“I’m just wondering if Anna could have been affected by that kind of thing. Did she experience your being violent toward each other? Did either of you hit her? Maybe an occasional spanking that went too far?”

The woman frowned and shook her head fleetingly.

“Was there anything between you and Frank that might have contributed to Anna turning out the way she did?” Heloise continued. “To her being so difficult?”

“I don’t know …” the woman said. “She just had trouble living life, I think.”

“Did you do anything to help her?”

There was a long moment of silence between them, and Mr. Goatee started moving around uneasily on his creaking leather-upholstered barstool.

“I made sure we could pay our bills,” the woman repeated. “I made sure she had clothes to wear and a roof over her head.”

“Yeah, you said that already,” Heloise said, unmoved.

The woman stared at her for several seconds. “Life wasn’t easy for Anna, and so what? It wasn’t easy for the rest of us either.” She nodded toward the man at the end of the bar. “We all have things we struggle with, but we don’t go around killing people, do we? Anna isn’t normal. She’s sick. You understand? Her mind’s all twisted.”

Heloise didn’t say anything.

When the woman spoke again, she sounded hollow.

“Was I a good mother?” A snorting sound slipped out of her lips. “Maybe not. But I did the best I could.”

Heloise Googled the number for Herlev Elementary School as she got back into the car and called the office.

“Herlev School, this is the front office, Marianne speaking. How can I help you?”

“Yes, hello. My name is Heloise Kaldan. I was wondering if you could help me. I’m looking for a former student of yours.”

“Yes?”

“Unfortunately, I don’t have a last name, but I know his first name is Kenneth.”

“Kenneth?”

“Yes. He must have graduated around 1998, plus or minus a year or two.”

“Uh-huh. That’s going to be really hard for me to find.”

“Don’t you have a student directory you could search?”

“I do, but the digitized database only goes back to 2002. The registration information for all the students from before that is in a physical archive, and the students are listed alphabetically by last name. So, I would have to review all the class lists for the years you’re looking for to find this Kenneth, and there are probably several Kenneths on the lists, so without a last name, I’d be lost, you see?”

“Yes, of course,” Heloise said. “Obviously you shouldn’t have to bother with all that.”

The woman laughed in nervous agreement.

“Would you mind my coming in there and looking through the lists myself?” Heloise offered.

“Oh.” The woman cleared her throat. “Um, I don’t think I’m authorized to—”