Page 135 of After Anna

Maggie pulled up in front of Kathy’s house with Caleb in the backseat. She’d told him only the basics about why they were going to Congreve, not wanting to confuse him. Happily, he was plugged into his earphones and immersed in a video game on his phone.

“Hey girl.” Maggie opened the car door, letting Kathy in, bundled in a parka and snowboots.

“Maggie, hi. Hi, Caleb.” Kathy climbed, closing the door. “I can’t believe this, can you?”

“Amazing.” Maggie hit the gas, and they took off in the pouring rain. She’d booked three seats on the next flight, and with any luck, they’d get to Congreve by dinnertime. “I’m still trying to figure it out.”

“Me too.” Kathy looked over, her eyes alive with animation. “I mean, the real Anna could be alive.”

“I know.” Maggie had thought of nothing else, newly energized. “But where is she? Why would anybody do this? And who was the imposter?”

“I don’t know.” Kathy shook her head.

“She was impersonating Anna. They look a lot alike.” Maggie tore through the suburban streets in the rain, the windshield wipers pumping frantically, matching her mood.

“I know. I saw from the picture you texted me.”

“I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t recognize my own daughter.” Maggie kept her eyes glued to the traffic, which was light.

“You couldn’t. The last time you saw her, she was a baby. Florian kept the pictures. You couldn’t see the way her face changed over time.”

“You would think a mother would know.” Maggie had been kicking herself ever since Ellen had called.

“I wouldn’t have. It’s crazy how much alike they look.”

“It happens. I get people all the time that say they know somebody who looks like me.” Maggie had been thinking nonstop, but was happy to have Kathy as a sounding board. “It must have to do with Anna’s inheritance. Maybe that’s what was behind this whole thing. Maybe that’s why the girl was pretending to be Anna.”

“That would make sense. I was thinking that’s why she bought the Range Rover right away.”

“Yes!” Maggie blew through a yellow light. “I think I see how the misidentification happened. I didn’t bring the imposter with me when I went to see Ellen the therapist, or James the lawyer. I went to see them alone. So they would have no idea that the girl I was talking about wasn’t the real Anna, because they didn’t see her.”

“So the girl you had dinner with was the imposter, right?”

“Yes, but she must have known the real Anna pretty well. She knew a lot about her, like that I was her mother and I had been writing to her, and she knew that Anna wanted to reach out to me. The real Anna had told her therapist that, too. So the imposter must have been a friend of Anna’s.”

Kathy frowned in thought. “Hmm, a lookalike friend. But I guess they didn’t have to look that much alike.”

“Right.” Maggie took a left, heading toward the expressway.

“Do you think the imposter went to Congreve?”

“It seems the most likely.” Maggie accelerated into the fast lane.

“You know what else I was thinking? Remember those notes between Anna and Jamie that we found in Anna’s textbooks, way back when, before the murder?”

“Yes.” Maggie had forgotten about Jamie, after Anna died.

“I was thinking, it’s really strange that Jamie disappeared, isn’t it? I wonder if that has something to do with it?”

“What though?” Maggie turned left, hitting the expressway in record time. The windshield wipers flapped madly, and the defroster blew on max. The sky was pewter-gray, pouring rain. She’d checked online, and they’d be racing to Congreve ahead of the snowstorm.

“I don’t know. Jamie’s last name was Covington, right?”

“Yes,” Maggie answered, and it was all coming back to her. “And PG and Connie were going to get her a bus ticket.”

“Right,” Kathy said, urgently. “We have to tell the people at Congreve about that. We have to find Jamie, PG, and Connie and see what they know. Maybe it’s connected to Anna’s disappearance.”

“Yes, how can two girls go missing and nobody worry about it?” Maggie accelerated, struck by a sudden memory. Anna’s funeral was over seven months ago, but a thought was coming back to her. “Oh my God, do you remember at Anna’s funeral? That woman who came up to me at the end?”