“Yeah,” Ruby said, smirking. “That man does like his privacy.”

“Yes, he does.”

“Anyway, it wasn’t until I was working as a member of Simeon’s staff when I realized you were a woman. He came back from visiting Max in the foulest of moods. He raged for weeks, going on and on about some bitch who had bested him at chess.”

“So you knew the story before I told you about it?”

“Not all of it. You filled in a lot of the blanks.”

Bennett’s jaw tightened. “Of course, I did.”

“The way Simeon kept going on about you, I figured you were an important part of Max’s coven, and since I couldn’t find Max, I started looking for you. Because I could now pass as a mortal, instead of solely working in the homes of vampires, I began convincing prospective employers to give me jobs which gave me access to tax and property records.”

“And when exactly was that?”

“Late 1700s.”

“So you’ve been looking for me since then?”

“No. I found your name on some deeds in Vancouver in 1872. By then, I had a wealth of journals containing every tidbit of information I’d ever gathered, so I re-read everything. I began to see a travel pattern because I’d already found deeds under the names of several of the originals. I began backtracking through Europe and the States, seeing if my hypothesis was correct, and by 1940, I knew it was. Between business licenses, tax receipts, and property deeds, and convincing every mortal I could find who had worked for Max to tell me all they knew, I knew you’d eventually go to Seattle and from there to Stockholm, and then to Bonn and from there, to Boston.”

“Why wait until Boston?”

“Because other than your name, I knew nothing about you. Even though I’d worked in the homes of vampires, it wasn’t like I was privy to every little detail. For instance, I’d heard enough to figure out there was a huge issue between you and my brother, but I didn’t know what it was. I also knew Napoleon had somehow forced you and Max to move around more than you wanted. That told me that when I found Max or when I found you, Napoleon would eventually show up.”

“Are you saying you were in all those cities when I was?”

“Yes. I leased apartments near your galleries and watched you come and go. That’s when I figured out you were gay, which was a definite plus, I gotta tell you.”

“And how did you figure that out?”

“Oh please,” Ruby said, shooting Bennett a look. “You practically exude lesbian. I would have had to been blind not to see it.”

“That still doesn’t explain why you waited until Boston.”