Lucy stares at her incredulously. “What’s going on with you? I’m not leaving us with no damn way to protect ourselves. We agreed this morning we wouldn’t let them do that to us. What’s wrong with you? You of all people know what she’s like.”

“I never really knew her,” Janet says and I’m stunned.

Of course she knew Carrie. Janet knew about their relationship at the time. There have been endless conversations about it since.

“What’s wrong with you?” Lucy has her hands on her hips. “You sure as hell met her back then. Remember the time we were having lunch in the Boardroom and she sat at our table and didn’t say one word to you or even look at you?” She’s angry and accusatory. “And the time you and I were talking in my dorm room and she walked in without knocking like she was hoping to catch us. What do you mean you never really knew her? What are you talking about?” Lucy is getting more upset.

“In the ERF, the Boardroom, out running, in passing in other words.” Janet’s voice is flat and disconnected. “I’m not sure I’d recognize her.”

“You’ve seen the photos. I’ve used computer age progression and showed you what she’d look like today. And besides you remember her. You’d recognize her. Hell yes you would.”

“I recognize her behavior. But literally I’ve not seen her to quote recognize her.”

“Are you being funny?”

“I’m being a lawyer. I’m telling you how I would feel compelled to answer the question of whether I’ve seen her.”

“Because this isn’t a game,” Lucy says, and I think I smell it. “They lie and say there’s no evidence she exists and you’re going to help them out by saying you haven’t seen her?”

“I haven’t seen her since the late nineties. Not probably. Absolutely and it’s the truth,” Janet says, and I’m sure I smell it.

I remember the loamy musky scent. More olfactory fool’s gold, and of course I’m not smelling it now but it wasn’t just Lucy. It was Janet too. When I hugged both of them it entered my mind that they’d been doing yard work. Until I remembered they don’t do yard work. They smelled as if they’d been digging in the soil.

Both of them did.