The Disappearance of Stephanie Mailer: A gripping new thriller with a killer twist
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There was a long silence.
“And then?” Derek said. “What happened after that?”
“I had no more contact with Ted. The police said the mayor was the target and Meghan was an innocent bystander. The investigation was going in another direction. We were in the clear. There was no way to trace it back to us.”
“Except that Charlotte had borrowed Tennenbaum’s van without his permission and gone to see Mayor Gordon just before . . . you got there . . .”
“We must have just missed her. It was only when a witness recognized the vehicle outside Café Athena that everything went wrong. Ted started to panic. He contacted me again. He said, ‘Why did you kill all those people?’ I said, ‘Because they’d seen me.’ That was when he said, ‘Mayor Gordon was our partner! He was the one who killed Fold! He was the one who wanted us to kill Meghan! He and his family would never have talked!’ Ted told me how, in mid-June, the mayor had become his ally.”
* * *
Mid-June 1994
That day, Tennenbaum went to see Mayor Gordon to talk about Café Athena. He wanted to bury the hatchet. He could not bear the endless arguments anymore. Mayor Gordon received him in his living room. It was late afternoon. Through the window, Gordon saw someone in the park. From where he was, Tennenbaum could not see who it was. It was then that Gordon said in a somber tone:
“Some people shouldn’t live.”
“Like who?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
At that point, Tennenbaum sensed that Gordon might be the kind of person he was looking for. He decided to tell him of his plan.
* * *
“Without knowing it,” Bird said, “I’d killed our partner. Our brilliant plan had turned into a fiasco. But I was convinced the police would never trace it to Ted, since he wasn’t the murderer. I didn’t know you’d track down the man who sold the Beretta, which would lead you to him. He hid for a while in my house. He gave me no choice. His van was in my garage. It would be discovered eventually. I was scared to death. If the police found it, I was done for, too. I finally threw him out, threatening him with the gun, which I had kept. Half an hour later, the police were chasing him. That was the day he died. The police were sure he was the killer. I was in the clear. I met up again with Miranda, and we’ve been together ever since. Nobody ever knew about her past. As far as her family was concerned, she had spent two years in a squat before returning home.”
“Did Miranda know you’d killed Meghan and the Gordons?”
“No, she didn’t know a thing. But she did think I had killed Fold.”
“That’s why she lied to me when I questioned her the other day,” Betsy said.
“Yes, she made up that tattoo story to throw you off the scent. She knew the investigation was focusing on Fold, and she was afraid that would lead you to me.”
“What about Stephanie Mailer?” Derek said.
“She showed up in Orphea one day and told me she was writing a book about the murders. She asked if she could look through the paper’s archives. I offered her a job on the Chronicle so that I could keep an eye on her. I hoped she wouldn’t discover anything. After all, nobody else had. For several months, she didn’t get anywhere. I tried to put her off the track by disguising my voice and calling her from phone booths. I pointed her in the direction of the volunteers and the festival, which was a false lead. I would arrange to meet her at the Kodiak Grill and not show up. I was buying time for myself.”
“And you tried to point us in the direction of the festival, too,” I said.
“Yes. But Stephanie tracked down Kirk Hayward, who told her it was Meghan who was the target and not Gordon. She passed that on to me. She wanted to tell the State Police, but not before she had seen the case file. I had to do something, she was going to uncover the whole story. I made one last anonymous call, telling her there’d be a great revelation on June 23, and arranging to meet her at the Kodiak Grill.”
“The day she came here to headquarters.”
“I didn’t know what I was going to do that night. I didn’t know if I should speak to her, or run away. But I knew I didn’t want to lose everything. She came to the Kodiak Grill at six o’clock, as agreed. I was sitting at a table at the back. I watched her all evening. Finally, at ten, she left. I had to do something. I called her from the phone booth. I told her to meet with me in the parking lot on the beach.”
“And you went there.”
“I said I was going to explain the whole thing, I was going to show her something very important. She got in my car.”
“Were you planning to take her to the island on Badger Lake and kill her?”
“Yes, nobody would have found her there. But as we got to Stag Lake she realized what I was getting ready to do. I don’t know how she knew. Instinct, I guess. She threw herself out of the car and ran through the forest, and I ran after her and caught up with her on the shore. I drowned her. I pushed the body in the water, and it went straight down. I went back to my car. Just then, a motorist passed on the road. I panicked and drove off. She had left her purse in the car. Her keys were in it. I went to her apartment and searched it.”
