In the end, Carrie had given up on the apartment and gone with Zoe to the greasy spoon, where she'd broken her potato-chip fast with a bagel and a schmear. But she'd insisted on bringing the scrapbook, the rosary, and the three gowns with her. She'd crammed them into shopping bags so when she and Zoe sat in the booth at the Star Coffee Shop they were surrounded by a sea of beige chiffon, and then she had schlepped the bags back to her apartment. Now, having taken them into her bedroom, Carrie was wondering what to do next. The contents of the scrapbook would be toast as soon as she could buy a shredder, the rosary went into a drawer, but how was she going to get rid of three identical beige gowns? Giving them to a thrift shop was out of the question, because someone might recognize them.

Protecting Mommy's dirty little secrets? sneered a nasty voice inside her head. She told it to go to hell, stashed the shopping bags under her bed, and lay down on top of it. In the coffee shop, Zoe had said again that Carrie owed it to herself to find out more about her mother's past. It was one of those pieces of advice that seemed to be healthy and obvious—until you asked yourself how you were going to do it. There were probably hundreds of people in New York who had claimed Rose Manning as an acquaintance, but had any of them really known her? Carrie thought back to Rose's memorial service, which had been one long tribute to her work, without a personal note. Except for …

Carrie sat up, climbed off the bed, and ran into the living room. The basket of white roses was in the corner where she'd left it. There was a card attached to a tulle bow on the handle. Carrie ripped it open and read it quickly. The flowers had been sent by someone named Uncle Paulie. But Rose had been an only child—she hadn't had any brothers who could now be calling themselves Carrie's uncle. Same thing for Bobby Manning. Carrie looked at the card again, this time taking her time to decipher the florist's handwriting. It said, For Little Rose, with love from her Uncle Paulie. The sender was Rose's uncle. Carrie tried to think back to the research she had done when she was thirteen. As far as she could remember, Lu Lawson had had six brothers, and the family had originally come from New Haven, Connecticut. Lu's real name had been Lucia Leporello. It wasn't a lot to go on, but it was worth a try. Carrie picked up the phone and dialed Connecticut information.

Chapter 6 - Connecticut 2008