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“More than anything, Greer wants to know who her father is.”
“She doesn’t know her daddy?”
“No one knows who he is. No one but the father and her mother, who’s dead.”
For a moment, a sick feeling washed over me. What if Sterling was Greer’s father? Would she ever recover from that knowledge? Maybe it was better not to know. But I didn’t think he was. For one, Blair had been too old for Sterling by then. He’d had very specific predilections and had already moved on to abusing Anna. And second, Greer’s mother had been supported handsomely by her baby daddy, according to Greer. There’s no way Sterling would have shelled out that kind of money to keep Blair and Greer living away from the house when he’d likely have been interested in Greer when she was a child. Gross thought, but oddly comforting at the same time.
“Maybe he’s in the mother’s things. That’s where I’d look first.”
Janae had a point, though again, I wasn’t in the personal detective field. I knew how to request research documents, but not how to get into the personal papers of private individuals.
“I think that’s a dead end. Greer’s mother has been dead for years, and the apartment they lived in together has been sold. As far as Blair’s personal effects and papers, I’m sure Greer has already combed through those meticulously.”
“Well then, we need to come up with a list of suspects from that time. Men who were around Blair. Men she hung out with.”
“I’m not sure where to get that information, J. Greer wouldn’t know. Maybe Eugenia? Oren?”
“Maybe,” she agreed. “Or Anna?”
“She was a child. But maybe she remembers something. And she’s a hell of a lot more accessible. I don’t even know how to get in touch with Eugenia these days. And Oren called to tell me his travel itinerary this week, as he put it, ‘in case anything happens to Greer.’ He’s out of town.”
“So, should I invite Anna over?”
“I don’t know. My gut tells me she was somehow involved in Greer’s accident, but I haven’t had time to separate truth from lies.”
“It couldn’t hurt to just feel her out. You’re not trusting her with anything. You’re just asking what she knows.”
“True. Call her and ask her to come by—see if she’s willing. And Janae? Whatever you do, don’t let me out of your sight.”
* * *
Anna showedup less than an hour later. I found that if I kept busy, I didn’t think about Greer. I didn’t think about that fact that she was currently shacked up at Richmond House with another man—a man I hoped to God she hadn’t decided to use as a rebound. Now that I was sober and in a completely clear state of mind, jealousy clawed at my chest. I couldn’t help but notice that our breakup had almost perfectly coincided with Wade’s arrival in Astoria. I swear I felt her tattooed initial throbbing on my chest, the pain—phantom though it was—becoming more intense with every passing hour. What had we done?
But our breakup was only temporary. Sometime during the night, I’d managed to make myself believe it. Greer thought she was ready for life without me, but I knew she wasn’t going to be able to let go that easily. I wasn’t. The idea of fighting for something struck me as cliché, but that’s what I was doing. I was fighting for Greer. For us. As long as I kept repeating it to myself, I was able to maintain some semblance of control.
Anna had visited my office before. Never alone—always with a group of fellow librarians. It was their job to determine which, if any, historical documents I’d managed to acquire were something the library was interested in buying—or, more often, displaying.
Now, though, I felt her eyes on me, as if I’d personally asked her to my house because I wanted to have my way with her. She was back in one of her shapeless dresses, her eyes sharp, her gaze maniacal.
“Jace,” she said when she saw me through my open office door. “Thanks for inviting me.” She breezed through the doorway, completely ignoring Janae.
“Actually,” Janae said, stepping through the door behind her. “I was the one who called.”
“Oh, yes. Of course. But you mentioned Jace needed my help?” She looked back at me expectantly. Janae cleared her throat.
“Uh…yes. I do. It’s about Greer.”
Anna’s face froze. It was the wrong thing to say, and I kicked myself before trying my best to recover.
“We broke up,” I announced. Anna’s jaw went slack before a look of false concern marred her childlike features.
“Oh, no. Really? What happened?”
“Yeah, boss. What happened?” Janae mocked.
“It was the séance, wasn’t it? You couldn’t get over Greer’s use of Ecstasy behind your back. I asked Mother and she told me everything that happened. I don’t blame you, honestly.”
Janae just looked at me in silence, eyes wide.
