Axenia examined this proposal with suspicion bordering on scorn. Why? What‘s in it for you?

Over a third of NNA shareholders live in Anchorage, Axenia. Half or more of them never make it back to the Park for the annual shareholder meetings. I—The board feels like the Anchorage shareholders have been orphaned. This is a way to, I don‘t know, bring them back into the family, I guess. Maybe not such a desirable objective, Kate was thinking now. Auntie Joy thinks we should send a board member into town to attend, so they can answer questions and hear about problems.

What do you get out of it?

Kate looked at Axenia. If she stayed, Axenia would just keep asking that question over and over again. Think about it, Axenia, she said, sliding to the floor. If it sounds like something you‘d like to do, let Annie know and she‘ll get you contact information for the Anchorage people.

Or maybe I‘ll just run for the board myself, Axenia said, her voice rising as Kate walked away. Maybe I‘ll run for president!

Feel free, Kate said. Thanks for the coffee and cookies, and say hi to Lou. I‘ll find my own way out.

She was proud she didn‘t slam the door.

Fifteen

She checked her phone for messages. None. She cursed Brillo, the doc at Providence, Kurt, and Brendan with a fine impartiality, and felt better, if a little guilty. They were all capable guys but they weren‘t miracle workers.

Where next? She should drop in at the Raven offices, she really should. Instead she drove right by the building on Dimond and went to Costco, there to spend a productive hour buying flour by the twenty-pound bag, olive oil by the gallon, and Tampax forty-eight to the box. Kate was so done with fertility, she didn‘t know why it couldn‘t be done with her. As a bow to that fertility, however, she included a box of condoms, and filled the cart with other necessities, finishing up at the book table. The books were cheap but every third one seemed to be by the same author. She trundled the cart around to the other side. Ah, lots of Alaska books. She went in, and surfaced half an hour later when her phone rang.

It was Brendan. Is this some kind of test?

What?

Is there a camera on me, waiting to record the moment when I tear my hair and burst into tears?

What did you find out?

Not a goddamn thing on Gammons.

Nothing?

Other than I‘m reliably informed that he was in fact born. Where the hell do you come up with these people, Kate?

The born in Roy‘ holds up?

Yup, but I can‘t find his parents, where he went to school, nothing. I talked to the same cop your girl talked to. He says he‘s found a few people who maybe remember the parents, but they‘re not sure, and they can‘t remember anything about them other than they were thought to have died young. There was a brief silence. Kate?