“How long has it been?” Harriett asked.
Nessa didn’t want to say. After Jonathan died, she’d packed that part of herself away. Throughout her marriage, she’d never fantasized about anyone else. The truth was, she’d never even looked at another man in that way. Nessa felt Harriett’s eyes on her, and she worried how it would sound if she said that out loud. She didn’t expect Harriett to believe her. But for the fifteen years they were together, Nessa had been completely faithful to Jonathan in body, mind, and soul. Since his death, nothing had changed. Once she passed forty-five, she assumed nothing ever would.
“It’s time,” Harriett told her.
At that moment, Nessa’s phone rang. She looked down and saw Franklin’s name on the caller ID. “Did you do that?” she marveled.
“You ladies have drastically overestimated my powers.” Harriett rolled her eyes. “You even bought that whale bullshit a few weeks ago.”
“You didn’t talk to the whale?” Nessa looked crestfallen.
“Sure I did. But before that, I read the Mattauk newspaper and saw that whales had been spotted just off the Pointe.”
“Damn you,” Nessa said as she prepared to answer the call. “I was really impressed.”
“Oh, I have plenty of skills that would impress the hell out of you,” Harriett assured her. “Sending telepathic messages to detectives just isn’t one of them. Now answer the phone.”
“Franklin.” Nessa’s heart picked up speed. She turned her head away from Harriett so the other woman couldn’t see the grin on her face.
“I called as soon as I could.” Franklin sounded exhausted. “There’s been some movement in the case. A woman who says she’s our Jane Doe’s mother has come forward.”
Nessa leaped out of her chair. “Are you serious?”
“She saw the portrait we posted online and believes it may be her daughter, who disappeared a few weeks ago. I’m sending a car to pick up the woman in the city tomorrow so she can identify the body. If it turns out to be her daughter, she says she’d like to meet with the person who found her.”
“I’ll be ready,” Nessa said breathlessly. “Doesn’t matter what time.”
“I’m just warning you, Nessa, even if this is the lady we’re looking for, she might not say what you’ve been hoping to hear.”
“Doesn’t matter. If she’s the mother, bring her to my house.”
“Are you sure, Nessa?” Franklin pressed her. “This sort of thing is the worst part of my job. I don’t know why you’d want to share it.”
“I’ll be waiting for you tomorrow morning.” Nessa hung up the phone and looked down at Harriett, who was launching another perfect smoke ring into the air. “Franklin says they may have found the girl’s mother.”
Harriett lifted an eyebrow. “Two big leads in one day,” she said. “What are the odds?”
At eleven the next morning, the doorbell rang. On Nessa’s front porch, a skeletal woman stood by Franklin’s side. Nessa had been watching them since they pulled up in the drive. The woman shared the dead girl’s prominent cheekbones and their noses bore a resemblance to each other. But the eyes were different. The girl’s eyes had been spared whatever horrors the older woman’s had seen.
Now that she was close, Nessa could tell the woman had been beautiful once. It was evident not only in her face, but in the way she held herself—hunched and self-conscious, as though she’d been robbed of her only treasure.
“Thank you for finding my baby.” The woman on her doorstep threw her arms around Nessa and burst into tears. Nessa held her as she cried, wondering how it was possible that a human body could function with so little flesh. They stood there on the threshold, the woman clinging to Nessa like a life preserver, until Franklin cleared his throat behind them.
“Come inside,” Nessa told the woman. “I just made coffee. Would you like some?”
“Yes, thank you.” She pulled a Kleenex out of a packet that Franklin offered and wiped away the mascara under her eyes.
“Detective Rees, go make yourself comfortable in the living room and we’ll bring you a cup,” Nessa told him once they were all three inside. She gently took her guest’s arm and guided her toward the kitchen. “I’m Nessa James, in case the detective didn’t tell you.”
“Laverne Green.”
“You hungry, Ms. Green?” Nessa asked. “I made some butter rolls this morning, and if you don’t have some, I’m gonna end up eating the whole batch—and those calories would look a lot better on you than on me.”
“I’d love some,” the woman said hungrily.
In the kitchen, Nessa gathered dishes and silverware. The woman watched her. She didn’t seem to know what to do with herself.
“The detective says you drew the picture that was online.”
“Yes,” Nessa said. “I tried my best. I hope it did her justice.”
The woman retrieved an envelope from her pocketbook and pulled out a Polaroid, leaving several more stacked inside. “Her name was Venus,” she said. “After the goddess—not the tennis star.”
The girl’s hair was styled differently, but it was unmistakably her. She was wearing a ruffled red dress in a style that seemed better suited to another decade.
“You chose the right name for her. She was a beauty. May I see the other pictures?” Nessa asked.
“Of course.” The woman passed her the whole envelope.
The photos showed the girl posing in front of the same mirror in different outfits. Something in one of them caught Nessa’s eye. It was the chain the girl had been wearing when she died. The pendant at the bottom wasn’t a cross as Nessa had imagined. It was a coiled snake crafted from gold.
“That’s a beautiful crucifix she’s wearing,” Nessa said. If the woman was the girl’s real mother, she would know the pendant wasn’t a cross.
“Thank you.” Laverne wiped away a tear. “It was a gift from her grandfather.”
Nessa slipped the picture into the center of the pile and handed the photos back to the woman.
“Venus seemed to love the camera,” Nessa said. “And it sure loved her back.”
“She wanted to be a model,” the woman said. “Like her mama was back in the day. I know I don’t look like much now, but I was on the cover of magazines when I was that age.”
Nessa looked up to find Laverne staring at her. “I believe it,” she said.
“Then Venus’s daddy left me when she was a baby. Said I’d gotten fat. Everything went to hell from there. And now this—”
Back in her nursing days, Nessa had seen far too many parents lose children. Some wailed in anguish, while death struck others silent. Nessa knew grief came in countless varieties. But in her experience, this wasn’t one of them. “I’m so sorry,” she said.
Laverne’s gaze only intensified. Nessa returned to her work, but she could still feel it.
“I just wish I could have taken better care of her. When she ran away three months ago, it wasn’t exactly a surprise. Venus had been making her own money and I told her she needed to start paying rent, but she wanted to spend it on drugs. After that, she just picked up and left.”