An undefined sense of dread was coming over me, as if a smiling malevolent valet was placing onto my shoulders a thin robe that had been stored in a freezer.

“Why did you want my blood?” I asked, remembering where Martha Prentice often worked.

“To learn your blood type.”

The clouds were now directly above us. A slow drizzle began, which we ignored.

“Dr. Corwin works closely with a lab that identifies blood types,” she explained. “And a Mr. Tucker there was glad to help me out. If he had asked me, I had a very good explanation prepared for why I needed to know the blood sample’s type. But he didn’t ask me. That’s the kind of trust I generate from the people I work with.”

She walked over to where we had apparently consummated our passing acquaintance almost twenty-two years ago.

“I just got the results from him late this morning. That’s why we couldn’t meet until now. If your blood type had been AB, I would have met you today, apologized for having treated you in such a cool fashion, told you I was a bit concerned about my daughter being attracted to a man old enough (albeit just barely) to be her father, and never have mentioned what happened on this location when you were still in your teens.”

I turned up my collar against the rain.

She said, “My blood type is as common as you probably thought I was back then. Type O. Gail’s type is the same as mine. Do you know your blood type?”

I said I wasn’t sure.

“Well, you might want to know, Ray, should you ever need a transfusion, because someone has, say, stabbed you or shot you or hit you with their car”—she enjoyed reciting these possibilities— “that your blood type is O as well. O plus O always equals O.”

“That doesn’t identify me as Gail’s father. He could be any one of millions of men.”

“Not millions!” she snapped, adding sarcastically, “I wasn’t that easy.” I thought she might spit at me, but she continued sadly, “I’m ashamed to say that her father could have been any one of three men that I was familiar with during the time in question.”

“Well, have you found out their blood types?”

Her eyes rolled ironically. “The other two haven’t been kind enough to drop by as a dinner guest of my daughter’s. I have no idea where on earth either one is. You were the catch of the bunch, the closest thing to a celebrity I ever knew. I recognized you the instant I saw you in the house.” I remembered her sullen stares when we’d met. “I hope you appreciate that I didn’t have to tell you all of this. I could have pretended that the only possibility was you.”