller, and who only recently moved to East Hampton in May.”

The photograph that appeared next to the correspondent’s face on the screen was the same one that Lindsay had been using for her missing-person flyers.

“Police say that a friend of this woman reported her missing almost exactly one week ago today.”

Marcia at the studio had a question: “You said she’s been ‘known for years’ by that name, Reggie. What do you mean by that?”

“Now that’s when this story gets even more intriguing. I asked police the same question because the wording seemed unusual. It turns out that fifteen years ago, this woman, for whom police are now looking as a person of interest, was involved in a very serious car accident in central New Jersey. When she regained consciousness at the hospital, she was unable to recall her name or any other details regarding her identity. And, get this: all these years later, her past remains a complete mystery.”