Forget Me Not
Page 21
The 28-year-old, who was back in Forest View on the night in question for the tenth anniversary of Nora Altman’s disappearance, has also been unable to provide the authorities with an alibi.
Friends describe Nathan Altman as good-natured and friendly, but have noticed a marked change in his behavior and attitude since the disappearance of his sister Nora. One even went as far as to remark that he seemed “troubled.”
Could there be something darker underlying Nathan Altman’s boynextdoor demeanor? It certainly seems strange that just two days after the body of his youngest sister was found the young man still found time to share a couple of drinks with friends at a local bar.
The Altman family could not be reached for comment.
CHAPTER TWENTY
“He seemed troubled?” I said as soon as Ange picked up. “Is she fucking kidding? Of course he was troubled, his sister had gone missing!”
I could hear Ange sigh before she said: “You read Gloria Lewis’s article.”
“Yes.”
“She’s just doing her job, Mads, you do get that, right? He’s been arrested, this is what happens.”
“Oh, so that’s it, someone gets arrested and the case is closed?”
“Pretty much, yeah.”
My heart was beating inside my chest as if I’d just run a mile in the snow, despite still lying in bed. I could feel it cracking against my ribcage, trying to break free, knocking again and again at that fragile wall of bones.
“Look, I’m working today, but how about meeting me later? Try not to focus too much on this though, okay?”
“You mean on Nate being arrested for murder?”
“Yeah,” she said, but even down the phone I could hear how little she believed that to be possible.
Instead of heeding Ange’s advice, I continued to scroll through newspaper articles about Nate’s arrest, before eventually ending up back on Reddit. I was interested in seeing what Keegan Ellis had to say on the matter.
/r/noraaltman
Nora’s brother has been arrested for the murder of their younger sister, Noelle Altman
Submitted 14 hours ago by NeverGoesOut
Police have taken Nathan Altman into custody for the murder of his sister. A knife was found buried under a pile of snow close to where Noelle’s body was found. The blood has been identified as matching Noelle and the fingerprints are Nate’s.
31 comments
Sorted by: new
DeathsDoor
I knew it. Fuck man I knew it. Knew it was gna be someone in the family. Had to be
WHOKiLLedLAURaPalMEr
Shut up man, you never once claimed it was the brother
DeathsDoor
OH DIDN’T I??????? PRETTY SURE HE WAS THE FIRST PERSON I POINTED THE FINGER AT
WHOKiLLedLAURaPalMEr
Whatever man you’d probably claim you were first person who landed on the moon if Buzz Aldrin wasn’t still around to dispute it
I just wanna know what happened to nora altman
Have they reopened her case? Or mentioned if they’re gonna look at a possible connection?
skeletonkey
yeah that’s what I wanna know too. No mention of it in the press release from the police though
/u/NeverGoesOut what’s going on? You reckon the brother did it?
NeverGoesOut
It fits I guess
Fingerprints are hard to deny
My main issue with it is why? Why does someone kill both their sisters?
WHOKiLLedLAURaPalMEr
So if it’s the brother that killed them both are we assuming that he also killed Annalise Rigby from 5 years ago? Anyone remember that?
Kinda sad to be giving up on the theory that NA is still alive though. Always hoped she’d pulled a Gone Girl and run away
The name Annalise Rigby came out of nowhere; I hadn’t seen her mentioned in any of my previous Reddit perusing, but it still snagged at me, so I put it into the search bar, hoping to jog my memory.
She had gone missing from Stokely, which was less than a forty-five-minute drive north from here, five years before. Aged twenty-two when she went missing, she was born the same year as Nora and I were but the only mention of Nora’s disappearance in articles about Annalise were vague and perfunctory. There was nothing to indicate anyone thought seriously that they were related, so I headed back to Reddit, to the “Unresolved Mysteries” thread about Nora, and scrolled down to the very first mention of Annalise Rigby.
/r/UnresolvedMysteries
This is an archived post. You won’t be able to vote or comment.
What Happened to Nora Altman?
hellomarshmallows 5 years ago
Hey new to the thread and just read pretty much everything you guys have posted. Have you heard anything about the girl from Stokely who went missing recently? It reminded me of the Nora Altman case so I started searching everything I could online and found you guys. Anyone think they’re connected?
DeathsDoor
Why would they be connected?
WHOKiLLedLAURaPalMEr
Cos Stokely’s like a 45-minute drive from Forest View!
DeathsDoor
Oh right didn’t realize. The Rigby girl just left though right? That seems pretty clear to me. She wanted to leave town anyway and she’d had a fight with her boyfriend so she left. She was like 21 she can do what she wants.
hellomarshmallows
Stokely’s actually even closer to where Nora went missing (or at least where her car was found) than Forest View is. It’s more like 30 minutes away. Seems insane two girls would just disappear like that and it not be connected
DeathsDoor
Been 5 years since Nora went missing now though
WHOKiLLedLAURaPalMEr
So?
