“I’m really beat, Cady, and I haven’t had dinner yet.”

“Oh, my goodness, I’m so sorry. Gram roasted a chicken—I’ll bring you leftovers.”

The fish cakes looked dried out and the broccolini limp, but was homemade chicken enough of a compensation for a late-night meeting? Still, I gave Cady the B and B address and bought a bottle of valpolicella.

Cady pulled up just as Peppy and I were getting out of the car. She bent to fondle the dog’s ears, apologizing again for the lateness.

“It’s Gram,” she said, handing me a foil pan: chicken, green beans, and a salad.

I made encouraging noises while I poured wine and started eating. The green beans were as limp as the store’s broccolini, but the chicken was good and the salad crisp.

“She was pretty witchy last night. She kept making sharp remarks about me not knowing when to keep my big mouth shut, and finally, tonight, I forced her to tell me what had her so wound up. She says you came around and said terrible, really hateful things and that it was my fault for letting you into the private part of our lives.”

She blinked to hide her tears, fishing in her blazer pockets for a tissue. I handed her the box from the bedside table.

“What did you say to her?” Cady sniffled.

“We talked about Sonia Kiel.”

I tried to reconstruct the conversation: so much had happened since I’d seen Gertrude Perec that I had a hard time remembering what we’d said. Sonia, her phantom lover, and yes.

“Every time I ask questions about your mother, or Sonia, or the graduate student who Dr. Kiel says ruined his experiment, people start barking at me. Not just your grandmother.”

“But what did you say to Gram?” Cady insisted.

“I wanted to know more about Matt Chastain—he was Kiel’s graduate student—he’s the one Sonia had the crush on, the one she thinks died. I figured since your grandmother had worked for Dr. Kiel, she’d know about Chastain.”

“She says you said something cruel,” Cady said. “I need to know what it was.”

I shook my head helplessly. “Cady, I wondered if Matt might have been your father. I don’t know what made me say it to her, just that he was there, Jenny—your mother—was there, and then Matt disappeared. They might easily have met—your grandmother was Dr. Kiel’s secretary and I imagine your mother going to Kiel’s lab to see your granny.”

She swallowed her mug of wine in a single gulp. “Ugh. That’s strong.”

I ate more of the chicken, sipped the wine, waited.