Page 28 of Don't Tell Me How to Die

TWENTY-SIX

Johnny and I put the desk back exactly the way we found it, then left the house as easily as we came in.

“I’m leaving town for a couple of days,” he said when he dropped me off at home.

“Where you going?”

“Here and there,” he said, which was his polite way of letting me know that even though I knew he sold drugs, his business was none of my business.

“It’s my busy season.” He grinned. “A lot of my customers are looking forward to a green Christmas, and I don’t want to disappoint them.”

He must have seen the look of abandonment in my eyes because he quickly added, “You’ll be fine. If you need me, you’ve got my number.”

He drove off, and for the first time since Connie Gilchrist entered our lives, I felt totally alone.

I thought about telling Lizzie, but how do you start? So I asked my drug dealer to help me break into Dad’s girlfriend’s house this afternoon . No, Lizzie was the wrong one to tell. I thought about talking to Officer Montgomery, but Johnny explained that you can’t commit a felony and then ask the cops to help you out, because you suddenly discover you’re in kind of a jam. I needed more proof. I needed information.

But it was 1997, and it would be four more years before Google was invented. So I did what high school students in search of answers had been doing for generations. I went to the library.

Beth Webster was in her office. “Maggie,” she said, bubbling over as if I were exactly the person she’d been waiting for all day. “How is your senior year going?”

“Good,” I said.

“I’m going to miss you when you go off to college. Can you believe Christmas is just around the corner? To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“How do I get some background information on someone?”

“Well, that’s why God made encyclopedias, microfiche, and librarians. What can I help you find?”

“Um... this person isn’t famous, so she’s not going to be in an encyclopedia. I met her, and I want to know how I can find out more about her.”

“She might be in LexisNexis.”

“That’s great. What section is that in?”

“It’s right here in my office. LexisNexis is a computer service that provides legal and business research. They have a vast database. It’s pricey, but the library has a subscription.”

“How much would it cost me?”

“Oh, it’s free to members, but it takes a little experience before you get the hang of navigating your way through it. Just tell me who you’re looking into, and I’ll see what I can find.”

“Her name is Connie... or maybe it’s Constance... Gilchrist.”

“Oh...” Beth said, tilting her head the way people do when they’ve heard what you said, but they don’t quite believe you said it. “She’s your father’s... artist friend. I went to her opening at the restaurant last Friday night. I didn’t see you there.”

“I had to leave early,” I lied. “What did you think?”

“It was a lovely show.”

“No, I mean personally—what did you think of her?”

Beth knew it wasn’t a casual question. She answered cautiously. “I only spoke to her briefly, but she seems charming.”

“Yes, she does seem charming.”

“You sound like you think otherwise.”

“I’m just a girl looking out after her father. Do you think this LexisNexis would know anything about her?”

“It would help if I had some more input beside her name. What can you tell me?”

“She’s from Miami. Her husband, Steve, was a yacht broker. He died a year ago of a heart attack. She studied art at Hunter College, and her grandmother was a famous doctor back in the 1920s, but I don’t know her name.”

“That’s a start,” Beth said. “I’ll see what I can find.”

“Do you want me to come back Monday, or do you need more time?” I asked.

“Honey, it’s a computer. Just pull up a chair near the staff help desk and give me twenty minutes.”

Twenty minutes passed. Then another twenty. And then one of the other librarians came out with a message that Beth needed just a little while longer.

Finally, an hour and fifteen minutes into the wait, Beth came out, looking very serious. “You are one incredibly insightful young woman,” she said.

“You found something?” I asked.

“ Something ? Sweetheart, I hit the jackpot,” she said, waving the computer printout she had in her hand. “Connie Gilchrist may indeed be charming, but according to some very reliable sources, she was arrested for grand larceny in three different states.”