Page 132 of The Bone Code

“Do you know how she got the job at InovoVax?”

“Some hotshot colleague helped her. That’s all she’d say.”

“Do you know who?”

“Are you the one with the hearing deficit?”

“Did she ever mention a man named Arlo Murray?”

“Esti. That bastard was a pain in her tushy.”

“How so?”

“Constantly badgered her at work. Guy had the balls to come here once. I heard them arguing about someone named Christian. No.” A gnarled finger shot up. “Christopher. All the shouting gave me the collywobbles. Not that I was listening on purpose.”

“What did you mean, she wouldn’t have abandoned one of her kids?” I asked.

“Meant exactly that. She wouldn’t have split without that baby.”

“Lena?” Pulse humming.

“No. Shirley Temple.”

I just looked at her.

“Hell, yeah, Lena. Poor little thing, left all alone.”

“Can you tell me what happened?”

“Not much to tell. She dropped Lena with the sitter and went shopping with Ella. I think the kid needed shoes. Maybe it was shorts.”

“And?”

“And she never came back.”

“Who was the sitter?”

“Sabine Esnault. I knew her from my canasta group. Stubborn as a bucket of mud. Don’t matter. She’s dead now. Got the big C, too. Gone in six months. Cancer’s a mean bastard.”

“It was Esnault who turned Lena over to child services?”

“You implying I should have stepped up? I was seventy-five years old,tabarnac.”

“Not at all. I’m just trying to verify facts.”

Sorg glared at me. She looked like an angry turtle in a housecoat.

“I understand Lena moved frequently while in foster care. Did you follow her progress?”

“I wasn’t so good at keeping up. Gotta admit, I feel bad about that.”

“Did you ever see her again?”

“She came by twice. The first time five, maybe six years ago. She’d learned we’re related. I guess when you turn sixteen, you get to lookat your own file. Or maybe she hacked it. I don’t know. But there she was, sitting where you are now.”

“What did she want?”

“What do you think? My recipe for poutine?” Air puffed through the crenellated lips. “She was asking about her mother and sister, of course. Wasn’t much I could tell her. The three of ’em was only here a year or so. The second visit was a couple years later. She’d tried to get info from that buttwipe from Melanie’s work.”