“In that case, it’s only right that you call me Annie.”
“Fair enough, Annie. Now what can I do for you? Lisa said you have been looking into some things about Susan.”
“It’s gotten to be a lot more complicated than I thought it was when I started out.”
She told him about the letters she had found in the attic, about how she and Susan had met and lost touch, and about what she found out about the drowning.
“That must have been terrible for you.”
“It was.” Some of the life went out of his voice. “I couldn’t believe she was gone.”
“The article said you were going to look for her after the accident. Did you find out anything?”
“No. We never did. I had teams of people searching for weeks afterward, but she was gone. It’s been more than twenty years now, and I still think of her every day. I wonder if I hadn’t left her on deck that night, maybe she …” His voice trailed off, and for a moment he was silent. Then he cleared his throat. “Maybe things would have been different. Maybe I didn’t deserve someone like her anyway. I don’t know.”
“I’m so sorry.” Annie bit her lip. “I didn’t want to stir up any painful memories for you, but I haven’t been able to find out much about Susan. I mean, yes, I found out what happened to her, but that doesn’t tell me much about how things were for her before she died. Was she happy? Did she ever get to dance on Broadway? She dreamed about that when we were girls.”
“That’s how I met her.” His voice seemed to brighten at the memory. “She was in a show my brother was backing. Just in the chorus line, but I could tell she was special right away. We dated for a while, and I knew she was the girl, you know? I told her right off the bat that we should get married. She thought I was kidding, and maybe I was a little, but if she had said yes, we would have headed straight for the courthouse, no questions asked. Then, when her aunt passed away, I said we should go ahead and take the plunge. No use her trying to get a place of her own and all that when I could take care of her, but she wanted to go home. I guess that’s understandable. Her folks were pretty cut up about her Aunt Kim, too, and she wanted to be with them.”
“And then they died.”
“Yeah.” He was silent for another long moment. “Yeah.”
“I wish I’d known.”
“Poor kid. She didn’t have anybody in the world anymore. That’s when she decided maybe we ought to get married after all.”
“So she lived in Stony Point until that last sailing trip.”
“Yeah. Everything happened kind of fast after her parents were killed. I wanted us to have a big wedding, something her folks would have wanted for her, but I didn’t want to wait very long either. I had a wedding planner arrange everything down in Vero Beach. That’s where my Florida house is. All we had to do was sail down the coast and walk into happily-ever-after. Instead we got the third act of a tragedy.”
“I’m really sorry to have brought this all up again.”
“No, don’t be sorry. It’s good to know someone cared enough about Susan to try to find her. And you said you never found out anything else about her? None of your friends knew anything about what happened?”
“No. They all assumed she had married you and moved away somewhere.”
“I wish she had. I wish …” He laughed softly. “It’ll sound funny, I know, but I’ve always wondered if she’s alive out there somewhere. Maybe she hit her head and lost her memory or something. If you ever find out something that makes you suspect that kind of thing, Annie, you have to let me know. Promise?”
“The Coast Guard seemed pretty certain—”
“I know. Stuff like that doesn’t happen in real life. It’s been a long, long time too. I mean, I have a wife now and kids and all that, anyway. It’s not like Susan and I could get back together or anything. It’s just that, if she were out there somewhere, I’d like to know she was taken care of. I guess it’s just wishful thinking on my part, but I’d do anything in the world to help her.”
“I’m sure you would.”
There was silence on the other end of the line again. Then he cleared his throat.
“Listen, let me give you my cell number. You can call me direct anytime. If there’s something I can help you with, or you just want to talk about Susan again, you call me up.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t dream of bothering you, Mr. Prescott.”
“Arch, OK?”
Annie smiled to herself. “Arch.”