“She knows someone who is?” Sean asked.
“No,” Camila said. “But she does know who he was dating around the time of the murder. And she gave me the woman’s number.
Angela Meyer. Angie Meyer. She stil lives in Yorktown. She runs her parents’ B and B.”
“Have you spoken to her?” Hannah asked.
“Not yet. I was thinking maybe we should go down there.”
“What, to Yorktown?” Sean said.
“Maybe. She runs this B and B. Couldn’t we stay there? Try to figure out what kind of person she is. Choose the right moment to ask some questions?”
Sean considered.
“Think about it,” Camila said. “This is an actual solid lead.
Someone who not only knew and spent time with Neil Prosper, but who probably knew Michael too. Maybe she knows where Neil is, maybe she doesn’t, but it’s possible she might have other information. I mean, what if she cal ed Neil at home that night, and she could confirm the alibi, or something. Or she might know something else, something we wouldn’t even think to ask.”
“I suppose that makes sense,” Sean said. “Maybe we should take it to Rob.”
Camila nodded enthusiastical y. “He’s in his office,” she said.
“Let’s go and talk to him now.”
Parekh was wil ing to be convinced. He was happy for Camila and Hannah to take an overnight trip to Yorktown on the Project’s dol ar, but he wanted Sean in the office. Afterward, Camila was prickly. It was pretty obvious she’d wanted to go to Yorktown with Sean, not Hannah. Camila didn’t trust her, not yet. She needed to work on that.
“Do you drive, Camila?” Hannah asked.
“I can, but I don’t have a car.”
“I do. I can drive, if you like.” After lying to Rob about having a car, she’d booked a rental. The company had agreed to deliver the car to her apartment building and it had been parked outside when she woke up that morning. They agreed to take an hour to pack overnight bags. Hannah picked Camila up outside her place just after ten A.M.
“There’s coffee, if you want it,” Hannah said, gesturing to one of two Starbucks cups sitting in the car’s cup holders. “Cappuccino, two sugars, right?” She gave Camila a sideways glance. The other girl paused in the act of putting on her seat belt and looked at Hannah.
She laughed.
“Okay, my bad. Forgiven?”
“Forgiven.”
They drove out of Charlottesvil e in the direction of Yorktown.
“So what do we say to her?” Camila said.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, do we lay it al out on the table? That we’re representing Michael Dandridge, that we’re there about the case? Or do we just try to . . . I don’t know. Finesse it in some way.”
Hannah thought about it for a minute. “Honestly, I can’t think of any way we could just casual y bring it up without seeming like crazy people or journalists. And I think if I was the ex-girlfriend of the friend of someone convicted of a crime like that, there’s no way I’d want to talk to a journalist. Who wants to be publicly connected to something like this?”
“Yes,” Camila said. “Although, you know, people are crazy. Some people wil do anything for attention. There’s a reason The Jerry Springer Show was around for so long.”
“I guess we could wait and see what she’s like,” Hannah said.
Camila thought about it. “You’re right, direct is best. It’s not like we can pretend we’re journalists, right?”
“I guess not.”
The drive to Yorktown was very pretty, the highway lined with mature oak and sycamore trees, which broke up every now and again to reveal glimpses of manicured farmland. When they turned off the highway for Yorktown itself they found a picture-postcard of smal -town America, with wide, open streets and beautiful y maintained heritage homes, American flags fluttering.
“I’d like to go to where it happened,” Hannah said quietly. “Is that al right?”
“You mean the murder?” Camila said.
Hannah nodded.
“Yes. Okay.”
Camila entered the address on her phone and they set out.
Conversation died to almost nothing. It was only a ten-minute drive on the Old Wil iamsburg Road. Camila’s Waze app cal ed out directions, and Hannah fol owed them, pul ing in eventual y outside a smal apartment building. It was a two-story building, made with white-painted weatherboard and pale yel ow brick. The first floor had an external balcony, so that each apartment had a door that opened directly outside. Hannah and Camila sat in the car and stared up at the first floor.