Page 34 of The First Gentleman

I shake my head. “No. To the rest of the world, Suzanne is nothing but a missing person in a cold case. What do you remember about her, Amber?”

“Lillian,” she mutters with a tight smile. “Call me Lillian.”

“Yes. Lillian. Sorry.”

“Sure,” she says. “Suzanne was great. A lot of fun. Suzanne dating Cole was an open secret on the cheerleading squad. But we were a sisterhood. Nobody would have said anything. Besides, it’s not like she was the only rule-breaker.”

“How do you mean?”

She folds her hands on the table. “I mean, you’re in your earlytwenties, young and pretty, and looking to blow off steam with a hunk pulling down a major paycheck.”

“And you just hope you don’t get caught.”

“Right. Just a little innocent fun. Plenty of us did it. Maybe to make up for the fact that we were being paid less than the team mascot. A lot of girls were waiting tables to make ends meet. Most of us were just enjoying the exposure and looking for a way out.”

“But Suzanne already had another job possibility, right?”

“Yeah. With Fidelity. After she disappeared, things weren’t the same. I took off to Virginia and got my union card. Electrician.”

“So why aren’t you running wires right now?” I ask.

“Construction dried up. So I went to bartending school in Virginia Beach, got some experience. I always liked Boston. I just needed to come back as somebody else.”

“Is that when you changed your name?”

“Yup. New name. Less hair. I had an aunt Lillian. Died when I was five.”

“Why didn’t you hang around to talk to the police after Suzanne disappeared? You must’ve known you’d be a valuable witness.”

“I always thought Cole was behind it and that the cops would get him. That was before he was released from the Pats, became a famous political figure, and got off scot-free.”

“Lillian, what was Cole Wright like? I mean, back when he and Suzanne were dating.”

She stares at the table. I can feel her choosing her words. “Ninety percent of the time, Cole seemed smart, funny, kind. A good guy.”

“And the other ten percent?”

“If he’d been drinking a lot or lost a game or if the coaches were riding him, his temper came out, along with his prima donnacomplex. He thought he was entitled to anything he wanted. Anything.”

“He get rough with people?”

“Sometimes.”

“With Suzanne?”

“They had some fights. I know that for a fact.” She looks at the band, who are picking up their instruments for a second set. “I gotta get back to work.”

“Lillian.Amber. What are you keeping from me?”

She says in a low voice, “Are you really gonna investigate Cole Wright, the First Gentleman of the United States? Are you really after the truth? Because nobody else was.”

“I am. That’s why I’m here.” I see her biting her lip. I lean in. “You know something.”

She’s quiet for a few seconds. Then: “Near the end of the season, the Pats were supposed to crush the Steelers. Instead, they got their balls kicked in. The after-party turned into a wake. Lots of booze, some guys fighting, really bad energy. Dark. Dangerous.”

“You were there?”

She nods. “So was Suzanne. And Cole. But the team brass was around, so they were pretending not to be together. Cole was hanging out more with me.”

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