the palmetto slipped from its platform at washington s union station and eased out into an eight-hour run down the eastern seaboard to charleston, south carolina. on board was a beautiful, tall and feisty redhead named kate waring, a daughter of the south, of a fine southern family. an often troubled young woman who was sitting on this train was finally on the brink of something very good. and what is it about trains? the ease there in that enclosed space of befriending perfect strangers. somewhere along the line between a greeting and good-bye, kate waring s invisible fate jumped its track. and quite unaware of the dark force descending, she disembarked to a future utterly changed. charleston, south carolina. it almost goes without saying, a showpiece of american history and southern manners. its charm is deeply embedded as
most everybody around charleston, south carolina, seems to know who the county solicitor is. scarlett is what people call her. solicitor scarlett wilson, officially. a well-known and popular prosecutor. and solicitor wilson had a problem. actually, two problems. for one thing, though heather kamp practically leapt at a deal to plead guilty to murder and to turn state s evidence against ethan, her credibility, as you ll soon see, was not exactly triple-a. and despite all the information the a-team uncovered, what could be used in court was thin. i mean, frankly, we didn t have a lot of evidence. we had a lot of opinions, and we had a lot of conjecture. but actual evidence, it just wasn t there. kate s skeletal remains gave the solicitor none of the
nephew, malachi. on her moscow trip, kate bought herself and ethan matching brass bulldog keychains. and on that monday morning in june, said ethan, he was very worried about kate, just as he had been for years as he helped her battle her demons. calm her down and talking to her and understanding what was going on in the world of kate. but now he complained, here of kate s dad sending police to talk to him about a check kate told him to cash. ethan explained to the cop, david osborne, about the money he d given kate for jewelry and other expenses. and that the check was to pay him back. he was basically best friends with katherine, had been for several years. in fact, ethan told detective osborne he was very likely the last friend to see her before she disappeared. he said that she had saw her friday night, had dinner, had drinks, came back, dropped kate off back at her house.
they formed a circle, held hands around the place they knew she had been. one of the investigators is a deacon in his church. and he said a prayer. this beautiful water, marsh, and docks. i think it might have given mrs. waring some peace thinking, you know, at least she wasn t in a garbage dump somewhere. it was a peaceful place, god s place. now the a-team had done its job, and kate s killers could finally be brought to justice. or so you d think. but the mystery, the web that was spun on that train down from washington was far stranger, more bizarre than you have so far heard. and justice? well, we shall see. coming up
but there was a problem with the visa. a paperwork mixup sort of thing that would have sent her into a tailspin once, but now, the new kate vowed to try again later. boarded the palmetto for charleston and threw herself into college classes and a children s book she d been writing. big brother joe was, to say the least, encouraged. she when i talked to her was the happiest i can remember hearing her in the last ten years. she sounded good. then it was june. heat rising in charleston s deepening green. on saturday morning, june 13, tom waring at his summer house outside the city, felt an absence. cell phone hadn t rung. no call from kate. kate who always called or texted her parents almost hourly. she always checked, in and it was unusual. he drove home to check her room on this the silent house on the battery. and all the lights were on,