The Never List

time ago. I guess by now it’s all water under the bridge.”
    This was getting interesting.
    “‘At first’? So you had an ongoing relationship with her back then?”
    He blushed again and seemed agitated. “She didn’t mention that?”
    “No, she didn’t.” He looked disappointed. “Yes, we, um, dated for a bit. After that piece I wrote. Just a few months, but, well, she is quite an extraordinary woman.”
    Yes, quite extraordinary, I was thinking. I wondered if Adele had had some ulterior motive with this relationship. She was becoming more fascinating by the minute.
    “So that must have been a strange dynamic. You writing about it, and she being such a part of the story.”
    He shook his head. “What can I say? It was my beat. But oncehe was convicted, we were just running background stories anyway—you know, scraping the barrel for ancillary material to keep it alive. Interviewing his junior high school teachers, profiling the architect of his house, looking at his conference papers, that kind of thing. Just to keep it going. Portrait-of-the-villain-type stories.”
    “His papers?”
    “Yes, the last thing I was working on was a piece about his academic research.” He paused, looking uncomfortable.
    “I don’t remember that one. Did it ever run?” I pressed, sensing he was hiding something.
    “N-no. But it wasn’t a big deal. Not front page or anything.”
    “It caused some trouble with Adele maybe?”
    He shrugged.
    “I see.” So apparently Adele thought Jack’s research was relevant to something. Relevant enough to keep people away from it.
    He went on. “Anyway, it’s too bad it didn’t work out. She had a lot going on, especially with that group she was in.” He was obviously trying to change the subject.
    “What group?” Now I was really interested. A group, I thought to myself, or a secret society?
    “I don’t really know. Some kind of Skull and Bones–type of thing at the school. Mysterious, but that’s how she was. Maybe that was the appeal. The challenge.” He seemed to be getting lost in his self-revelatory moment, his look drifting off behind me into the distance.
    “What do you mean?” I asked, loudly enough to get his attention again.
    He snapped back into the present. He looked at me, apparently trying to decide whether to go on, perhaps realizing that confiding in me might not be his fastest track back into her heart.
    Finally, he shrugged and continued. “I mean, I’d ask questions about her family, her past, even simple things like where she’dgrown up, where she’d gone to school, but she always managed to deflect me.”
    He shifted in his seat, and his face reddened the way only a ruddy complexion can. I wondered exactly what he was remembering about Adele Hinton, especially because there was surely plenty to recall.
    “Any idea who else was in that group of hers?”
    “I don’t know. All I know is they met at odd times—all hours of the night, and sometimes on short notice. She took it very seriously, and if she had a meeting of that club, there was nothing I could do to keep her from it. That was her top priority.”
    I thanked him and stood up to leave. Once again he looked confused.
    “But wait, we only talked about Adele. Don’t you want to talk more about Jack Derber? For your paper?”
    I had what I needed from him already.
    “Let’s set up a call. I’m late for class right now, but I really appreciate this,” I uttered awkwardly as I eased away backward, waving to him.
    “Oh, okay. Well, say hi to Adele for me. And, you know, if she wanted to get together … we could talk about your research or something. I can probably dig up some old notes …”
    “Yes, I definitely will,” I called out as I walked quickly over to my car.
    Of one thing I was now certain. Adele was a crucial piece of the puzzle. She was right there in it. And she knew more than she was letting on.

CHAPTER 26
    I had been in the cellar nearly one thousand days when Jennifer went upstairs for the last time.
    During each of the days she was there, I had spent hours just staring at that box, trying to imagine what she was going through. She maintained her absolute silence to the end, even though she was not gagged all the time, and even when he was not around. His control over her was total and absolute, her terror complete.
    Early on I had listened for her, thinking that eventually she would try to communicate with me again secretly, as she had in those first days.