Her mother had been a tempest unto herself, always searching in vain for brighter skies. Her few friends called her a dancer. Those who didn’t know her called her a stripper. Many who were less kind called her a whore. She had lived out on the fringe, in a part of the world that polite society ignored, and many thought existed only in films. It was a dark, dangerous, alluring world; one that was never quite suited to raising a daughter. And so it hadn’t surprised Diamond when one day she simply disappeared. It wasn’t even “one day,” really, it was more of a process. She had gone out for her shift at the club and hadn’t returned that night, which wasn’t unusual. Nor was it strange that she hadn’t returned that day or the next two nights. It was a pattern Diamond was used to, and she was fine at the time taking care of herself. It took a week without any sign of her mother before she grew concerned and went down to the police station to ask what she should do. She was thirteen years old. After that, she’d been told that she would be living with her father.

Cormack O’Connell lived on an entirely different fringe. He worked down at the docks, but it was always clear to Diamond that there was more to his business than he let on. He knew too many people, and too many people were deferential to him to be explained by any role as a clerk or shipping manager. It was clear to her that he operated in the shadows of the law. She didn’t care, and she’d learned enough to know when not to ask questions. Whatever his business was, it provided enough for her to be comfortable in the little clapboard house off L Street in the clean middle-class section of South Boston.

That was where she was now, in his house, at his kitchen table, uneaten eggs sitting on the plate in front of her, figuring out what to tell him when he got home.

She wondered how he would react, how he would feel, what he would say and do. Her timing was deliberate. He had not come home the night before, which had become a semi-regular occurrence in recent months. It was a sign, she assumed, that he was seeing a woman. She wondered whether he would introduce her to whoever was taking up his evenings. Probably not. It didn’t seem likely that her father would be with someone he would feel was suitable to introduce to his precious daughter. He didn’t travel in any circles where he would meet anyone he would think was good enough. Diamond respected his privacy. She knew enough of the world to understand that, even at his age, men and women have needs.