“Vandersea alumnae office,” Kelly Cruz said.
“God,” Kimmy said. “They never lose you, do they? CIA ought to use them.”
Kelly Cruz smiled.
“Let me tell you why I’m here,” she said.
“Yes ma’am,” Kimmy said.
“My name is Kelly Cruz, I hope you’ll call me Kelly.”
R O B E R T B . P A R K E R
“I’m Kimmy.”
“Okay,” Kelly Cruz said. “We have that settled.”
Kimmy was blond, of course.
“You know Corliss and Claudia Plum,” Kelly Cruz said.
“I went to school with them.”
“And did you inform them of their sister’s death?”
“Flo?”
“Florence Horvath.”
“She’s dead?” Kimmy said.
“She is.”
“My God!” Kimmy said.
“I’m guessing that you didn’t inform them of Florence’s death.”
“God, no.”
“So how did they hear of it?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t seen them in years.”
“Really?”
“Years. Not since I was, like, fifteen.”
“And you are?”
“I’ll be twenty-one in August.”
“And are you in school?”
“I’m going into my senior year at U. Miami.”
“Your family lives in Sarasota?”
“Yes. That’s the last time I saw the Plums. Before we moved.”
“And that was in?”
2 3 0
S E A C H A N G E
“Ah . . . senior year at Vandersea. I was seventeen.”
“So you haven’t seen them since you were seventeen,”
Kelly Cruz said.
“No.”
“But you said fifteen.”
“Well, I didn’t see much of them for a while before then.”
“I understood that you were pretty good friends.”
“Not really.”
“I heard you used to sleep over sometimes. That seems like friends.”
“I only did it a couple of times.”
“When you were fifteen?”
“Yes.”
The room seemed very quiet. Kimmy didn’t look at Kelly Cruz. There was no longer any hint of cheerfulness. She suddenly seemed almost furtive. Kelly Cruz could feel a click inside, as if something had snapped into place, and a connection had been completed.
“What happened when you were fifteen?” Kelly Cruz said.
Kimmy looked at the floor and shook her head slowly.
