“I don’t think so. We talked about some of them—the ones who’d gone to prison, the ones who died—but I’d heard a lot more than she had. I’m on the other side of the fence now, but I’ve got my ear to the ground, you know?” I nodded and she continued. “She was in touch with Tariq, of course, but he was always her friend, not part of our scene, you know what I mean? But she said she hadn’t seen much of him because she was away a lot. I asked her where and she said ‘Lyme-tick country.’ That was as specific as she got. The last time I saw her was at the end of August. She still seemed to be doing well, but she was freaking out about something.”

“Do you know what it was?”

“Not exactly, but it had to do with the guy she was with.”

“What guy?” I asked. “She had a boyfriend?”

“She hadn’t mentioned him before that. But yeah, she had a boyfriend. Apparently it started in the spring. He was Svengali and she was Trilby. She’d sing whatever tune he told her to. He told her to stand on her head, she’d stand on her head. She said she was really in love with him, but listening to her talk about this guy was scary. Trust me, I’m an expert on the subject of scary guys.” Rachel took a deep breath and tapped her chest with one hand, just above her heart. I remembered her scars, rough-edged craters from the time her ex had flung a pan of hot oil at her. “Claudia wouldn’t even tell me his name.”

“Why was she so secretive about him?”

“Search me. Claudia said she was forbidden to talk about him. She told me it would ruin his life if anyone found out.”

“Forbidden?”

“That’s the way she put it, and it scared me,” said Rachel. “I asked if she’d told you about this guy and she said you were the last person in the world she’d tell.”

“Did she say why?”

“Just that you wouldn’t understand, and you’d be furious. Claudia was obsessed with how brilliant he was,” Rachel said. “She must have mentioned that twenty times at dinner. He had money, I’m sure about that. Claudia said he would only accept the best of everything, and that that was the only way to live. He’d taken her to One if by Land, Two if by Sea and she said it was like discovering food for the first time. Everything was new with him.”

“One if by Land?” My mouth was dry.