Page 41 of The Lie Maker

“It’s nothing like that,” I said, raising a hand to calm her. “It wasn’t me. It was my father.”

“Your father?”

“When I was nine, he went into the witness protection program. He wanted my mother and me to go with him, but she refused.”

“Was his name Givins?”

“No,” I said. “His last name was Donohue. Michael Donohue. And my name was Jack Donohue. But a couple of years after my dad disappeared, and after my mother had officially divorced him, she fell in love with someone else. A man named Earl Givins. They got married, and he became my father, and I took on his name.”

“Fuck,” Gwen said. “This should have been on file somewhere. There’s no way I shouldn’t have known this.” She shook her head several times, then said, “Why are you telling me all this?”

“Couple reasons. I wanted to clear the air. I wanted to be sure there wasn’t something fishy about you coming to me.”

“There isn’t. I swear. We fucked up. Plain and simple.” She shook her head in dismay. “This kind of thing just can’t happen.” She took a breath, then asked, “What’s the other reason?”

“I want you to set up a meeting. I’d like to see my dad. I don’t know how to find him, but I figure you do.”

Twenty-Three

“I heard you talking to Mom.”

“About what?”

“About you going away.”

“You shouldn’t listen in on people like that.”

“You said you could make a run for it. What’s that mean?”

“Jesus.”

“Are you running away to Mexico?”

“No.”

“So you’re not going away?”

“I’m still going away. Don’t cry, okay? Don’t do that.”

“I want to come with you.”

“Come here. Give me a hug. You know I love you more than anything in the world. You know that, right? Now get the hell out of here.”

Twenty-Four

The police department’s news release on the death of Dr.Marie Sloan was written in a way that allowed one to read between the lines:

“Police today recovered the body of Dr.Marie Sloan, age 34, of Cambridge, from Old Harbor, not far out from Carson Beach and Joe Moakley Park. Our preliminary investigation does not show that Dr.Sloan’s death was caused by interaction with any other person or persons, and may have been the result of misadventure. Dr.Sloan was a valuable member of the community, a dedicated professional, and someone who always put her patients first. At this time we wish to pass on our condolences to her family.”

The department’s chief communications officer, Cathi Chiarelli, had phoned Lana to give her a heads-up that something was coming, and moments later a statement landed in her inbox. The release had gone to all the media outlets in town, and Cathi couldn’t be expecting much in the way of follow-up questions, given that suicides were not considered particularly newsworthy.

But Lana was puzzled.

Later, she dropped by the police headquarters and found Cathi in her cubicle, which was in a crowded office with several other members of her department.

“Cathi, got a sec?”

Cathi said, “Sure, what’s up?”