Page 153 of After Anna

“Whoever is the most important person in there, that’s who I want to see.” Noah raised his voice, channeling the huffy doctor he used to be in his former life, the pediatric allergist who would bedamnedif he’d wait for a hotel room when he needed to prepare for his panel, which he wasmoderating.

“You mean Deputy Superintendent DeMaria?”

“Deputy Superintendent DeMaria is fine with me. I want to be transferred out of this prison.”

“That’s not possible—”

“It has to be possible,” Noah said, raising his voice. “I’m in danger and I demand to be transferred immediately.”

“Are you freaking kidding?”

“If you don’t transfer me out and something happens to me, I’m going to make sure you’re held liable.” Noah let his gaze fall pointedly to the name tag. “Mr. Kelly, I’ll make sure you’re named as a defendant, individually and personally.”

“Doc, hold on—” CO Kelly put up his hands like a traffic cop.

“I’m a target in this prison. And now that I said that, you’re on notice. You’re a witness to this statement. It’s on camera.” Noah gestured at the security camera, mounted a few cells over. He could see over CO Kelly’s shoulder that two other COs were coming, with afrowning administrator in a gray suit and tie. “That video will be Exhibit A. Mr. Kelly, you’re all going to be held liable if you don’t transfer me immediately.”

“I’m Deputy Superintendent Bill DeMaria. What the hell’s going on here?”

“I’m Noah Alderman, and I’m in danger as a result of the Jeremy Black murder. I was threatened at breakfast. I’m going to be attacked and I’m not about to sit on my thumbs. I’m requesting to be transferred out of the prison.”

Deputy Superintendent DeMaria scowled. “Not exactly, Dr. Alderman.”

Chapter Seventy-six

Maggie, After

Maggie parked on Broom Lane, which turned out to be in a rural area. Snow covered the pastures like a white sheet, and there were no other houses except the Tenderlys’ dilapidated farmhouse. It was of grimy clapboard, and so small that it seemed engulfed by the snow drifting against its side wall and accumulating on its sagging porch roof. A TV flickered in the front window of the house, and there was no car parked in the driveway. If there was a walkway from the street to the front door, it hadn’t been shoveled.

“Let’s go.” Maggie turned to talk to Caleb, who’d plugged himself back into his video game, but Kathy stopped her, with a hand on her arm.

“Maggie, wait. We need to talk before we go in. You ranted about PG all the way here.”

“I can’t help it. She pretended to be mydaughter. And worse, what did she do to Anna? Where’s Anna? I want to know. It drives me crazy, to think she could have done something to Anna.”

“Well, she paid a price, didn’t she?”

“That’s true. Sorry.” Maggie dialed it back. “Why would she pretend to be Anna? It had to be because of the money, didn’t it?”

“It seems like it would be a factor, doesn’t it? Let’s talk it over before we go off half-cocked.”

“My mother used to say that.”

“Mine did, too. That’s why we get along. Because we became them and now we are them and we are also each other.”

Maggie smiled. “Okay. So we agree the money had to be a factor. We learned PG played Powerball. She lived in a place like this. She had friends who went to a fancy private school. Maybe she wanted to be like them.”

“And somehow she meets Anna, right?”

“Yes, and Jamie, and maybe Connie, at Eddie’s. Or maybe Connie works at Eddie’s, too. And Anna is lonely, so maybe PG gets to know her while she waits on her and finds out that she’s a rich girl.”

“And they both notice the similarity in their appearance.”

“Then, as luck would have it, Florian dies in the plane crash.” Maggie could visualize basically how it had happened. “Suddenly Anna stands to inherit millions of dollars, and like we said, PG must’ve been close enough to the real Anna to know she was thinking about reaching out to me.”

“Yes, or Jamie could’ve been the one to tell PG. You know how girls talk.”

“Like us.”