DeathsDoor
So that’s quite a lot of time to pass
WHOKiLLedLAURaPalMEr
Not really dude. Does anyone know if Nora and Annalise Rigby knew each other? Went to school together or anything?
hellomarshmallows
No they didn’t. Annalise had only been living here (I’m from the area but not from Stokely) for like 7 months so they never would have crossed paths. She was living with her boyfriend while his dad was sick and helping out his mom at their bar.
SimoneDeBoobsPhwoar
Oh man that’s so sad
LLCoolJake
Anyone else think maybe the boyfriend did it?
skeletonkey
Why does everyone always suspect the boyfriend?!
SimoneDeBoobsPhwoar
Cos it normally is the boyfriend! Or an ex obv
skeletonkey
Where’s /u/NeverGoesOut in all this? Wanna hear your take man
NeverGoesOut
I’m here.
Not sure what to make of the Rigby case but does seem like too big of a coincidence if I’m honest.
DeathsDoor
Even 5 years later?
NeverGoesOut
Well if you subscribe to the foul play theory (which I do) that Nora was abducted and probably murdered then the most likely scenario is that she was killed by someone she knew. Not just because statistically most people are (especially female victims) but because of the context. She ran out of gas by the side of the road and was presumably picked up by someone pretty quickly after that because she didn’t even call anyone when she realized she was out of gas. In which case it had to be someone she knew because most people would prefer to call a friend/parent/sibling and wait to be picked up than get in a car with a stranger wouldn’t they?
All this to say that if it was someone she knew then there’s a strong possibility they still live in the area—or at least visit regularly (going back to see family etc) and could therefore have pretty easily either run into Annalise or got to know her over the past few months.
On top of which Annalise went missing over the weekend of a popular festival that Stokely holds this time of year so the town would have be
en busier than usual (it’s pretty quiet in the winter otherwise).
If it was the ex who killed Nora—which as I say, I think it probably was—then I know that he doesn’t live in the area anymore, but because of the festival that weekend, there’s a chance he might have come back for that. Just postulating tho, nothing concrete here at all.
hellomarshmallows
This
I agree with all of this
A little more enlightened, but still ultimately unsatisfied by the lack of information, I sent Keegan a Facebook message to ask if he wanted to meet for a drink later.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Keegan was already at the bar when I arrived, sitting alone in the same booth we’d sat in the night of Elle’s memorial. He was most of the way through a beer, his laptop open in front of him, making the most of how quiet it still was, as well as Cool’s free but intermittent Wi-Fi. I got myself a drink and joined him. He was clearly concentrating hard though, because he looked up, startled, as I sat down, and it took him a beat for the cloud of confusion to pass and for him to recognize me.
“Maddie, hi,” he said, “sorry, I’m just trying to get this thing written up, will you give me a minute?”
“Sure,” I said, taking a sip of beer and letting my gaze wander around the bar. It was a little after four and there were only a few other people in the room. Everything is made of wood in there, and the already low ceiling is strung with strange tchotchkes and memorabilia, so that it feels cozy but a little claustrophobic at times too.
“Okay,” Keegan said after a while, “I’m as done with that as I can be,” and shut the lid of his MacBook.
“What were you doing? Writing a blog post?”
“Well, kind of. It’s for the Huffington Post.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, just kind of a little atmospheric piece about what it’s like here at the moment, with the specter of Nora, and Nate being arrested for Noelle’s murder. How it’s affected the town, its mood and morale, that kind of thing.”
“‘The specter of Nora,’” I said.
“Yeah,”
I took a drink and looked at him. “Right, well on that note. What can you tell me about Annalise Rigby?”
“Annalise Rigby? That girl from Stokely?” he asked, his forehead creasing a little.
“Yes, the missing girl from Stokely.”
“I can’t tell you much, to be honest. I just … I don’t think she’s connected to this necessarily.”
“That’s not what you said on Reddit.”
He looked down into his glass, which was almost empty now, and drained it before speaking. “Well, that was a while ago. Before Nate.”
“You said that if Nora was killed or kidnapped by someone she knew—which you thought was the most likely scenario—then the chances were that that same person could feasibly have kidnapped or killed Annalise, considering Stokely is less than forty-five minutes from here. That’s what you said.”
“Yeah, so?”
“Well, Nate was in Texas when Annalise went missing, so it doesn’t match up,” I said.
“So maybe Annalise’s disappearance isn’t related. All that’s just speculation, anyway. If Nate wasn’t here when Annalise went missing, then they’re probably not related.”
“And what if it’s not Nate? What if Nate didn’t kill Elle, or Nora, or Annalise? And what if the fact he wasn’t anywhere near Forest View or Stokely when Annalise went missing proves that?” I asked desperately, my voice catching and falling on my own words.
“Look, I guess it’s still possible all three of them are connected, but with Nate’s fingerprints on that knife, and if, as you say, he wasn’t actually here when Annalise went missing, then it’s beginning to look highly doubtful.”
“Will you just tell me what you know about Annalise?” I said, frustration leaking out of me.
“There’s not much to tell,” he said with a shrug. “You probably know as much as I do just from searching for her online.”
