“Oh yeah?” Natalie asked.

“I got a call from the LA office. Avery Mason, the host of American Events, wants to set up a meeting with you about a story she’s working on.”

“Avery Mason?” Natalie said with wide eyes. “About what?”

“An old friend and an old case. That’s about all I know. Her people reached out to my people, so I don’t have the specifics other than the request to talk,” Kenny said. “I said I’d ask.”

Natalie Ratcliff was not an easy person to reach. Hemingway Publishing was a subsidiary of HAP Media, and strings had been pulled and back channels navigated to make the request. The bid to arrange a meeting with Natalie Ratcliff had finally reached Kenny Arnett.

Natalie nodded. “Sure. Do you have contact information for me?”

“In the car,” Kenny said. “I’ll give it to you when we leave. In the meantime”—he raised his wineglass—“to five more blockbusters.”

Diane raised her glass as well. Natalie smiled and clinked glasses with each of them.

“Did you really think I’d let anyone else publish my books?”

CHAPTER 28 - Manhattan, NY Thursday, July 1, 2021

CHAPTER 28

Manhattan, NY Thursday, July 1, 2021

EVER SINCE LEAVING EMMA’S HOUSE AVERY HAD BEEN HAUNTED BY Victoria Ford’s voice. Each night as she settled in her hotel room, Avery considered listening to the answering machine recordings again. So far, she hadn’t gotten up the nerve. They were too haunting. A junior high student when the September 11 attacks occurred, Avery knew that each generation dealt with the tragedy in their own way. She had been enrolled in private school in Manhattan, which closed its doors for the week after the attack. When she and her classmates returned, rumors circulated through the hallways about more attacks on the city and that schools would be the next target. Avery still remembered the fear and apprehension she had felt, waiting for an airplane to take down the walls of her school. The morning of 9/11 and her experiences in the days that followed had always been viewed through the prism of a teenager. Until now. She was about to approach the topic, not as a wide-eyed adolescent, but as a journalist. It had her both buzzing with excitement and filled with anxiety.

Listening to Victoria Ford’s message to her sister had been personal and emotional, but it hadn’t been the first time Avery heard such recordings. Mack Carter had done an American Events special for the ten-year anniversary of 9/11. In it, Mack interviewed survivors who had escaped the towers and documented the life and death decisions they made that morning. Many of them, like Victoria, had called home as they tried to navigate their way out of the towers. Avery was about to speak with one of them.