“Oh, it was more than a crush. First Tony Romero, then Cole Wright,” says Teresa. “We were all here one day, the three of us.” She points to a spot on the sand. “It was right there. I could tell Suzanne didn’t like me tagging along so much, but Cole was cool with it. It was really hot that spring, and when Suzanne went into the water to cool off, that’s when I told him.”

“Told him what?”

“That I wanted to have sex with him.”

“Teresa! How old were you?”

“Old enough. But I was no virgin.”

I’m nervous to hear where this is going. But I have to ask. “What did Cole do?”

“He kissed me. Right on the nose. Like I was some puppy dog or something. And that was it. I was so embarrassed. I hated him from that day forward.”

A thought occurs to me. “Teresa,” I say, “were you trying to get back at Cole when you told me what happened? Did you make up that story about Cole threatening your sister because he rejected you back then?”

Teresa looks down at the ground. “I know there was yelling, but I’m not sure what I heard. I was pretty drunk most of the time back then.”

“Is that why you made me drive all this way, Teresa? So you could come clean about trying to seduce Cole Wright?”

“No, there’s something else.” Teresa flicks her cigarette into the sand. “I heard that a doctor testified that Suzanne might have been pregnant.”

“Right. But there was no scientific proof. No way to be sure.”

“I’m sure,” Teresa says. “She was.”

What?

I need to get to the bottom of this. I see a bench a few yards ahead and suggest we sit down. “Teresa,” I say, looking her in the eye. “How do you know Suzanne was pregnant?”

“Because she told me—the night before she disappeared. She said she was gonna break up with Cole because of it.”

“Why? Because it would get him kicked off the team?”

“No. Because it wasn’t his baby. It was Tony Romero’s.”

CHAPTER
116

The White House

President Madeline Wright is sitting in the crowded Situation Room, one floor down from the Oval, watching a situation in the South China Sea unravel. It turns out the world doesn’t stop just because your husband is on trial for murder.

Around the table are Secretary of Defense George Flanders, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Buck Franklin, Chief of Naval Operations Rick Boone, and Maddy’s national security adviser, Lydia Carmichael. Junior staff and liaisons are crowded against the walls behind them.

“Can we get any closer?” asks Maddy.