“Okay, but you met Anna at Andy’s last year?”

“Yes.”

“When was this?”

“Oh, I don’t remember the date,” he said, and started on his second drink.

“Was it warm out that day? Was it snowing—what? Try to think back.”

“Yeah, I think it was snowing. Yeah.”

“So, it was in the wintertime?”

“Right.”

“How was the meeting set up? Did she contact you?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

His eyes weren’t focused, and he kept looking anywhere but directly at Heloise.

“I … She sent me a letter.”

“A letter?”

“Yeah, like the ones she writes to you.”

“What did it say in the letter?”

“Uh, something like, ‘Hi, Dad. Long time no see. Why don’t we get together?’ You know.”

“And then you met at Andy’s?” Heloise repeated.

“Yes.”

“Did you suggest that you meet there?”

“Yes.”

“And how did you communicate that message to her?”

“Huh?”

“How did you answer Anna’s letter?”

Frank shifted positions in his chair and drank the rest of his second drink. He had emptied both glasses in under five minutes. “I don’t really remember.”

Heloise eyed him without saying anything.

“What?” he asked.

“You haven’t received any letters from Anna, have you?”

“I have too.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Hey, I know all kinds of stuff I can tell you,” he protested.

Heloise shook her head. “I don’t believe that you saw her either.”

“Did too!” Frank exclaimed, his eyes wide and darting around. “If you just give me five hundred kroner, I’ll tell you everything I know.”

“No thanks,” Heloise said, getting up.

“Yeah, but I mean, you have tons of money. I know you do. You paid Jonna to talk to you too.”

Heloise got it now. Mr. Goatee must have told Frank about her visit to the Lantern, and there was only one reason Frank had contacted her: he wanted to make money off his daughter’s story.

He disgusted Heloise. She wasn’t convinced yet that Jonna had failed as a parent, but him? She couldn’t decide what was worse: that he had abandoned his daughter when he walked out on her when she was little, or that he was trying to capitalize on her situation now.

“Sorry, you are of no use to me,” Heloise said, beginning to walk away.

Frank snorted so that snot bubbled out of his nose. “Why not? What the fuck are you talking about?”

“You walked out on your family, Frank,” Heloise said. Her voice was cool, disinterested. “You left when Anna was still a kid, so you won’t make a good source.”