“Some bribes you don’t need to know about,” she says. I’m sure you’ve heard, well, bribery is an ugly word, but it’s important to give lots of gifts to everyone you encounter in Russia in the adoption chain.

I’m thinking…that was a bribe? I know I must have had an odd expression on my face, and she was starting to figure out that I’d followed her, and she says: “Francie. You want these babies, yes? Both of them?”

I nod.

“Then keep your mouth shut and don’t tell anyone what you saw today and everything will be fine. You can do that for your babies, yes?”

I say then: “I was worried you were taking off right before we have to leave for the hearing. That’s all.” I keep my mouth shut because if this odd behavior was making the adoption happen, then I was for it, and if it was a problem, it was hers and not mine. I was so anxious about the hearing, I didn’t think straight. And the hearing was really long, because they were giving us two babies, so the judge seemed twice as bitter about Russia losing two future citizens, and it was only really when we were on the plane that I thought: Well, it couldn’t have been a bribe. Hugh and I are paying the money for all the bribes, and she didn’t ask us for money. And she threw it away. A bribe, being passed on. But I had a son and now two babies to take care of, and what did I care what Danielle had been up to? She asked me not to mention it and so I didn’t. Until I told Iris a few years ago, and now.

Garcia: What was Iris’s reaction to this story?

(Long pause)

Garcia: Francie?

Francie: She asked me about the man and the car. I tried to describe them as much as I remembered. But why would she ask, unless she’d seen them, too? There was no reason to ask. And then she asked me if anyone had ever tried to…warn us off the adoption. Like, you know, someone approaching us in Russia and saying, “Go home.”

Garcia: Did that happen to you?

Francie: No, it didn’t. I asked her if that had happened to her and she said, “Yes, just a crazy lady; it was nothing.” But I wondered how a crazy lady would know that they were Americans there to adopt. I didn’t ask again, though. You can tell when a question is a bad idea.

Garcia: Did you ever ask Danielle about this? Or about the Pollitts’ experience in Russia?

Francie: Why would I? It’s like asking about a business trip. Iris said it all went fine, no issues. That’s what you want to hear.

Garcia: But Danielle confided in you about Steve and Carrie Butler.