“Mine too.” This was what being aggressive was like.
“What will her name help with?”
“I don’t think it will give us a lot. I’ll search for her on the internet, but I didn’t even see a computer in Charlotte’s room.”
“Then what will it do?”
“Not much. I don’t think we can use it with her pharmacist. Or the hospital either. I’d like to find out why she died, or what medications she was on. But I don’t think a fake voice will work as well for more official matters.”
“You at least have it for your story.”
“And it’s something,” he said and sighed. “She deserves a starting point. It makes me realize what we need to do next.”
Gary closed the Yellow Pages and rested his hand on the cover.
“Jacob, do you think it matters?”
“That what matters? The name?”
“I just don’t know if anyone will think something happened. I know we discovered about her walker, that she couldn’t have gone out to the beach alone. But do you think that they will investigate?”
“Who? The police?”
“Anyone.”
“Well, we care about what happened, right?”
“Yes. I do.”
“Then we’ll investigate.”
Gary pushed up his glasses and coughed.
“So what do we do now?”
“Now? We make a trip to Sunset Cove and see what we can find. If we get anything good, we’ll be able to take it from there. That community may be large, but it’s tightly knit. We’ll be able to find out something. And I know just the person to ask first.”
Gary looked tired already, with bags under his eyes. His hair frizzed out and he reached up and patted it all down. Then he frowned.
“There’s one thing I want to ask you.”
“What?”
“Why didn’t you just call Melissa and ask her yourself? She would have told you Charlotte’s last name, wouldn’t she?”
“Part of the reason I didn’t ask is that you handed me the phone mid-call.”
“Jacob, that cannot be the real reason.”
He didn’t know, at first. He saw the pictures of Charlotte on the desk. He took his own camera and looked at the viewfinder. All those feet. All those steps. The prints on the beach were already gone. The prints in the picture had erased other prints, and there had been prints before them. On the small screen, they were just splotches of black. A code he couldn’t read.
“Really, that’s the only reason I didn’t ask Mel. I was caught off guard.”
“I don’t think so.”
“You don’t?”
“I don’t think that Charlotte Ward would say you are telling the truth.”
He sighed.
“I don’t think so either.”
They looked at each other. Jake put down the camera and picked up the photo. Charlotte, her dress shining purple. She’d been so afraid. She’d been right.
“The real reason,” Jake said, “is that I think we have to start believing Charlotte. Ms. Charlotte Ward. I thought that she was crazy. But she didn’t know who to trust.”
Gary finished the thought. It was obvious.
“We don’t know who to trust either.”
CHAPTER 20
They were walking to the common building at Sunset Cove when Gary got cold feet. He tapped his cane on the ground once and waited for Jake to look back. It took him a few steps to notice. He turned back to Gary and asked him what was wrong.
“Jacob, I just don’t know if it is the right thing to do.”
“What?”
“I know you say this woman, Sheryl, she has some sort of information about Charlotte.”
“Right-she may even know what happened. Or worse. She might be a part of it.”
Gary swallowed. He tapped his cane on the sidewalk again.
“Jacob, I don’t feel right seducing this strange woman, even if it is for a good cause.”
Jake put his hand to his head.
“What? Gary, when did I say you had to seduce her?”
“You’ve met my wife Meryl. She is a wonderful woman. Very understanding. She understands much more than I do. I know we are trying to discover what happened to Ms. Ward, but I fear that this might be acrossing the line.”
“Crossing the line, you mean?”
“However you want to put it, it is wrong.”
He looked around. It was late afternoon and the sun had started to set. Few people were walking around. When they’d found Sheryl Goldfein’s condo, they’d been told she was in the common building, planning for a bridge game that night. It wasn’t the normal night. He looked back at Gary, who was struggling with his short sleeve shirt. He was trying to wipe the sweat off his forehead while still holding his cane. It wasn’t working.
“Gary, all I said was that I wanted you to come along so she’d be more comfortable. I don’t think she likes me. Did I ever say that you needed to seduce her? Or flirt with her? Even talk with her?”
“Jacob, please. It was obvious. I could guess at why you’d want me there. She is a woman and I am a man.”
He dropped his cane and looked at Jake. Jake bent down and handed it back to him. He nodded stoically.
“Meryl and I, Jacob, we have a bond. A wedding ring. All these things. You wouldn’t understand. Your generation. You kiss and hug strange girls, willy nilly. Love is just a joke for you.”
“Gary, I don’t want you to seduce Sheryl.”
“Does she like a man with a sense of humor? Or the strong silent type?”
“I don’t know. You don’t have to do anything at all, if you’re worried.”
“Meryl will have to understand,” Gary said and sighed. “It’s for our friend Charlotte.”
“Wait, I thought you didn’t want to seduce her.”
“Our search for the truth requires bravery. Sacrifice. Seduction.”
He led the way to the building and Jake just followed. Slowly.
“Just remember it’s all informal. We can’t let her know what we figured out. She probably thinks I gave up on the idea that Charlotte didn’t die naturally.”
They went into the building. There was a miniature movie theatre in the center-the one they’d passed over for the picture of Palmstead’s more impressive one. Tables were pushed against the wall, three covered with aqua tablecloths and three bare. A handicapped rail clung to the side-wall-he thought about Charlotte and her walker, rolling down the ramp. Then Sheryl came out from behind an open closet door.
“Slow news day?” She held a tablecloth in her hand, folded into a square. “Or slow news year?”
“How are you?”
“Who’s your friend?”
Gary was walking down the stairs, one foot at a time. He had a grin on his face as he lowered his cane onto