“So you’ve never researched her disappearance the way you did with Nora’s?”
Keegan shook his head. “No, there’s just not as much information around about her. Do you want another drink? I think I want another.”
I stared at him, annoyed by his change of subject, and said: “I’m fine.”
Keegan went up to the bar and, as he did so, the door opened, and I felt the kick of cold air even in our corner booth. I looked over to see who had come in and was surprised to see Agent Lee, completely unaccompanied. He peered around the bar, getting a good look at the whole room and shot me a halogen-bright smile when he spotted me.
“Mind if I join you?” he said after I’d watched him saunter over.
“I’m with someone,” I said.
“Who? The child at the bar?”
“He’s twenty-two,” I pointed out.
Lee held up his hands. “I wasn’t planning on carding him, I promise. You think he’ll mind if I sit with you guys for a while?”
“Shouldn’t you be working?” I asked.
He smiled again, once more showing off his teeth. “Who says I’m not?” I made a sound at the back of my throat, and he laughed. “Look, why don’t you let me buy you a drink?”
“I thought you didn’t approve of drinking before five.”
“I have been known to make exceptions.”
“Fine. I’ll have the same again,” I said, shaking my glass at him.
I wasn’t even nearly finished with my beer, but for some reason having this guy buy me a drink I didn’t even need felt like a victory. A bitter, petty victory, but a victory nonetheless. He smiled, this time keeping his teeth to himself and wandered off to the bar, where he held out his hand to shake Keegan’s and the two of them started talking. They returned a few minutes later with a pitcher of beer and sat down on the bench opposite me, so it looked and felt as though I was being interviewed.
“So, what should I call you, is it ‘Agent Lee,’ or do you prefer the more informal ‘Agent’?” I asked.
“You can call me Steven,” he said, not bothering to tilt the glasses, and pouring out three very frothy beers.
“Steve and Steph,” I said, referencing his partner Gutierrez, “that’s cute. Where is Steph tonight anyway? Have you two had a fight?”
“Oh, we fight all the time, but we always make up. She’s Skyping her daughter,” he said, passing me a glass and then taking a drink from his own.
“Keegan and I were talking about Annalise Rigby before you got here, but hadn’t got very far. Maybe you could help us out a little.”
“Annalise Rigby?” he said, “I’m not sure I recognize the name if I’m being honest.”
“You’re not very good at playing dumb, Steven.”
He grinned over his beer glass at me. “Ah, maybe I’m just too smart for my own good.”
“If you were actually smart you’d be able to fool people all the time.”
“You make a good point, Madeline. A very good point. Why were you talking about Annalise Rigby?”
“She went missing from Stokely five years ago.”
“I’m aware. Hey, would you guys go in on a basket of fries if I ordered some? I’m starving.”
“The waffle fries are really great here,” Keegan said.
“Good to know, man, good to know. Waffle fries it is. Maddie? You have any recommendations for me?”
“No.”
“Fair enough.”
“Can we get back to Annalise for a second?”
“Sure, but I don’t know what I can tell you, really. It wasn’t a DOJ case. The county sheriff would have been in charge of that one.”
“Who was that?” I asked.
“I don’t know; I don’t have total recall when it comes to every single county sheriff in the state, somewhat surprisingly. You could find out for yourself pretty easily though. Now, back to those waffle fries, should I get one basket or two?”
Lee got his fries in the end and I spent much of
the evening watching as he and Keegan chatted away. I expected Keegan to grill him more—here was someone who had inside knowledge of Noelle’s case, after all, but he was too deferential, a little too deer in the headlights for that. I tried as best I could to steer the conversation back to either Annalise, Elle, or Nora, but Lee was a conversational expert when it came to changing subjects and misdirection apparently. He never appeared rude or disrespectful when he did, but instead a few seconds would have gone by and we’d be back to talking about something random and inconsequential like the weather—which was particularly bad—or Mindhunter—which was particularly good—and I wouldn’t even have noticed that he’d steered me off topic again.
“So, you’re based in Wausau?” I asked, trying at least to get him to talk about his work in some form.
“Yeah. I’m from Milwaukee though originally. You went to college there, right?”
“Madison.”
“Oh right, it’s Angela who was in Milwaukee.”
I took a sip of beer and looked at him. We’d eaten our way through the two baskets of waffle fries he’d ordered and were onto another pitcher. “That’s right,” I said slowly.
“How did you become an Agent?” Keegan asked, sitting forward a little in his seat.
“The usual way: I applied. Why? You think of joining me?”
“He’s a writer,” I said.
“For now, sure. But he’s twenty-two. He could change his mind, right, Keegan?”
“Oh, um. I don’t know. Not really. I still need to graduate, right?”
“That’s the spirit,” Lee said, slapping him on the back. He turned his gaze back on me. “You’ve changed your mind a few times on what you want to do, right, Maddie?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, stiffening.
Lee shrugged, eyes on me while he swirled the last few gulps of beer he had left in his glass around and around. “Just that people change. Their minds, their majors. It’s pretty normal.”