“You wanted to get your hands on her research,” Derek said. “But you didn’t find anything. So you sent yourself a text message, using Stephanie’s phone to make it look like she’d gone away for a while and to buy time. Then, although it wasn’t discovered until a few days later, you faked a burglary at the newspaper offices to get her computer.”
“That’s correct,” Bird said. “That night, I disposed of her purse and her cell phone. I kept her keys because I thought they might come in useful. Then, when you showed up in Orphea three days later, Jesse, I panicked. That evening, I went back to Stephanie’s apartment, and searched it thoroughly. But then you arrived, although I thought you’d left town. I had no other choice but to attack you with tear gas and get away.”
“And then you made sure you were closely involved with the play and the investigation,” Derek said.
“Yes. And I had no choice but to kill Cody Springfield. I knew he’d told you about Bergdorf’s book. It was in a copy of that book that Mayor Gordon had written Meghan’s name. I started to imagine that everyone knew what I’d done in 1994.”
“And you killed Costico, too, because he might have led us to you.”
“Yes. When Miranda told me you had questioned her, I reckoned you’d go and talk to Costico. I didn’t know if he would remember my name, but I couldn’t take the risk. I followed him home from the club, to find out where he lived. I rang at his door, and pulled my gun on him. I waited until nightfall, then forced him to drive me to Badger Lake and row over to the island. Then I shot him and buried him there.”
“And then it was the opening night of the play,” Derek said. “Did you think Hayward knew your identity?”
“I wanted to be prepared for anything. I snuck my gun into the Theater the day before opening night. Before the search. Then I watched the performance, sitting on the gangway above the stage, ready to shoot at the cast.”
“You shot Carolina, thinking she was about to reveal your name.”
“I had become paranoid. I wasn’t myself anymore.”
“And what about me?” Betsy said.
“On Saturday night, when we went to my house, I really did want to see my daughters. I saw you come out of the bathroom and look at that photograph. I realized you had discovered something. After I managed to escape from Badger Lake, I left your car in the forest. I hit myself on the head with a stone and tied my hands with a length of rope I had found.”
“And you did all this to keep your secret?” I said.
Bird looked me straight in the eyes. “When you’ve killed once, you can kill twice. And when you’ve killed twice, you can kill the whole world. There are no more limits.”
*
“You were right, after all,” Major McKenna said to us on the way out of the interrogation room. “Tennenbaum really was the murderer. But he wasn
’t the only one. Congratulations!”
“Thank you, sir,” I said.
“Jesse, is there any chance you’ll stay a while longer on the force? I have made your office available. As for you, Derek, if you want to come back to homicide, there’s a place waiting for you.”
Derek and I said we would think it over.
As we were leaving headquarters, Derek said to Betsy and me:
“Would the two of you like to come over for dinner tonight? Darla’s making a roast. We can celebrate the end of the case.”
“That’s kind of you,” Betsy said, “but I promised my friend Lauren I’d have dinner with her.”
“That’s a pity. And what about you, Jesse?”
I smiled. “I have a date tonight.”
“Really?” Derek said, surprised.
“Who with?” Betsy asked.
“I’ll tell you some other time.”
“You’re a dark horse,” Derek said.
I waved to them and got in my car to go home.
*
That evening, I went to a little French restaurant in Sag Harbor that I particularly liked. I waited for her outside, with flowers. Then I saw her arrive. Betsy. She was radiant. She embraced me. With a gesture full of tenderness, I placed my hand on her bandaged face. She smiled and we kissed, for a long time.
“Do you think Derek suspects?” she said.
“I don’t think so.”
And I kissed her again.
2016
Two years after the events
In the fall of 2016, a little theater in New York City put on a play called “Stephanie Mailer’s Darkest Night”, written by Meta Ostrovski and directed by Kirk Hayward. It was a complete flop. Ostrovski was delighted. “Whatever’s unsuccessful must be good, take a critic’s word for it,” he assured Hayward, who was grateful to hear this. The two men are currently touring the country and are very pleased with themselves.
Steven Bergdorf’s article about the Orphea Festival and his role in ‘The Darkest Night’ did indeed revive the fortunes of the New York Literary Review. It went viral on social media and was syndicated nationwide.
Alan Brown did not stand again in the mayoral elections of September 2014. He left with Charlotte for Washington, where he joined the staff of a senator.
Sylvia Tennenbaum was elected mayor of Orphea. She is greatly liked by the townspeople. A year ago she started a spring literary festival which is enjoying a growing success.
Carolina Eden began studying literature at New York University. Jerry Eden resigned from his job at Channel 14. He and his wife Cynthia left Manhattan and settled in Orphea, where they took over Cody Springfield’s old bookstore, renaming it Carolina’s World. Its reputation has spread throughout the Hamptons.
