“I want to find out more about it.”

“Why?”

“Curiosity.”

“What are you afraid of? That your father had a girlfriend?”

“I don’t know. I don’t really believe he did, but I’m sure she was someone he knew, someone he met by appointment, not accident, at least after the first time.”

“You think you met her more than once?”

“I’m sure of it. I’m sure I went to the parade more than once and I’m sure she was there each time.”

“What about this Sandy Gordon thing?”

“I’ll give it a try. But only if he has more to tell me. With what I have now in that carton, I don’t have enough to go on. He must be holding something else, some papers or something. She must have filed a tax return that would tell me where she worked. If not, that’s it.”

“Where are you starting on your father’s case?”

I had thought about that. “I guess downtown Manhattan where he worked—if the company is still there.”

“You know where to turn if you need help.”

“Thanks.” I leaned over and kissed him. “Anyone ever tell you you’re a peach?”

“Yeah, but I kissed her good-bye years ago.”

5

“Is my uncle driving you crazy?”

Mel and I were taking our morning constitutional together. It’s how we met just after I moved into the house I inherited from my aunt. While we do it less in the cold weather, we both found ourselves out on this crisp winter morning.

“Not crazy. I think his problem is driving him crazy, though.”

“He asked you to help?”

“At your brunch on Sunday. Then he dropped over on Tuesday afternoon and gave me a carton of stuff about his wife.”

“Do you mind?”

“Of course not, Mel. He’s living in limbo, not knowing what’s become of her.”

“I think she ran away because something in her past caught up with her.”

“You sound like you’ve thought about it. What makes you feel that’s what happened?”

“What else could it be? Sandy’s rich, adoring, the kind of husband women would die for. They weren’t even married a year. I don’t know if he’s told you, but they found out a few very strange things about her after she disappeared.”

“Like what?”

“Like she was born yesterday. Like she came into existence when she was about thirty years old. No history before that. Sounds like a secret life, don’t you think?”

“Possibly,” I said cautiously.

“I don’t know how you can marry a person you don’t know anything about.”

“What did Jack know about me?”

“Enough. You were Mrs. Wirth’s niece, you’d spent fifteen years at St. Stephen’s with a lot of respectable people to vouch for you. I would have provided a reference, if needed.” Melanie is a fierce friend. “And you weren’t Natalie.”

“What does that mean?”

“I never met her, Chris. What I know is family gossip. But he picked her up—”

“Where?”

“At one of the more acceptable places to pick people up, a museum or lecture. And they started dating. She claimed to have no family, not a lot of friends, and an autobiography that turned out to be full of holes.”

“How did you know Sandy talked to me about her?”

“He called last night. He must have tried you and you weren’t home. He’ll probably call again today.”

“I’ll be in and out,” I said. “But I think if we’re going to work together, I should have his number so I can call him.”

“Are you working together?”

“Maybe,” I said. “I’m intrigued.”

“I’ll give you his number when I get home.”

—

I left Sandy’s number near the kitchen phone and took care of some errands I had to run, thinking about the woman whose past might have caught up with her. It was hard for me to imagine what those words meant. There was very little about my own life that was mysterious or that I kept secret. I had been eight, almost nine, when my father died My mother had been widowed over five years when she herself succumbed. During those years I went from child to teenager, from grade school to high school. She gave me a wonderful life that included home-baked cookies, family, enough new clothes that I never felt I needed anything, and she worked until her illness prevented her from leaving the house. She never let me forget I had had a good father, but she never let me feel my life was lacking because he was no longer around. Everyone seems to be looking for role models nowadays. I don’t have far to look. Anything I needed was available in my family.

But maybe Natalie Gordon hadn’t been so lucky. Perhaps even finding a husband as wonderful as the one Mel had described hadn’t been enough to protect her from old ghosts, whatever they might be.

When I got back to the house, I called Sandy Gordon.

“What did you think of the stuff in the box?” he asked.

“Before we get into that, we need to agree on some ground rules.”

“Does that mean you’re taking the case?”

“It means I’m considering it. Mel gave me your phone number this morning. We have to work together, Sandy. You can’t drop in on me without calling first, and I have to be able to call you when I need to.”

“No problem there. I apologize for coming unannounced. I had called Tuesday morning and you weren’t home. I didn’t feel like leaving a message.”

“You told me the carton had information that would give me a point of departure. I didn’t find any. What I found is what Natalie looked like, her cosmetics and perfume, her incomplete dental record, and not much else. I need a lot more. She must have worked at some time, and I want to know for whom, where, what she earned, the kind of work she did. I want to know who her maid of honor was at the wedding and other personal acquaintances she had. I’d like to know where she was living when you met her and any previous addresses that you know of.”

“Whoa! Hold on. You’re going too fast. I’m trying to write all this down. There’s no problem getting you anything you’ve mentioned so far. I’ve got IRS returns from the year we were married—I didn’t have that when I hired the detective, by the way. I’ve got her maid of honor’s address and phone number, and the address she was living at when I met her. Go on.”

“Do you know anything about the keys?”

“What keys?”

“The ring of keys in the box.”

“I don’t what you’re talking about. I don’t remember any ring of keys.”

“They were in the bottom of the box.”

“I assumed her house keys were in the purse she was carrying on Thanksgiving Day.”

“Then these must have fallen out of something you gave me.”

“Interesting.”

I must admit it gave me a prickle of excitement. “We’ll look at them together when I see you.”

“How soon?”

I looked at my watch. “It’s too late for me to drive down to New Jersey today.”

“You don’t have to make the trip unless you want to see the house for some reason. Let me get these papers together and bring them to you. What’s convenient?”

“Tomorrow,” I said without hesitating. I always like to start a new project on a new day. “I’m an early riser.”

“I’ll be there between nine and nine-thirty.”

—

“You knew I’d do it, didn’t you?” I asked Jack when we were getting ready for bed that evening. His law school is four nights a week, and there’s a sense of relief when he gets home Thursday night.

“I think you want to do it because you hold out hope that there’s a chance she’s still alive.”

“I do. Not much, but I don’t think it’s hopeless.”

“I can probably get a look at the file if you want me to.”

“Sure. I doubt there’s anything there that’ll help me, but I should look. Sandy says he has some papers at home that he didn’t have when she disappeared, her tax returns for that year.”