She found it shoved into a shoebox full of yet more papers, receipts and ticket stubs from plays and movies, a newspaper clipping from when someone interviewed Angela about being a woman pilot. The necklace was still in its original plush velvet box. As Pin picked it up, a bit of cardboard fell to the floor. She retrieved it, sucking her breath in sharply when she saw what it was.

The handmade card Henry had shown her the first day they’d met, the same card he had given her the very last time she saw him outside the hospital, when he’d painstakingly written something on it.

“Pin?” Angela stepped beside her. “What is it, darling?”

Pin shook her head, eyes welling. She handed the card to Angela, who gazed at it, bewildered.

GEMINI CHILD PROTECTIVE SOCIETY

BLACK BROTHERS LODGE

HENRICO DARGERO AND VIVIAN PIN

“‘Henrico Dargero,’” Angela read. “Was that someone you knew in Chicago? I’ve never heard you mention him before.”

“Oh yes,” said Pin, taking back the card. Very carefully, she set it on the bureau, beside the wedding photograph of her mother and Francis, stared at the card for a long time before she finally turned back to Angela. “We were great friends,” she said. “Very great friends.”

Acknowledgments

For three decades as my agent, Martha Millard steered me through the creation of dozens of books, and she walked every step of the way with me through the first draft of this one, before her retirement last year. None of my novels would have been written without her support, inspiration, and encouragement. I owe her more love and thanks than I can express.

Martha passed the baton to Nell Pierce, who has done an amazing job. My gratitude to Nell and everyone else at Sterling Lord Literistic.

Three years ago, Josh Kendall at Mulholland Books read the earliest version of this novel. Without his brilliant suggestions and guidance, and those of Emily Giglierano, this book would never have been written. I feel extremely fortunate to have worked with two of the best editors in the business, along with my publicist, Alyssa Persons, marketer Pamela Brown, and production editor Betsy Uhrig, and to have had the support of everyone at Mulholland who helped bring Henry and Pin’s saga to life.

My copyeditor, Susan Bradanini Betz, did an exemplary job of catching those anachronisms that slipped past me. Her knowledge of Chicago and especially of Riverview enhanced every page she worked on—thank you!

The inestimable Steven Silver volunteered to authenticate and map my 1915 Chicago. He provided me with the names of streets, neighborhoods, buildings, businesses, and streetcars (many of them long gone), going so far as to create a Google map of Henry and Pin’s journeys across the city. I owe him an incredible debt of thanks for sharing his remarkable knowledge of and love for a lost Chicago.