As for Jesse, Derek, and Betsy, after the conclusion of their investigation into the disappearance of Stephanie Mailer, they were decorated by the governor.
Derek, at his request, was transferred from administration to homicide.
Betsy left the Orphea police and joined the State Police with the rank of sergeant.
Jesse, having decided to continue in the police, was offered the post of major, but refused. Instead, he asked to be able to work in a three-some with Betsy and Derek. Thus far, they are the only team in the State Police working in this way. Since their formation, they have solved all the cases entrusted to them. Their colleagues call them the 100 Percent team. They take precedence when the most difficult cases are assigned.
When they are not in the field, they are in Orphea, where all three now live. If you need them, you’re sure to find them in a lovely restaurant at 77 Bendham Road, where there used to be a hardware store until it was put out of business by a fire at the end of June 2014. The place is called Natasha’s, and it is run by Darla Scott.
If you go there, say you’ve come to see the 100 Percent team. It will amuse them. You will find them at the same table, at the back of the establishment, just beneath a photograph of Jesse’s grandparents and a portrait of Natasha looking forever beautiful—three spirits that watch over the restaurant and its customers.
It’s a place where life seems sweeter.
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
JESSE ROSENBERG: captain in the New York State Police
DEREK SCOTT: sergeant in the New York State Police
BETSY KANNER: deputy chief of police in Orphea
DARLA SCOTT: Derek Scott’s wife
NATASHA DARRINSKI: Jesse Rosenberg’s girlfriend
JOSEPH GORDON: previous mayor of Orphea
LESLIE GORDON: Joseph Gordon’s wife
ALAN BROWN: mayor of Orphea
CHARLOTTE BROWN: Alan Brown’s wife
RON GULLIVER: current chief of police in Orphea
JASPER MONTAGNE: deputy chief of police in Orphea
KIRK HAYWARD: former chief of police in Orphea
MAJOR McKENNA: major in the State Police
SEAN O’DONNELL: police officer in Orphea
MEGHAN PADALIN: victim of the 1994 murders
SAMUEL PADALIN: Meghan Padalin’s husband
BUZZ LAMBERT: director of “Uncle Vanya” in the 1994 Orphea Festival
CODY SPRINGFIELD: owner of the Orphea bookshop
TED TENNENBAUM: former owner of Café Athena
SYLVIA TENNENBAUM: his sister, current owner of Café Athena
MICHAEL BIRD: editor of the Orphea Chronicle
MIRANDA BIRD: his wife
STEVEN BERGDORF: editor of the New York Literary Review
TRACY BERGDORF: his wife
SKIP NALAN: deputy editor of the New York Literary Review
META OSTROVSKI: critic for the New York Literary Review
JERRY EDEN: C.E.O. of Channel 14
CYNTHIA EDEN: his wife
CAROLINA EDEN: their daughter
TARA SCALINI: childhood friend of Carolina Eden
GERALD SCALINI: her father
JEREMIAH FOLD: bar owner in Ridgesport
COSTICO: Jeremiah Fold’s henchman
Joël Dicker was born in Geneva in 1985, where he studied Law. The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair was nominated for the Prix Goncourt and won the Grand Prix du Roman de l'Académie Française and the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens. It has sold more than 3.6 million copies in 42 countries. The Baltimore Boys, at once a prequel and a sequel, has sold more than 750,000 copies in France. The Disappearance of Stephanie Mailer was a number one bestseller and the bestselling book of 2018.
Howard Curtis is an award-winning translator from French, Spanish and Italian. Authors he has translated include Georges Simenon, Jean-Claude Izzo, Gianrico Carofiglio and Luca D’Andrea.
Table of Contents
The Disappearance of Stephanie Mailer
Also By
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Concerning the events of July 30, 1994
In the Depths
-7
JESSE ROSENBERG
DEREK SCOTT
JESSE ROSENBERG
BETSY KANNER
JESSE ROSENBERG
DEREK SCOTT
JESSE ROSENBERG
DEREK SCOTT
JESSE ROSENBERG
DEREK SCOTT
JESSE ROSENBERG
BETSY KANNER
JESSE ROSENBERG
DEREK SCOTT
-6
JESSE ROSENBERG
BETSY KANNER
JESSE ROSENBERG
DEREK SCOTT
JESSE ROSENBERG
BETSY KANNER
JESSE ROSENBERG
DEREK SCOTT
JESSE ROSENBERG
-5
JESSE ROSENBERG
DEREK SCOTT
JESSE ROSENBERG
Toward the Surface
-4
JESSE ROSENBERG